CardioQuip’s Cooler-Heaters EU Cleared To Help With Respiratory Distress

CardioQuip, a firm based in College Station, Texas, won European regulatory approval (CE Mark) for its MCH-1000 cooler-heaters that are used to control patient body temperature, typically during lung or heart procedures. This could be particularly useful during the current COVID-19 pandemic, since the MCH-1000 can be used alongside extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to address acute respiratory distress.

“Landing the CE Mark is a tremendous milestone for CardioQuip,” said Doug Platt, CEO of the company. “The approval allows us to offer our technology to major hospitals all over the European Union (EU) at a time when it is greatly needed. We are excited to be in the final stages of agreements with European distribution partners to aide our commercialization efforts and get the MCH-1000 to the EU as quickly as possible.”



The MCH systems feature touchscreen controls, adjustments down to 0.1°C increments, and a modular design. Importantly, the systems rely on an open water path that makes cleaning of the internals easy, and because the plumbing is always totally filled with water, there are no air pockets that can provide safe harbor for microbes to reside in. Additionally, clear plastic tubing is used in critical locations to help make sure that there’s no bacterial biofilm building up on the inside.

The system can keep temperature steady with little leeway, thanks to constant monitoring and detection of the rate of change of the water temperature. This helps the device to be more efficient and require less ice to be added.

MCH systems come with a number of optional add-ons, including an automatic ice maker, a thermo-electric cooling module, and a cardioplegia shared channel module to help cardioplegia delivery systems do their job.

Related study in JAMA: Preparing for the Most Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19: The Potential Role of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

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