The heart, the engine of our body, beats more than 100,000 times a day and sends over 7,000 liters (L) of blood throughout the body. However, one in 500 people experiences a disease where the heart muscle thickens abnormally, obstructing blood circulation. This condition is known as "hypertrophic (or massive) cardiomyopathy." Symptoms include shortness of breath or chest pain without a clear reason, and in severe cases, it can lead to sudden cardiac death.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is treated by resecting the thickened ventricular septum (the wall that divides the left and right sides of the heart) or by dissolving it with alcohol. However, there is a risk of the alcohol spreading to normal tissue, and surgical operation to excise the ventricular septum takes over a month for recovery, posing a significant burden for elderly patients.
TauMedical has addressed this issue by emitting high-frequency current to generate heat, which burns tissue. On the 14th of last month, during a meeting at the TauMedical headquarters at Busan National University Yangsan Campus in Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, Executive Director Won Yong-hyun (Chief Technology Officer) explained, "We insert a thin tube, known as a catheter, through the coronary vein into the ventricular septum and pass high-frequency (RF) current to safely dissolve the thickened muscle."
◇ Setting up high-frequency current to burn heart muscle
The core technology of TauMedical, founded by Professor Kim Jun-hong of Yangsan Busan National University Hospital's Department of Cardiology in 2014, is "thru-septal." This method involves the catheter traveling along the coronary vein to reach the ventricular septum and treat the condition. The idea was developed by Director Kim while working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. in 2007, evolving into a device for treating various heart diseases without the need for open-heart surgery.
Executive Director Won has spent 20 years in research and development (R&D) and manufacturing of cardiovascular medical devices, including catheters and stents that widen blood vessels, at Taewoong Medical, a domestic medical device company. He joined TauMedical in 2019, where he oversees medical device development and approval. He noted, "The standard treatment for structural heart disease, which affects many elderly patients, is mostly surgical procedures that open the chest; statistically, even with the best outcomes, there is a 1 in 20 chance of mortality, making it quite risky. TauMedical aims to implement this technology safely and accurately."
The catheter device from TauMedical can precisely control the range of muscle to be removed using high-frequency heat. For example, if a patient's ventricular septum is 18 mm and only 13 mm needs to be removed, it can safely excise just that area by precisely setting the temperature and time. There are fewer side effects such as blood vessel damage or thrombosis (blood clots).
TauMedical has demonstrated that it can safely and accurately reduce the ventricular septum to target levels in an exploratory clinical trial involving four patients. In June of last year, it was designated as a rare medical device by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and in February of this year, it was selected as one of the "Top 10 Key Projects for 2025" by the Multi-Agency Joint Research and Development Program. Executive Director Won remarked, "Funding and consulting from the Multi-Agency Program have greatly helped in developing various pipelines (product lines)."
◇ Also used for treating blood reflux
TauMedical is also developing a treatment device to prevent blood reflux. The heart has four thin valves (mitral valve, aortic valve, tricuspid valve, and pulmonary valve) that aid in the one-directional flow of blood. These can be considered a type of valve. Known as "the gate of life," these valves continuously open and close during the blood circulation process. When they harden or stretch due to aging, they fail to close properly, causing blood to reflux and leading to heart diseases.
Until now, blood reflux has been treated by opening the chest to repair the valve or by implanting artificial valves, but the risk of mortality is high for elderly patients, resulting in an actual surgery rate of less than 5%. The treatment device under development by TauMedical fills the gaps where the tricuspid valve refluxes by placing a catheter into the inferior vena cava inside the thigh muscle, directly connecting to the heart, which alleviates reflux disease. This tricuspid valve reflux treatment device has received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and has been performed in exploratory clinical trials on 15 patients.
Executive Director Won stated, "Whereas existing surgeries took 10 hours, this technology only requires 10-15 minutes." He added, "Most importantly, because it is a procedure that puts less strain on elderly patients, it is expected to have high utility."