Design of a bracelet embedding high-frequency ultrasound transducers to acquire venous blood echogenicity spectral data for patient monitoring

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Every day, patients admitted to critical care units are experiencing complications and oftenfatal deteriorating conditions. Severe complications leading to the syndrome of multiple organdysfunctions or MODS result in a mortality rate at 41%. The MODS condition is characterizedby a severe acute inflammatory reaction leading to vascular thrombosis, septic shock andimpaired oxygenation of organs and tissues. Inflammatory blood markers can be prescribedfor patient monitoring but results are obtained hours or days after sampling. In conditionswhere rapid medical decisions are required to improve the likelihood of patient survival, thoseblood tests are often of no value. We propose in this grant application a new bed sideultrasound technology to continuously monitor the state of inflammation for optimum patienttreatment.Red blood cell (RBC) aggregation is a strong marker of inflammation and has the uniqueadvantage of offering continuous monitoring capability through ultrasound imaging. This grantproposes the development and integration of technologies to provide point-of-care patientmonitoring based on the analysis of high-frequency ultrasound spectral data to measure thetime-varying clustering of RBCs flowing within a superficial vein of the arm or ankle.Preclinical results in a porcine model confirmed the capability of monitoring inflammationpromotedaggregation of RBCs with ultrasound. The proposed algorithm is patented and wepropose the development of a portable instrument for use in restricted areas as surgeryrooms and intensive care units. This instrument will consist in a bracelet attached innocuouslyto the patient and embedding high-frequency ultrasound transducers, an occluding device tocontrol the blood flow, and a positioning device to collect ultrasound data processed by aminiaturized computer instrument to provide feedback to clinicians on the state of RBCaggregation.