Project Grant R43HL182792

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awarded Bridgesource Medical, Corp. $320,727 on September 1, 2026, under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837) to develop a right heart catheter device that uses pressure-volume loop analysis to identify which patients with tricuspid regurgitation will benefit from percutaneous valve repair procedures.

The device addresses a critical clinical gap in patient selection for tricuspid valve interventions. Approximately 1.5 million U.S. patients are eligible for intervention, but existing echocardiography and imaging methods produce falsely reassuring assessments of right ventricular function in the presence of tricuspid regurgitation. This diagnostic uncertainty leads to catastrophic outcomes in some patients, including right ventricular failure and prolonged intensive care stays on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Pressure-volume loop analysis, the gold standard for measuring cardiac function in a load-independent manner, has been limited to research applications. Bridgesource will translate this measurement technique into a clinically deployable catheter-based tool.

Work is performed in Austin, Texas. The award runs through August 31, 2027. This is a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project, and Bridgesource Medical is a for-profit medical device company that develops cardiovascular and respiratory technologies targeting the elderly population. The company has received seven prior NIH grants ranging from $225,000 to $4.6 million supporting development of investigative prototypes, preclinical validation data, and clinical feasibility studies intended to support regulatory clearance and commercialization.