Targeted Temperature Modulation with Smart Radiometric Monitoring for Effective and Long-Lasting Opioid-Free Pelvic Pain Relief - A Novel Low-Cost, Portable, Tampon-sized Thermal Transfer Device.

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ABSTRACT Pelvic pain (PP) is associated with more than 20 different, clinically identified, maladies, such as Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), Menstrual Cramps (MC), Endometriosis (EM), Overactive Bladder (OAB) and Interstitial cystitis/Painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS). These painful and debilitating conditions often have a dramatic negative impact on the quality of life (QOL) of millions of PP sufferers, from decreased work productivity and school performance, to declined sexual life and happiness. PP has been also associated with increased abuse of opioids and psycho-pharmaceuticals, ultimately leading to death by overdose and suicides. In addition to the burden to patients and their family, the economic direct and indirect PP cost is a significant fraction (>20%) of the 635B$ linked to chronic pain in US. Globally, pelvic pain affects one in five women and one in twelve men. Although treatments, including neural stimulation, are available, they are costly and lose effectiveness over time in >30% of patients. Patients with current untreatable chronic PP require a novel treatment approach that can relieve them from their debilitating symptoms. Significant relief of pain and reduced urination frequency has been recently associated with thermal modulation of pelvic floor. H3Pelvic has successfully developed a Contrast Applied Therapy (CAT) system modulating rapidly and comfortably temperature (cold/warm) via a water- circulating perineal membrane in a soft seat. When a properly sized vaginal or rectal probe with superior thermal conductivity is combined with the CAT system, the pain relief can be remarkable: an initial cohort of patients with refractory IC, unresponsive to drugs or neural stimulation, with a daily 45min vaginal cooling, resumed normal undertakings, restarted school, work and sexual activity, leading to an overall happier and productive life. We propose to optimize a probe design to maximize targeted delivery of thermal modulation using heatpipe technology, including real-time temperature tracking by passive microwave radiometry. RICAT (Radiometry Integrated CAT) will use probe-integrated smart radiometry to monitor deep tissue temperature. By leveraging machine learning, a minimal set of sensors shall accurately reconstruct temperature in the target region and maximize pain reduction. The Specific Aims for this first Phase are: 1) Optimally integrate radiometric sensors and smart planning/control software in a RICAT prototype; 2) Compare radiometric profiles with invasive needle sensors and perform histology in ex-vivo tissues and 7 pigs undergoing vaginal or rectal cooling/warming cycle. The goal of this Phase I is to integrate radiometric sensing into the thermal probe and test the probe’s ability to deliver consistent cooling and heating in the pelvic region in pre-clinical settings using healthy pigs. The data collected will allow us to move to Phase II, which will include a human trial in refractory IC patients. We expect that the animal study will show that RICAT optimally delivers pain-relieving thermal modulation to the pelvic region(s) effectively and reliably. Successful Phase I completion will pave the path towards clinical translational of a safe and effective pain-relieving technology to millions of patients suffering from debilitating pelvic pain.