The cardiovascular and renal systems are interconnected. It requires an optimum level of fluid volume to operate efficiently and support other organ function. When a cardiologist is managing a patient’s heart failure, they often determine that they should remove fluid to relieve the heart. However, if too much volume is taken off and/or taken off too fast, the kidneys can suffer impairment and/or injury.

Timely, accurate measurement of both fluid volume and kidney function is essential for safe treatment of these patients.  A technology that provides a measure of both volume status and kidney function has the rare potential to inform the physician regarding the function of the overall cardio-renal system, therefore allowing a physician to find the optimum balance for the system.

The symptoms of ARDS are very similar to congestive heart failure. These patients present with a very high fluid volume and are treated with diuretics to alleviate this condition.

Accurate measurement of both plasma volume and kidney function before and during treatment can help manage this condition. If patients lose too much volume and/or lose it too quickly, their overall kidney function could be impacted. Through precise monitoring of fluid volume, physicians can better understand the balance between diuretic use and kidney function, which could allow them to titrate therapy and improve management of ARDS.

According to FBM’s primary market research, sepsis, a potentially deadly blood disease, is a primary concern of critical care physicians. According to the CDC, the mortality rate for patients who acquire sepsis is as high as 30%.
Sepsis patients are often hemodynamically unstable, and their volume levels vary greatly. Clinical data has suggested that if physicians could guide sepsis therapies by knowing a patient’s accurate plasma volume, it could greatly and favorably impact morbidity.

Government and patient advocacy groups continue to promote kidney transplant over dialysis to improve patients’ quality of life.

The challenge is to determine the adequacy of kidney function in the donated kidney. eGFR is an estimate of kidney function and is the best measurement currently available. Using this measurement, medical professionals can only guess if the kidney is viable. Measured GFR (mGFR) readings in both living and life-supported cadaver donors would allow transplant physicians to determine if the kidney is working properly. This would allow physicians to titrate the dose of immunosuppressants needed to ensure the body does not reject a foreign kidney and potentially increase the number of kidneys available for transplants.