Detecting Impending Dialysis Access Graft Failure

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的目的是开发一种低成本，易于使用的仪器来测量人工透析通道移植物中的血流量。有了这样的仪器，这些移植物可以监测足够频繁的间隔，以检测血流水平的下降，预测移植物失败。对于25万接受血液透析的美国人来说，这种移植失败是一个主要的医疗问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this program is to develop a low-cost, easy-to-use instrument to measure the blood flow in artificial dialysis access grafts. With such an instrument, these grafts could be monitored at frequent enough intervals to detect the falling flow levels that predict graft failure. Such graft failure is a major medical problem for the 250,000 Americans who undergo hemodialysis. The proposed instrument will utilize a new kind of ultrasound transducer, the diffraction-grating transducer, in a special Doppler technique that eliminates the need for imaging the graft during measurement, and is especially suitable for by minimally skilled operators. An early version of this instrument has shown promise in measuring dialysis access graft flow, and has proven that the range of normal physiological variation in graft flow is small enough that the proposed flow measurements should reveal impending graft failure. In the Proposed Phase I of this project, a prototype of the desired instrument will be constructed and its accuracy and ease of use validated in clinical use by comparison with standard flow techniques in a small number of hemodialysis patients. With the feasibility of the instrument so demonstrated, Phase II would continue with construction of a number of such instruments to be used in a multi-center trial to prove that their use can extend the life of artificial dialysis grafts. The economic benefit of such graft life extension can approach a billion dollars a year, ensuringcommercialization of the instrument.