Boston Scientific have announced the acquisition of Securus Medical Group, a privately-held company that has developed a thermal monitoring system for the continuous measurement of oesophageal temperature. Boston Scientific has been an investor in Securus since 2016, and the transaction price for the remaining stake not already owned consists of US$40 million in cash up-front, as well as up to US$10 million in contingent payments based on regulatory achievements and commercial milestones.
Arrhythmias are commonly treated with cardiac ablation – the process of delivering radiofrequency (heating) or cryothermal (cooling) energy to destroy a small area of heart muscle responsible for the abnormal heart rhythm. Physicians monitor the temperature of the oesophagus, which is located behind the area of the heart where the hot or cool energy is applied, during an ablation procedure to avoid thermal injury.
The thermal monitoring system developed by Securus Medical Group is an integrated catheter-based probe and imaging system that generates real-time images of the temperature of the oesophagus.
“In contrast to current standards of care for oesophageal temperature monitoring that measure temperature at one or a few fixed locations and have a slow temporal response, this system continuously reads the temperature of the oesophagus from thousands of points and provides physicians with an intuitive 360 degree view that refreshes every second,” said Steven Girouard, president and chief executive officer, Securus Medical Group. “Further, the system does not require tissue contact for accurate temperature readings, allowing for simplified, one-time positioning of the probe.”
The latest generation infrared oesophageal temperature monitoring system recently received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration and is expected to be integrated into the Boston Scientific portfolio and commercially available in the US in the first half of 2019.
