Heart Failure Research From the Mayo Clinic Utilizing the BVA-100 Blood Volume Analyzer Presented at the Annual Heart Failure Society of America Meeting

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Oct 1, 2015) - Daxor Corporation (NYSE MKT: DXR), a medical instrumentation and biotechnology company, announced that Dr. Wayne Miller, a cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic, presented research at the annual meeting of the Heart Failure Society which documented and quantified blood volume derangements in congestive heart failure patients. The study demonstrated that the majority of congestive heart failure patients deemed anemic by the usual serum hemoglobin measurements in fact had pseudo-anemia, an appearance of anemia arising from excessive plasma volume. Of these low-hemoglobin patients, 32% had normal red blood cell volume, 47% had excess red blood cell volume, and only 21% had true anemia. 

The first derangement which usually occurs in heart failure patients is the retention of salt and water, which causes an expansion of the patient's blood volume resulting in congestion in the lungs. Once cardiac patients reach the point of requiring hospitalization, their prognosis is grim: 30% to 40% are dead within a year of their first admission. Congestive heart failure is the #1 cause for hospitalization in patients over 65 and costs an estimated $35 to $37 billion in hospital costs annually. Approximately 25% of patients admitted for heart failure are so unstable that they are readmitted within 30 days. In 2013, Medicare instituted penalties for hospitals if patients were readmitted within 30 days or fewer. These financial penalties are designed to motivate hospitals to avoid the premature discharge of patients who are unstable. For hospitals, the problem is that they are paid a fixed fee for certain diagnoses, such as decompensated heart failure, whether the patient is in the hospital for 2 days or 6 days. Hospitals, therefore, have a great financial incentive to discharge patients as early as possible. 

Physicians treating congestive heart failure are not currently able to form an accurate picture of the patient's blood volume status using routine clinical and laboratory evaluation. Yet the stakes are high for accurate assessment of this high-needs patient population. Overly aggressive treatment may precipitate kidney failure, while incomplete treatment may result in the patient becoming symptomatic within 30 days or less and being readmitted to the hospital. Anemia is an important consideration in determining the treatment approach.

The research by Dr. Miller is a clear signal that direct blood volume measurement with the Daxor BVA-100 Blood Volume Analyzer enables physicians to accurately quantify the blood volume derangement underlying congestive heart failure presentation and offers the potential to calibrate treatment more precisely than has been possible in the past.

Additionally, at a panel on the measurement of congestion in heart failure, Dr. Miller's work with blood volume analysis was cited as important and intriguing in view of the urgent need to better understand and address the heterogeneity and complexity of heart failure patients.

The HFSA meeting is attended by more than 1,800 physicians and specialized cardiac nurses, The Mayo Clinic is listed as the #1 hospital in the U.S. out of more than 4,000 institutions; its cardiology department, where Dr. Miller's research was performed, is listed as the #2 cardiology department in the U.S. 

Daxor Corporation manufactures and markets the BVA-100 blood volume analyzer, which is used in conjunction with a single-use diagnostic kit. The instrument is the only FDA approved semi-automated instrument to provide this test. Preliminary results can be available in 30 minutes and complete results in under an hour.

To learn more about Daxor, please visit www.Daxor.com.