Descrizione del progetto
Metodo non invasivo per verificare la presenza di ulcere al piede diabetico
Circa il 15 % dei pazienti diabetici sviluppa una piaga o una ferita aperta, comunemente localizzata nella parte inferiore del piede. Il 6 % di coloro che sviluppano un’ulcera al piede viene ricoverato in ospedale. L’amputazione è la conseguenza più temuta di un’ulcera al piede. Per invertire questa tendenza e aiutare a prevenire le ulcere al piede diabetico, il progetto PHOOTONICS, finanziato dall’UE, svilupperà un dispositivo fotonico non invasivo, affidabile ed economico. A casa questo dispositivo non invasivo sarà utilizzato allo scopo di monitorare la temperatura del piede per la prevenzione e la diagnosi precoce delle ulcere al piede diabetico. L’obiettivo è quello di sostituire gli approcci attuali, come la biopsia delle lesioni cutanee, che sono invasivi e richiedono una visita dal medico.
Obiettivo
Early prediction and management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFUs) is an important health factor of Europe. Recent clinical trials have concluded that NIR sensing captures oxy(deoxy)haemoglobin (HbO2, Hb) and peripheral/ tissue oxygen saturations (StO2, SpO2), thermal Infrared-IR detects hyperthermia, among Regions of Interest (ROIs) and Mid-IR contains rich information about the proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics (e.g. glucose). All these medical indices are important factors for early prediction of DFU.
Current medical approaches are i) invasive (e.g. skin lesion biopsy), ii) requires consumables, and iii) being operated by certified physicians (e.g. ultrasound and/or biopsy).
PHOOTONICS aims at developing a non-invasive, reliable and cost-effective photonics-driven device for DFU monitoring and management which can be applied for wide use. The project supports two versions: (i) the PHOOTONICS In-Home, used for DFU monitoring by patients and (ii) the PHOOTONICS PRO operated by physicians.
Reliability is achieved by optimizing i) passive Hyperspectral (HIS) NIR photo-detector, with an active tuneable diode illuminator for detecting SpO2/StO2, HbO2 and Hb, ii) a thermal-IR sensor of detecting hyperthermia/hypothermia distributions in ROIs and iii) a passive Mid-IR sensing with a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) optimized to capture additional tissue attributes such as proteomics (elastin, collagen) and metabolomics (glucose). Cost-effectiveness is achieved by introducing i) targeted photonics technologies for DFU, ii) implementing advanced signal processing/learning algorithms to increase the discrimination accuracy while maintaining hardware cost-benefit, (iii) developing a user-friendly framework operated by non-certified physicians, and even by patients (for the In-Home version), and (iv) minimising operational cost with our non-invasive device. Clinical studies are performed to validate the reliability of the new cost-effective device in real-life settings.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsproteomics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsignal processing
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineendocrinologydiabetes
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesacousticsultrasound
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
IA - Innovation actionCoordinatore
01116 Vilnius
Lituania
L’organizzazione si è definita una PMI (piccola e media impresa) al momento della firma dell’accordo di sovvenzione.