Computer program solves problem of measuring blood flow to brain in
real time
26 March 2010
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed a
program that retrieves and correlates relevant data from patients,
making it possible for the first time to measure blood flow in the brain
directly and continuously.
The technology makes it easier for doctors to quickly identify the
correct medication for patients affected by serious head injuries
and stroke. It also makes it easier to investigate the physiology of
the brain. Doctors have already discovered that the blood flow in
the brain varies significantly more over time than previously
thought.
Peter Reinstrup, a doctor at Skåne University Hospitals in Lund,
said, “In order to make diagnoses and quickly be able to see if the
medication given is right for the brain, this information is very
important in a neurointensive care unit. Today magnetic resonance
imaging scans and other examinations are carried out, but these are
expensive, unreliable, time-consuming and only provide information
about blood flow at the time of the examination. With this method we
not only get information about blood flow in the brain directly and
continuously; the information can also be stored, which means that
we can review previous care more easily.”
This technology will also facilitate research. Research and
development on head traumas and brain haemorrhages based on cerebral
blood flow (CBF) has stalled, precisely because it has been so
difficult to determine blood flow in the brain, which is measured in
millilitres per 100 g of brain per minute. In normal cases the value
is around 50.
“If an individual suffers a head injury, eg after falling or
receiving a knock on the head, the cerebral blood flow follows a
course in which the flow varies with time. It is important for us to
constantly regulate the flow so that it does not become too high, as
the brain could then swell, or too low, as the brain could then
suffer from a lack of oxygen,” explains Peter Reinstrup.
The technology came into existence as something of a happy
coincidence and has been developed in collaboration between doctors,
the hospital’s medical technology department and Lund University’s
Faculty of Engineering.
It all began with doctors contacting Boris Magnusson, Professor
of Computer Science at Lund University. The mathematical algorithm
for calculating the blood flow and the volume of blood in the brain
had been developed by Peter Reinstrup and Erik Ryding, doctors at
Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, over the previous four or
five years. However, they did not have a way to export and display
patient data on blood flow. They had even engaged IT consultants,
but without success. There had been a demand for a technical
solution ever since 2002.
Boris Magnusson let two students, Karl Kullberg and Nick Bosma,
in Computer Science and Engineering Physics respectively, take a
closer look at the problem. In a joint degree project they
succeeded, in collaboration with Jimmy Johansson at the hospital’s
medical technology department, in developing a computer program that
could retrieve and correlate the existing information about the
pressure in the brain with information about blood volume and blood
flow for each heartbeat.
Now there is a computer on the windowsills in the patients’ rooms
at the neurointensive care unit in Lund. A patent application is
pending and in the long term it is hoped that the method can be
integrated with existing equipment, which would mean that it could
also benefit other hospitals.