IP Requirements:

• Emory IP

Experience Requirements:

• Electrical Engineering
  

In cardiac intensive care units and cath labs across the country, pulmonary artery catheters (PACs) are used for continuous hemodynamic monitoring of cardiac filling pressures. Clinicians use measurements from PACs to titrate life-sustaining medications and evaluate candidacy for advanced heart failure therapies. While PACs allow for real-time monitoring, their measurements are extremely sensitive to changes in patient position and only reliable with patients flat in bed with the PAC transducer aligned with the level of their heart.  

Currently, to obtain accurate PAC readings, clinicians use levels from the nearest hardware store to adequately align and “zero” PAC pressure transducers with a patient’s right atrium while they lie flat. This type of calibration not only occurs with PAC but any type of invasive monitoring including the far more prevalent arterial line (a-line) used for moment-to-moment blood pressure monitoring in critically ill patients. This tradition of using levels seems outdated and subject to error, especially with such high-risk patients.  

An entirely new, or even simple attachment to the existing, pressure transducer apparatus to provide easier alignment would allow clinicians and patients alike to feel more confident in the measurements guiding major care decisions.