IP Requirements:
- Emory IP
Experience Requirements:
- Imaging and Image Processing
Problem Description
About five million people in the United States have end-stage liver disease, known as cirrhosis. The complications of cirrhosis can lead to frequent hospitalizations and high health-care costs given the disease is only curable with liver transplant. One of the most common complications of cirrhosis is the build-up of fluid in the abdomen called ascites, which causes significant abdominal discomfort. Many patients regularly need to have a paracentesis, a procedure that drains the fluid for therapeutic relief. Some patients with advanced cirrhosis have scheduled paracenteses at certain increments of time due to frequent fluid re-accumulation, but other patients only get paracenteses when they develop symptoms of ascites. It can be challenging to make timely appointments with a hepatologist or interventional radiologist to perform the procedure in the outpatient setting which can lead to high-cost and time-inefficient emergency department visits and/or hospital admissions solely due to the inability to schedule the procedure outpatient.
Physicians use ultrasound to analyze the depth and amount of ascites present in the abdomen to determine if the patient is a candidate for paracentesis. If the depth of the fluid is shallow, there are risks to the patient, such as the needle puncturing the bowel (bowel perforation), so using ultrasound is key to determine if the patient should undergo the procedure. It takes time for a physician to do an ultrasound and make a determination, and if the physician determines that it is not yet safe to perform the paracentesis, the procedure will have to be repeated at a later time to determine the appropriate time for the paracentesis.
The goal of this project is to develop an at-home portable ultrasound that can detect the depth of the ascites in certain areas of the abdomen that are typically checked as locations for a paracentesis. Ideally, the patient could self-ultrasound at home and the data could be transmitted to their hepatologist to determine the best time to come in for an appointment for a paracentesis, which could save time and money on extra appointments, emergency department visits, and inpatient admissions for symptomatic ascites.
