Research Activites & Partners

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