Research Activites & Partners
Breathing experiments into the simulated avalanche snow
Avalanche burials represent one of the most dangerous risks associated with winter activities in the mountains. Asphyxiation occurs as a consequence of blocked airways; or, due to a severe hypoxia and hypercapnia resulting from rebreathing previously exhaled gas.
Investigating the gas exchange limitations and work of breathing effects on the probability of survival under avalanche snow
Breathing under various materials
Breathing into Snow in the Presence versus Absence of an Artificial Air Pocket
Optimization of Ventilation Techniques for Neonates
The aim of the project is to the optimization of several technical challenges in the perspective field of medicine, which is focused on helping preterm infants.
Team effort is focused on the field around neonatal resuscitators and problems with stabilization of newborns during “golden hour” in the “grey zone,” optimization of nCPAP generators, optimization of setting CV modes for treatments BPD and RDS, and solution of the most suitable method for continuous flow measurement during High-Frequency Jet Ventilation.
Partner: Division of neonatology with NICU, Department of obstetrics and gynecology, General faculty hospital in Prague
Demand Flow System
High-frequency oscillatory ventilation is a non-conventional technique which reduces mechanical damage to a patient’s lungs. Preservation of spontaneous breathing during the ventilation shortens the time of a patient’s ICU stay. The aim of the project is to create a device, called the Demand Flow System (DFS), which facilitates spontaneous breathing of a patient during high-frequency oscillatory ventilation without impeding function of the original high-frequency mechanical ventilator and which decreases a patient’s work of breathing (read more in PDF).
Partner: VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, NL
HeliOx in the Respiratory Care
The use of helium-oxygen mixture (heliox) for ventilation has an advantage in patients with obstruction of the airways, which is typical in patients with Chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation. The main goal of the heliox application is avoiding endotracheal intubation and invasive ventilation in patients with COPD exacerbation.The aim of the study is to design and test a semi-closed rebreathing circuit for heliox application in order to minimize consumption of helium and, therefore, reduce the expensiveness of spontaneous breathing with heliox (read more in PDF).
Partner: Thomayer University Hospital
Modelling of the Respiratory System
The aim of the project is to design the mathematical model of the respiratory system according to its anatomical structure. The model should allow study intrapulmonary conditions during different ventilatory technique and simulate changes of the respiratory mechanics. Another task is personification of the model according to CT scans (read more in PDF).
Partner: Motol University Hospital
Optimization of Mechanical Ventilation Using Electrical Impedance Tomography
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive, radiation-free bedside imaging modality that provides information about regional distribution of lung ventilation. EIT-derived indices and measures such as center of ventilation (CoV) or global inhomogeneity index (GI) are considered to be helpful in optimization of ventilatory parameters such as positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP). The aim of our research in this area is to evaluate currently used EIT indices and to find out the most suitable ones for guidance of mechanical ventilation by means of EIT (read more in PDF).
Partners: Department of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine First Faculty of Medicine Charles University in Prague and the Military University Hospital in Prague, Institute of Physiology First Faculty of Medicine Charles University in Prague
Electrical Impedance Tomography Data Processing
The use of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) in ICU is still quite rare and most of the specialists in anesthesiology and critical care do not have much experience with evaluation of EIT data. As EIT provides information in both time and spatial domain, the interpretation of the information provided by EIT can be sometimes troublesome. Therefore, the focus of our activities in this field lies in processing of EIT data acquired at ICU and during animal trials, using the cutting-edge algorithms in the field of EIT.
Monitoring of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Using Electrical Impedance Tomography
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a disease of neonates which occurs as a result of a necessary and very specific postnatal care that includes mechanical ventilation, and manifests mainly by structural changes. Affected lungs contain more condensed matter, therefore their resistivity decreases, which can be measured using EIT. The aim of the study is to examine lung resistivity, lung density and lung volumes of extremely preterm neonates suffering from BPD and to determine whether it is possible to use EIT as a tool to ensure a quantitative evaluation of a disability level of BPD depending on measured lung parameters (read more in PDF).
Partner: Division of neonatology with NICU, Department of obstetrics and gynecology, General faculty hospital in Prague