For Patients

Heart attack or acute myocardial infarction (AMI) due to coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in United States. Every year about 1.2 million Americans suffer from AMI. Of those, 735,000 AMI patients reach the hospitals to receive medical attention.

For AMI patients who make it to the hospital, they’ll go through revascularization procedures with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI – angioplasty). As of now, this is the only current standard care for AMI patients. PCI reestablishes blood flow to the heart muscles in a clogged heart artery, thereby relieving chest pain and stopping no-blood flow-induced heart damage. However, blood-flow restoration after this procedure causes continuous and, often lethal, heart injury, a condition called “reperfusion injury” which lasts for hours to days post-PCI.

For those heart attack survivors despite timely PCI to open their clogged artery, massive reperfusion injury can contribute to congestive heart failure (CHF) which carries high mortality and long-term disabilities. In United States alone, ~240,000 new CHF cases are diagnosed as result of AMI per year, and unfortunately contributing to ~115,000 deaths annually. Reperlin targets CHF right from the beginning in AMI patients, preventing or reducing reperfusion injury and allowing them to live a prolonged or normal life.

For Hospitals

For years, US hospitals have been focusing on improving performance and patient outcomes in cardiovascular services, with a particular emphasis on how the management of CHF can prevent readmissions, decrease the cost per case, and improve the quality and satisfaction for this particular patient population. CHF was the most common condition for a Medicare readmission, with 134,500 beneficiaries rehospitalized for a total cost of more than $1.7 billion annually. Hospitals unfortunately face harsh readmission penalties from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other insurers for increased CHF readmissions.

Reperlin targets major US Hospitals that treat AMI patients. In compliance with Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) mandated by the government and other insurers, hospitals will be able to use Reperlin in every AMI patient in order to reduce long-term future CHF-related hospital readmissions.

The severity of heart damage after AMI is estimated by CHF severity that is quantified by ejection fraction (EF). Of those AMI survivors with EF<30% (equivalent to 50% loss of heart function), 52% died within 3 years. The magnitude of low EF is inversely correlated to increased frequency of hospital admission and30-day readmission as well as the length of hospital stay. For example, patients with EF<40% (equivalent to 1/3 heart function loss) has one fold increase in hospital admission and 30-day readmission, compared with those with EF>40%.

The success of Reperlin will translate to major reduction in CHF-related hospital admissions in AMI patients. Additionally, it will prevent and/or delay hundred and thousands of fatalities in US.