Technology Transfer
Licensing opportunities
Method for determing inhomogeneity in lung tissue
– Applications
- Diagnostical and clinical uses.
– Key Benefits
- Damage prevention in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation.
- Determination of stress raisers on CT scan images.
– Offer
- Licensing out.
- Co-Development.
Invention
An innovative method for the treatment of patients undergoing mechanical ventilation that allows lung damage prevention.
Background
Mechanical ventilation is used to restore adequate oxygenation in several diseases, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); at high pressures it may seriously damage lungs (edema diffused in the whole tissue) due to non-physiologic stress (trans-pulmonary pressure) and strain (inflated volume to functional residual capacity ratio). Therefore, the medical need to identify a strain-stress threshold above which ventilator-induced lung damage can occur and the need to assess the lung inhomogeneity in a quantitative manner is impelling.
Technology
In inhomogeneous materials, forces are locally concentrated at discontinuities which act as pressure multipliers: a pleural pressure below the threshold observed in healthy lung, if multiplied sufficiently, may locally reach an injurious level. The inventors developed a software which determines the stress raisers on CT (Computed Tomography) scan images.
Intellectual Property
Rights
– Patent granted in Italy, USA, Europe.
Inventors
– Gattinoni Luciano
– Cadringer Paolo
– Cressoni Massimo.
Contacts
Laura Spinardi
PhD - Technology Transfer Office Manager
Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan - Italy
ufficiobrevetti@policlinico.mi.it