Low Cost Co-Doped Scintillator for Medical CT

描述(申请人提供)：静脉导管在化疗、抗生素、血液、血液制品和成功治疗许多慢性疾病所必需的全肠外营养的管理中起着关键作用。导管技术的最新进展使肿瘤科(血管通路)、肾脏科(血液透析导管)和住院干预(外周插入导管)领域出现了爆炸性增长。不幸的是，导管表面与血流的相互作用极有可能引发表面血栓，从而导致严重的、往往危及生命的并发症。为了应对这种风险，患者被给予全身抗凝药物，这些药物在降低表面凝血可能性的同时，引入了第二组严重的医疗并发症，显著增加了患者的发病率和死亡率。目前预防导管相关血栓形成的治疗主要依靠静脉/口服抗凝。然而，长期静脉注射/口服抗凝和内出血之间的权衡严重限制了这些强大设备的性能。已经研究了许多方法来减少与使用静脉导管相关的表面凝块的形成，但没有一种方法取得了最小的成功。然而，我们最近发现了一种方法，可以对一种最常用的导管生物材料进行修饰，以显著减少这种导管必须留在体内的较长时间内表面凝块的形成。这一改进似乎不仅有可能在医学上有效，而且还可以在成本最低或不增加的情况下制造改进的静脉导管。在这个项目的第一阶段，我们将合成新的塑料并进行体外测试，以证明该化合物(A)易于制造，(B)其机械性能类似于目前最常用的制造导管的生物材料，以及(C)它大大减少了在适当的富血小板介质浴中引发表面凝块形成的倾向。在第二阶段，将完成生物材料的最佳成分的配方，并将制造实际的静脉导管，并用于广泛的体外试验以及动物试验。到该项目完成时，应该已经为抗血栓静脉导管的最终工程和快速商业化奠定了基础，这将直接导致患者预后的显著改善。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Venous catheters play critical roles in the administration of chemotherapy, antibiotics, blood, blood products and total parenteral nutrition essential for the successful treatment of many chronic afflictions. Recent advances in catheter technology have enabled the explosive growth in oncology (vascular access ports), nephrology (hemodialysis catheters) and inpatient interventions (peripherally inserted catheters). Unfortunately, the catheter surface interaction with the blood stream has a very high potential of initiating surface thrombi that lead to serious and often life-threatening complications. To counter this risk, patients are given systemic anticoagulation drugs, which, while reducing the probability of surface clotting, introduce a second set of serious medical complications that significantly increase patient morbidity and mortality. Current treatments to prevent catheter-related thrombosis rely primarily on IV/oral anticoagulation. However, the tradeoff between long-term IV/oral anticoagulation and internal bleeding severely limits the performance of these powerful devices. Many approaches have been studied to reduce the formation of surface clots associated with the use of venous catheters, but none have met with more than minimal success. However, we have recently discovered an approach to modifying one of the most commonly used catheter biomaterials in such a manner as to drastically reduce the formation of surface clots during the long periods that such catheters must remain within the body. This modification appears to have not only the potential to be medically effective, but also to allow the fabrication of improved venous catheters with minimal or no increase in cost. In Phase I of this project, we shall compound the new plastic and conduct in-vitro tests to demonstrate that the compound (a) can be readily made, (b) that its mechanical properties are similar to those biomaterials now most commonly used for making catheters, and (c) that it has dramatically reduced tendencies to instigate the formation of surface clots in appropriate baths of platelet rich media. In Phase II, the formulation of the optimal composition of the biomaterial will be completed and actual venous catheters will be made and used for extensive in-vitro tests as well as for testing in animals. By the completion of the project, the groundwork should have been set for final engineering and rapid commercialization of anti-thrombotic venous catheters which should lead directly to substantially improved patient outcome.