CorVista Health has announced the publication of a real-world case series in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) showcasing the clinical utility of its CorVista System, a novel non-invasive diagnostic tool for pulmonary hypertension (PH).
The findings underscore the system’s potential to address a longstanding challenge in cardiovascular medicine: delayed and missed diagnoses of PH.
Pulmonary hypertension is a rare but life-threatening condition that affects more than half a million Americans, though many remain undiagnosed. Timely identification is critical; untreated PH can lead to progressive right heart failure and premature death. Yet, existing diagnostic pathways, particularly transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), frequently fail to provide conclusive evidence of disease.
Addressing Diagnostic Gaps
Standard echocardiography relies on measurement of tricuspid regurgitant velocity (TRV), but this parameter is not measurable in up to 41% of cases. As a result, patients may undergo multiple inconclusive echocardiograms and years of specialist referrals before receiving a definitive diagnosis through right heart catheterization (RHC), the invasive gold standard.
The CorVista System offers a different approach. Using non-invasive signals collected at rest, machine-learned algorithms generate diagnostic results within minutes. In the reported case series, the test detected PH even in patients with multiple prior negative echocardiograms, findings that were later confirmed by RHC.
“People living with undiagnosed PH are being asked to endure years of uncertainty,” said Dr. Charles R. Bridges, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at CorVista Health. “This study shows that the CorVista System can provide answers in minutes, even when conventional tests fail, potentially transforming patient care.”
Insights From The Published Study
The JACC case series, led by Rieta Aben, MD, and colleagues, presented four detailed patient cases that highlight the system’s clinical impact.
One patient, a 75-year-old woman with unexplained shortness of breath, had undergone several echocardiograms and a transesophageal echocardiogram, all of which failed to raise suspicion for PH. However, the point-of-care CorVista test (referred to in the study as POC-PH) returned a positive result, prompting RHC. The invasive test confirmed group 2 pulmonary hypertension secondary to heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).
Following diagnosis, the patient was prescribed empagliflozin, a Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, and has since remained stable without hospitalizations. “The resultant diagnosis of isolated postcapillary PH (group 2) secondary to HFpEF was enabled by the POC-PH test,” the authors noted.
The other three cases involved patients with measurable TRV on echocardiography. In all, the CorVista System detected PH, later confirmed by catheterization. These included both precapillary and postcapillary subtypes, demonstrating the system’s broad applicability. Importantly, each diagnosis directly influenced treatment strategies, including specialist referrals, initiation of SGLT2 inhibitors, and management of comorbid conditions such as sleep apnea.
