Integrated lung therapy method
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsThomas Rupprecht, Rainer Kuth
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a lung therapy method, hyperpolarized gas is administered for one breath to a subject, and a magnetic resonance scan of at least one lung of the subject is conducted. The data obtained from the scan are evaluated, specifically to determine the extent and distribution of infusion of hyperpolarized gas in the lung, as an indication of the alveolae in the lung which are open. Based on the evaluation of the data obtained in the magnetic resonance scan, a determination is made as to whether administration of a surfactant is necessary in order to improve opening of the lung. If a surfactant is administered, the procedure can be repeated to obtain an updated dataset, which can be evaluated to determine whether the administered surfactant has been effective.
Claims6
A lung therapy method comprising the steps of:
- ventilating a patient with respiratory gas;
- administering hyperpolarized gas to said patient during one respiratory cycle;
- conducting a magnetic resonance scan of a lung of the subject after administering the hyperpolarized gas to obtain a dataset representing infusion of the hyperpolarized gas in said lung;
- evaluating said dataset to determine a volume of open alveolae in said lung;
- dependent at least on said volume of open alveolae, determining whether administration of a surfactant to said subject is required and, if so, calculating a surfactant dose and administering said surfactant dose to said subject.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.