A Predictive Model for Assessment of CSF Flow Through Ventricular Shunts

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Project Summary Hydrocephalus is a crippling condition which caused by an aberrant draining capacity of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the brain, affecting about 1-5 of every 1000 live births. This debilitating condition commonly manifests itself in frequent headaches, seizures, and comas, with death as a likely outcome when left untreated. The standard of care to alleviate this condition is ventriculoperitoneal shunting which diverts CSF away from the brain ventricles, thereby reducing excess pressure build-up. CSF diversion systems or shunts are typically rudimentary systems which contain a ventricular catheter, valve, and drainage tubing; this technology has experienced minimal innovation since the 1960s. However, shunts regularly fail and require correction surgeries due to obstructions and occlusions, leading to over 125,000 shunt revisions in the United States annually. Shunt revisions cost about 2 billion dollars in the United States annually for the nearly 1 million affected Americans. Hydrocephalus imposes a huge financial, physiological, and psychological burden on patients and their health care providers, emphasizing the urgent need to improve methods of monitoring and prediction of shunt failure. To compound this issue, existing shunt failure diagnostics are costly, invasive, and/or harmful (in the case of ex- tended radiation exposure in CT imaging). Typical shunt testing modalities include Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Coherence Tomography (CT), and X-rays. Due to patient-to-patient variability in age, pathology, shunt in- termittency, and shunt valve type, there is currently a lack of data with regards to flow dynamics in CSF diversion systems. Most research efforts have primarily focused on the development of ‘smart shunts’ which inadvertently couples complete shunt failure to sensor failure; this proposal seeks to provide accurate and real-time monitoring of CSF flow in a noninvasive manner, the success of which could directly affect the quality of life of 1 million Americans suffering with hydrocephalus and millions more around the world. This proposal will support the devel- opment of a wearable sensor platform and processing algorithm that will culminate in a predictive model of shunt failure to reduce hospital admissions and improve the quality of life for patients with hydrocephalus. Success of this proposal will yield a fully flexible, soft, and wireless system which monitors CSF diversion (Aim 1 and Aim 2), leading to a validation trial of the integrated system in long term trials of both adult and pediatric patients suffering with hydrocephalus. The completion of this work will also include the generation of a predictive model which allows researchers to study long term CSF flow dynamics through ventricular shunts (Aim 3). Ultimately, our methodology will enable us to collect a wealth of information to significantly aid healthcare professionals in the proactive treatment of the devastating symptoms of hydrocephalus.