Development of a lung ultrasound therapy system for acute respiratory distress syndrome

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Treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a common disorder in intensivecare units with a mortality rate approaching 40%, is a considerable challenge. In ARDS, thelungs are filled with fluid resulting in patients drowning in their own fluids. ARDS is one of themost difficult conditions to treat because of its patchy distribution, where the fluid-filled regionsof the lung are interspersed within the normal lungs, causing conventional treatments topreferentially affect the normal lungs rather than the injured regions. For instance, mechanicalventilators, although life-saving, preferentially inflate the normal regions of the lung resultingin overdistension and injury of the normal lung itself. Similarly, medicines given by inhalationor injection preferentially affect the normal lungs or other organs in the body. Here wepropose a revolutionary form of personalized and targeted medicine to treat ARDS based onultrasound technology and microbubbles (tiny gas bubbles already used clinically fordiagnostic purposes). While the normal regions of lung scatter ultrasound waves (becauseultrasound is blocked by air), the ultrasound waves are able to penetrate the injured (fluidfilledor collapsed) regions, allowing enhanced delivery of drugs like antibiotics to thedamaged lung. This approach is a revolutionary form of personalized medicine, since it willallow the delivery of medicines and genes exactly where they are needed in each patient. Inthis project, we will develop a clinical prototype of an ultrasound therapy system specificallyfor the lungs and optimize treatment protocols using large animal models of ARDS. At the endof the project, we will translate the study to a Phase I clinical trial in humans.