Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CRADL (Continuous Regional Analysis Device for neonate Lung)

Teaser

This project addresses the priorities identified within the ‘Born too soon: The global action report on preterm birth 2012’ by providing new cost effective, easy to use, respiratory management tools and clinical protocols that can beuniversally used to reduce deaths and...

Summary

This project addresses the priorities identified within the ‘Born too soon: The global action report on preterm birth 2012’ by providing new cost effective, easy to use, respiratory management tools and clinical protocols that can be
universally used to reduce deaths and disability in preterm babies. Furthermore, CRADL extends these goals to respiratory failure in older infants and children, broadening the scope and impact of this study. The overarching objectives of this project are:

1) To deliver a tool that provides continuous, non-invasive, radiation free, bedside information on regional lung aeration and ventilation during daily clinical care of (preterm)neonates, infants and children with respiratory failure.
2) To assess the effectiveness, efficacy and safety of such a system in guiding respiratory management and supportive care of the most common causes of paediatric respiratory failure (respiratory distress syndrome, bronchiolitis and acute respiratory distress syndrome).

Work performed

The main results of the work carried out since the beginning of the project to the end of the first reporting period are:

- Recruited patients
- Set the desired parameters for the neonates
- Created a prototype system
- Modified an adult system and used it to successfully recruit data from patients
- We have been able to monitor patients over a 72 hour period
- Defined & validated the clinical paramenters
- Created a shared database with the results
- Managed to recruit associate partners to the study

Final results

Since the beginning of the project, progress made beyond the state of the art are that we have developed:

- A new breath detection algorythim
- New hardware
- Shape detection

We haven\'t changed the impacts listed in the Grant Agreement below - they are still applicable.

Project wide impacts

1. The novel system will provide a valuable clinical tool to monitor function and control of breathing indices (including measures of breathing pattern, lung volume, ventilation inhomogeneity and regional distribution of ventilation.
2. The non-intrusive nature of the instrument means that lung function can be monitored continuously, on-line in routine clinical monitoring without causing unnecessary discomfort to neonates/predicates.
3. A novel device for other EIT applications both medical (brain, breast etc) and process tomography.
4. The analogue building blocks will be key components for the development of other high-performance integrated biomedical systems, for example, neural sensory systems and lab-on-a-chip for bio-assays.
5. Become a key system for all clinical departments in the world.

The project offers the potential to significantly reduce the cost of patient care, reduce the mortality and allow systematic monitoring of the neonate function. The development of this urgently needed system will greatly
contribute towards improving further the standing of the EU’s bioelectronics industry.

Website & more info

More info: http://cradlproject.org/.