5th ISTANBUL SYMPOSIUM: BIOENGINEERING APPROACHES ON PEDIATRIC CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE

Scientific Co-Chairs are Kerem Pekkan, PhD & Akif Ündar, PhD

Invitation to Attend

The 5th Istanbul Symposium is intended for medical and engineering students, nurses,
scientists, pediatric heart surgeons, engineers, cardiologists, intensivists, neonatologists,
anesthesiologists, neurologists, pediatric perfusionists, respiratory therapists, residents
and fellows. All are invited and encouraged to attend.

Koç University, Engineering Auditorium ( Mühendislik Oditoryumu ) / 19 April 2013

European Society of Cardiology Congress 2013 / Amsterdam

• The new translational initiative ‘Science in Practice’ will provide clinicians with insights on where the field is going in the future and basic scientists with a critically important context for future work.
• General practitioners, nurses and other allied professionals: reduced fee to participate in the general cardiology update programme on Saturday 31 August as an introduction to the ESC Congress 2013.
• For the first time delegates will be able to follow the “Guidelines into Practice (GIP)” track ,  designed to support cardiologists in the implementation of the Guidelines in their daily practice.

Click for Congress Home Page

International Conference on Integrated Medical Imaging in Cardiovascular Diseases / Vienna

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announces its intention to hold the International Conference on Integrated Medical Imaging in Cardiovascular Diseases (IMIC2013). Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are an important sub-group of non-communicable diseases and are one of the main priorities in the health care systems of many IAEA Member States. Medical imaging, including molecular nuclear medicine, is extremely important in that it offers strategic advantages in both diagnostic and therapeutic decision making. It provides inputs for diagnosis, staging, treatment, prognosis and follow-up in the management of CVDs. Medical imaging includes techniques such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), echocardiography, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These techniques provide an excellent opportunity to understand the pathology of individual patients and can therefore serve to facilitate tailored clinical management. Each imaging modality has its advantages and limitations which need to be understood properly by health care professionals dealing with CVDs. Many Member States are actively using, have recently implemented or are planning to acquire these technologies.

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International Congress of Cardiovascular Technologies /Algarve

Extended Abstract Submission and Complete Paper Submission: April 24, 2013
Authors Notification: June 17, 2013
Camera Ready and Registration: July 8, 2013

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International Symposium on Endovascular Therapeutics / Barcelona

Wireless device powers implanted blood-pressure sensor, eliminating batteries

Researchers at A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore are developing a prototype wireless device that powers an implanted blood-pressure sensor, eliminating the need to recharge or replace a battery.

The microscale electronic sensor monitors blood flow through artificial blood vessels. Surgeons use these prosthetic grafts to bypass diseased or clogged blood vessels in patients experiencing restricted blood supply, for example.

Over time, however, the graft can also become blocked. To avoid complete failure, blood flow through the graft must be monitored regularly, but existing techniques are slow and costly.

Monitoring blood flow rate inside prosthetic vascular grafts enables early detection of graft degradation and prevention of graft failure.

The implant is powered by a handheld external reader, which uses inductive coupling to wirelessly transfer energy. The team developed an ultralow-power application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for the implant designed for low-power (21.6 μW) use.

The sensors are based on piezoresistive silicon nanowires. As blood flows over the sensor, the associated mechanical stresses induce a measurable increase in electrical resistance, proportional to the flow pressure.

“Our flow sensor system achieves an ultra-low power consumption of 12.6 microwatts,” said A*STAR’s Jia Hao Cheong, who heads the project. To achieve that the sensor transmits its data to the handheld reader passively, by backscattering some of the incoming energy. “We have tested our system with 50-millimeter-thick tissue between the external coil and implantable coil, and it successfully extracted the pressure data from the implantable device.”

“The next step of the project is to integrate the system and embed it inside a graft for an experimental animal,” Cheong said.

Source: http://www.kurzweilai.net

Infant brain controls blood flow differently

“The control of blood flow in the brain is very important,” says Elizabeth Hillman, associate professor of biomedical engineering and of radiology, who led the research study in her Laboratory for Functional Optical Imaging at Columbia University.

