NIMS' Motion Platform Treatments Beneficial In Patients With Heart Failure And Peripheral Arterial Disease

Main Category: Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Sports Medicine / Fitness
Article Date: 07 Dec 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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Gary Macleod, Chief Executive Officer, Non-Invasive Monitoring Systems, Inc. [NIMS] (OTCBB:NIMU) announced that Drs. Kohler, Bloch and associates from the University Hospital of Zurich published a paper entitled, "Periodic whole body acceleration: A novel therapy for cardiovascular disease" in the December issue of VASA. This paper reported on the benefits of 35, forty minute treatments over a 5 week period with NIMS' patented, non-invasive, drug-free, motion platform device in five patients with congestive heart failure and six with peripheral arterial disease who were symptomatic despite optimal drug therapy. This technology that is called whole body periodic acceleration (WBPA) moves a supine subject repetitively head to foot about 140 times a minute with forces in the range that a mother moves her baby back and forth within a carriage.

Kohler and associates indicated that their patients were "physically unable to perform active exercise training which is well known to improve endothelial function and clinical outcomes in heart failure and claudication..." Since single applications of WBPA increase nitric oxide and prostanoid bioavailability from stimulation of the endothelium (cells of the inner lining of blood vessels), Kohler reasoned that repetitive WBPA treatments might lead to more pronounced effects in a manner analogous to an exercise training program.

Kohler and associates found that WBPA treatments were well tolerated. In heart failure patients, WBPA improved quality of life, produced clinically significant increases of 6-minute walking distance and improved endothelial function. Such improvement was comparable to intensive rehabilitation programs carried out for 12 to 24 weeks. In 4 of the 6 patients with intermittent claudication (cramplike pains usually in the calf caused by poor blood supply to leg muscles on walking), WBPA improved quality of life, treadmill walking distance and endothelial function. Four weeks after discontinuing WBPA, most therapeutic effects in both groups of patients were lost.

Dr. Marvin Sackner, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NIMS, stated that the WBPA device, called Exer-Rest™, has been designed for utilization in the home, clinic or hospital. He commented that the "Kohler study suggests that improvement seen in their patients is consistent with prior studies demonstrating that release of the same beneficial substances from the endothelium takes place during both exercise and WBPA. Therefore, Exer-Rest™ treatments might be considered as an alternative or complementary means to exercise in the management of cardiovascular diseases."

A clinical trial is currently underway to support the intended use of Exer-Rest™ for temporary relief of musculoskeletal pain associated with osteoarthritis of the hips in order to meet FDA approval for its marketing in the United States. The Company plans to export Exer-Rest™ in early 2008 to countries that recognize the CE mark.

Further information on the Company can be obtained on NIMS' website at http://www.nims-us.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The Statements which are not historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties including but not limited to risks associated with the uncertainty of future financial results, additional financing requirements, development of new products, government approval processes, the impact of competitive products or pricing, technological changes, the effect of economic conditions and other uncertainties detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

http://www.nims-us.com