The Next Frontier in Aortic Repair

Ascense Medical is a revolutionary medical device company focused on developing the next generation of vascular devices for the treatment of aortic disease.

What is the Aorta's Function?

The human aorta's elasticity (Windkessel function) serves to convert the heart's pulsatile flow into a steady flow to the peripheral vessels.

The healthy aorta (a) has elastic properties and expands during systole phase when the left ventricle of the heart contracts and the pressure in the aorta increases and (b) recoils in diastole phase when the aortic valve closes.

The aorta's recoil works in concert with the heart and assists the left ventricle as a passive diastolic pump to maintain diastolic blood pressure and blood flow during diastole phase.

This function is the “Windkessel function”.

What is Aortic Disease?

Prevalence & Impact:

Approximately 40 million people worldwide suffer from aortic disease. About 1 in 200 people will suffer an aortic condition during their lifetime, a disease that is fatal if untreated.

Aortic Aneurysm

An aortic aneurysm is a dilation of the aorta due to weakening of the elastin fibers in the aortic wall.

Impact:

- Rupture

- Thrombosis & Peripheral Occlusion

- Tracheal Deviation

- Superior Vena Cava Syndrome

- Loss of Windkessel Function

Aortic Dissection

Aortic dissection occurs when there is a deterioration of the medial collagen and elastin, allowing a tear in the intimal layers of the aorta. This causes blood to enter the intima-media space and creates “True” and “False” lumens.

Impact:

-Pulse Deficit

-Neurological Manifestations

-Paraplegia, paraparesis

-Coronary Artery Occlusion

-Branch Vessel Occlusion

-Rupture

-Loss of Windkessel Function

The Problem -

Loss of Aortic Function

The aorta is the largest artery from the heart and acts both as a conduit and an elastic capacitance chamber. The aorta's elasticity (Windkessel function) serves to convert the heart's pulsatile flow to a nearly steady flow in peripheral vessels.

Current treatment for aortic disease ranges from open surgical replacement with a vascular graft, to endovascular placement of stent-grafts excluding the diseased part of the aorta. Stiffening of the aorta via current aortic repair devices reduces the “Windkessel function”, and has been shown in multiple studies to be a significant contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Clinical consequences of today's non-elastic technologies:

Increase of the pulse wave velocity
Increase in the afterload for the heart
Chronic arterial hypertension
Left ventricle hypertrophy
Retrograde aortic dissections
Distal stent-graft induced entry tears.

With an aging society, the incidence of aortic disease is rising, reflected by a growing number of vascular and endovascular procedures to treat aortic pathologies.

The Solution

Ascense Medical GmbH is a start-up based in Vienna, Austria that is developing a compliant material platform to be utilized in vascular, endovascular, hybrid grafts. The material platform is developed with the properties to mimic the native elasticity and compliance of the human aorta to maintain the aorta's Windkessel function.

Ascense Medical's compliant vascular and endovascular prostheses will reduce the long-term sequelae of current vascular grafts and stent-grafts and help reduce overall healthcare costs via a reduction of short-term and long-term sequelae seen with conventional non-compliant prostheses.

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