“Not only are regionally specific increases in blood flow necessary for normal brain function, but these blood-flow increases form the basis of signals measured in fMRI, a critical imaging tool used widely in adults and children to assess brain function,” says Hillman. “Many prior fMRI studies have overlooked the possibility that the infant brain controls blood flow differently.”

Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is one of several brain-imaging methods that measure changes in blood flow to detect the presence and location of neuronal activity. In adults, blood-flow increases occur in specific regions of the brain during a particular task like moving your hand or reacting to a stimulus.

“We found that the immature brain does not generate localized blood-flow increases in response to stimuli,” says Mariel Kozberg, a neurobiology MD-PhD candidate and lead author of the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “By tracking changes in blood-flow control with increasing age, we observed the brain gradually developing its ability to increase local blood flow and, by adulthood, generate a large blood-flow response.”

Hillman says the findings suggest that vascular development may be an important new factor to consider in normal and abnormal brain development.

The team used a unique high-speed, high-resolution imaging approach that takes advantage of the different absorption spectra of deoxygenated and oxygenated hemoglobin in order to determine changes in the concentrations of each.

The researchers found that, with increasing age, there was a gradual development of a localized increase in blood flow, while a strong, delayed decrease in flow was consistently present. Only by adulthood was the positive increase able to balance the decrease in flow.

“Our results suggest that the infant brain might not be able to generate localized blood-flow increases, even if there is neuronal activity occurring, and that the development of blood-flow control occurs in parallel with early neuronal development,” says Kozberg.

“This could suggest that fMRI studies of infants and children may be detecting changes in both vascular and neuronal development—in fact, vascular development may be an important new factor to consider in normal and abnormal brain development.”

The team also found that the younger age groups were highly sensitive to blood pressure increases in response to stimulation and that these increases can cause large increases in blood flow across the brain.

“This finding indicates that the newborn brain is also unable to regulate its overall blood-flow levels,” Kozberg explains. “This could explain earlier fMRI results in infants and children that were sometimes positive and sometimes negative, because it is difficult to tell whether blood pressure increases are occurring in infants and children. This result suggests that great care should be taken in setting stimulus thresholds in young subjects.”

The researchers add that, since the newborn brain appears to be able to sustain itself without tightly controlled blood flow, their findings suggest that the infant brain may be intrinsically more resistant to damage due to a lack of oxygen than the adult brain.

“This could be an important property to understand, both in terms of understanding how best to treat blood-flow problems in the newborn infant brain, which can cause lifelong problems such as cerebral palsy, and to potentially better understand how to treat the adult brain in conditions such as stroke,” Hillman observes.

This research was supported by grants and student fellowships from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Eye Institute, the National Science Foundation, the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, the Medical Scientist Training Program, and the Human Frontier Science Program.

Source, Columbia University

Researchers show how blood vessels regroup after stroke

Growth factors released by oxygen-starved cells prompt nearby endothelial cells, which line blood vessels, to grow into new networks. Researchers at Rice University are working to understand how to direct the process in the brains of stroke and disease patients. Credit: Qutub Lab/Rice University Rice scientists simulate “robot” cells to study the development of microvascular systems in the brain. The goal is to find a way to direct the development of vessels that feed oxygen-starved cells in stroke and neurodegenerative disease patients.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-blood-vessels-regroup.html#jCp

5th ISTANBUL SYMPOSIUM: BIOENGINEERING APPROACHES ON PEDIATRIC CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE

5th ISTANBUL SYMPOSIUM: BIOENGINEERING APPROACHES ON PEDIATRIC CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE – Koç University, Sevgi Gönül Auditorium – 21 December 2012

Scientific Co-Chairs are Kerem Pekkan, PhD & Akif Ündar, PhD

Invitation to Attend

The 5th Istanbul Symposium is intended for medical and engineering students, nurses,
scientists, pediatric heart surgeons, engineers, cardiologists, intensivists, neonatologists,
anesthesiologists, neurologists, pediatric perfusionists, respiratory therapists, residents
and fellows. All are invited and encouraged to attend.

