Proof of concept of a clinical diagnostic tool for the intravascular assessment of arterial lesions in the equine pulmonary artery.

大约80%的赛马在其职业生涯中可能会发生中风引起的肺出血（EIPH）。据估计，仅在美国，EIPH的诊断和治疗每年就超过1亿美元。目前，没有诊断策略或技术可用于检测或治疗这种使人衰弱和昂贵的病理。作者和合作者目前的研究表明，这种病理学与 受影响马的肺动脉钙化。毫不奇怪，动脉钙化是人类血管僵硬的最重要原因。本提案旨在研究采用Transonic Scisense（伦敦，ON）开发的新型导管工具技术来识别这种病理的可行性。预计Transonic Scisense的技术将能够记录健康动脉组织和钙化组织之间的差异。本项目的目标是尝试使用经超声剪刀技术对马肺动脉中的动脉钙化进行早期检测和后续监测。 本提案要解决的技术挑战是：1）将跨音速剪切技术应用于从未尝试过的应用。2)制定微创手术方案，将Transonic Scisense导管准确输送至马肺动脉。 该项目将把一个活跃的心血管研究小组与一个具有动脉生物力学、建模和测试、医疗工具设计和开发、临床治疗和外科专业知识的工业合作者联系起来，该合作者具有新颖的仪器技术、设计经验、原型设计和制造设施。预计该项目的成功完成将导致未来的合作，目标是为市场推出临床诊断疗法和产品。

Approximately 80% of all racehorses can be expected to develop Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Haemorrhage (EIPH) during their career. The diagnosis and treatment of EIPH is estimated to exceed $100 million annually in the United States alone. Currently there are no diagnostic strategies or technologies available for the detection or treatment of this debilitating and costly pathology. Current research by the author and collaborators has indicated a link between this pathology and calcification of the pulmonary artery of affected horses. Not surprisingly, arterial calcification is the most important cause of vascular stiffness in humans. This proposal aims to investigate the feasibility of adapting a novel catheter instrumentation technology, developed by Transonic Scisense, London, ON to identify this pathology. It is expected that Transonic Scisense's technology will be able to register a difference between healthy arterial tissue and the calcified tissue. It is the goal of this project to attempt to use the Transonic Scisense technology for both the early detection and subsequent monitoring of arterial calcification in the equine pulmonary artery. The technical challenges to be addressed by this proposal are: 1) The adaptation of the Transonic Scisense technology for a never-tried application. 2) Development of a minimally invasive surgical protocol that will accurately deliver the Transonic Scisense catheter to the equine pulmonary artery. This project will link an active cardiovascular research group with expertise in arterial biomechanics, modeling and testing, medical tool design and development, clinical treatment and surgical expertise with an industrial collaborator with novel instrumentation technology, design experience, prototyping and manufacturing facilities. It is expected that successful completion of the project will lead to future collaboration with the goal of introducing clinical diagnostic therapies and products for the market.