Introduction

An innovative method for the treatment of patients undergoing mechanical ventilation that allows lung damage prevention.

Technical features

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. 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.

Possible Applications

• Diagnostical and clinical uses.

Advantages

• Damage prevention in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation;
• Determination of stress raisers on CT scan images.