Invited Faculty

Mehmet A. Ağırbaşlı, MD Dept. of Cardiology, Marmara University, Istanbul, Türkiye
Atıf Akçevin, MD Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medipol University, Istanbul, Türkiye
Tijen Alkan-Bozkaya, MD Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medipol University, Istanbul, Türkiye
Ihsan Bakır, MD Istanbul Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic and Cardiovascular
Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Türkiye
Hakan Ceyran, MD Istanbul Koşuyolu Heart Hospital, Cardiovascular Surgery,
Istanbul, Türkiye
Sertaç Haydın, MD Istanbul Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic and Cardiovascular
Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Türkiye
Ender Ödemiş, MD Istanbul Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic and Cardiovascular
Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Türkiye
Kerem Pekkan, PhD Şevket Ruacan, MD, Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering, Koc University, Istanbul,
Türkiye
Dean, College of Medicine, Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye
Ayda Türköz, MD Başkent University, Department of Anethesiology, Istanbul,
Türkiye
Rıza Türköz, MD Başkent University, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery,
Istanbul, Türkiye
Akif Ündar, PhD Penn State Hershey Pediatric Cardiovascular Research
Center, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, Penn State
Hershey Children’s Hospital, Hershey, PA, USA
Songül Yaşar Yıldız, PhD Candidate Dept. of Bioengineeering, Marmara University,
Istanbul, Türkiye)
TBA (Koç University, School of Nursing, Istanbul, Türkiye

3
SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
9:00 – 9:20 am Welcome – Kerem Pekkan, PhD& Şevket Ruacan, MD, Dean, College of Medicine, Koç University,
Istanbul, Türkiye
9:20 – 10:00 am ABC’s of Pediatric Cardiovascular Research for Medical and
Engineering Students
Akif Ündar, PhD – Penn State Hershey Pediatric Cardiovascular
Research Center, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, Penn
State Hershey Children’s Hospital, Hershey, PA, USA
10:00 – 11:00 am Key Note Lecture – Applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics to
solve pediatric cardiovascular problems
Kerem Pekkan, PhD, (Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering, Koc
University, Istanbul, Türkiye)
Introduction: Akif Ündar, PhD
11:00 – 11: 15 am Break
11:15 am – Noon CASE STUDY: Novel fenestration designs for controlled venous flow
shunting in failing Fontans with systemic hypertension
Cardiac Surgeon: Definition of the problem – Rıza Türköz, MD
(Başkent University, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Istanbul,
Türkiye)
Scientist: Suggested Solution – Kerem Pekkan, PhD
12:00 – 13:30 pm Lunch
13:30 – 14:00 pm What are the "real" problems for pediatric cardiac patients in
Türkiye? Why multi-disciplinary approach is necessity, not an option?
Atıf Akçevin, MD (Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medipol
University, Istanbul)
14:00 – 15:30 pm PANEL: Importance of Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Improve
the Outcomes During and After Neonatal and Pediatric
Cardiopulmonary Bypass Procedures in Türkiye
Moderators: Atıf Akçevin, MD and Ihsan Bakır, MD

4
Pediatric Cardiologists’ Perspective – Ender Ödemiş, MD (Istanbul
Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Training and
Research Hospital, Istanbul, Türkiye) (20 min)
Pediatric Cardiac Surgeons’ Perspective – Hakan Ceyran, MD (Istanbul
Koşuyolu Heart Hospital, Cardiovascular Surgery, Istanbul, Türkiye)
(20 min)
Pediatric Anesthesiologists’ Perspective – Ayda Türköz, MD (Başkent University, Department of Anethesiology, Istanbul, Türkiye)
(20 min)
Pediatric Nurses’ Perspective – TBA (Koç University, School of Nursing, Istanbul, Türkiye (20 min)
15:30 – 16:00pm Break
16:00 – 18:00pm PANEL: Pediatric ECLS Systems & Novel Techniques and Methods to
Minimize the Injury during neonatal/Pediatric Cardiopulmonary
Bypass Procedures
Moderators: Hakan Ceyran, MD and Rıza Türköz, MD
Pediatric Extracorporeal Life Support Systems in Türkiye – 2012
Update –
Sertaç Haydın, MD (Istanbul Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic and
Cardiovascular Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul,
Türkiye)
Monitoring Biomarkers After Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: A New
Paradigm in the Horizon, