User:AUMCardio/sandbox

In 2002, Marie Johnson was a PhD student working with 3M scientists to develop a computerized stethoscope when her husband died suddenly at age 41. Guion’s cause of death was a shock to Johnson: The 6-foot, 2-inch 180-pound man she considered in “perfect condition” was felled by a heart attack. An autopsy showed that several of Guion’s coronary arteries were significantly blocked, including the ultimate cause of his death: a ruptured plaque in the LAD (left anterior descending) vessel, which supplies blood to the heavy real estate of the heart.

Coincidentally (or not), Johnson had gathered hundreds of pieces of data about her husband’s heart months before his death by using a prototype she was developing as part of her Ph.D. degree thesis work. She decided to apply the principles of frequency analysis to create an acoustic device that may be able to identify blockage in the coronary arteries. Such a device required Johnson to create the beginnings of a sensor and algorithm that could identify a specific acoustic signature associated with turbulence.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States, and is a major cause of death throughout the world. According to an American Heart Association report, 1 of every 3 deaths in the United States is caused by cardiovascular disease. Out of all cardiovascular diseases, coronary atherosclerosis ranked number one in cause of death and cost. Coronary atherosclerosis is caused by the narrowing of the coronary arteries due to fatty buildup of plaque. Each year, an estimated 785,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack, and 470,000 will have a recurrent attack. It is estimated that an additional 195,000 silent first myocardial infarctions occur each year (AHA, 2012).

THE MEANING BEHIND THE NAME

AUM is a Sanskrit syllable which means “to make a continuous low humming sound.” It is information akin to a humming sound that AUM has been able to extract from diseased coronary arteries.

Press related to AUM http://www.southernminn.com/northfield_news/news/article_9317afa8-7ff0-5a1e-8926-9c270797d0b0.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/24/marie-johnson-aum-cardiovascular_n_1429075.html http://medcitynews.com/tag/aum-cardiovascular/ http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/tag/aum-cardiovascular/ http://minnesotabusiness.com/blog/clinical-trial-underway-minnesota-medtech-startup