Orasi Medical Announces Clinical Results Measuring Alzheimer's Disease Severity

MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwire - July 18, 2011) - Orasi Medical, Inc., a leading neurodiagnostic company utilizing magnetoencephalography (MEG) to revolutionize the diagnosis and management of CNS diseases, announced today the publication of clinical results demonstrating the use of MEG to assess and track Alzheimer's disease (AD) severity. The findings will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. The paper also will be published as a chapter in the Handbook on Imaging the Alzheimer Brain, which will be released at the International Conference for Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD) Paris, July 15-21, 2011.

The paper describes the results of two exploratory, case-controlled studies in which a cohort of 117 AD patients and 123 elderly, cognitively normal volunteers was recruited from community neurology clinics in Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Brain function was measured by a brief, resting-state, eyes-open MEG scan, and subjects were evaluated with a neurological examination, medical history, and a battery of standard neuropsychological tests. Cross-sectional analysis of MEG scans revealed that AD patients exhibited global changes in relative spectral power indicative of generalized slowing of brain signaling and altered patterns of functional connectivity globally and locally. Many changes detected by MEG accurately tracked cognitive decline as measured independently by neurospsychological tests.

These critical results demonstrate that MEG can be used to evaluate brain dysfunction associated with AD. The Orasi technology discriminated AD subjects and healthy elderly controls with an 85% classification accuracy, and, MEG scans effectively measured changes in AD severity and progression over time. The non-invasive and convenient nature of MEG provides a new tool for translational AD research and early phase development of novel treatments for AD.

"Orasi's proprietary technology applied to the rich functional data generated by brief MEG scan detects and quantifies AD pathology with high accuracy and precision," said Todd A. Verdoorn, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Orasi Medical. "Ongoing studies will provide additional longitudinal data that we will use to continuously improve our diagnostic algorithms and severity models. These new findings not only enhance our product for testing experimental AD treatments, but also represent a significant milestone in the development of our clinical diagnostic."

About Orasi Medical
Orasi Medical, Inc. is a leading neurodiagnostic company utilizing MEG to revolutionize the diagnosis and management of CNS diseases. The company is focused on the development of clinical diagnostics to measure CNS disease as well as standardizing the use of MEG in CNS drug and therapeutic device development. Its flagship product, Orasi Index™, supports disease template development and analysis of CNS drug action. Orasi has the largest commercial database of MEG brain scans, and associated clinical data for an expanding range of CNS disease patterns and drug signatures. Orasi's biomarkers are being developed to help diagnosis and assess progression of CNS diseases such as AD, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, tinnitus, schizophrenia, and depression as well as others. For more information, please visit www.orasimedical.com.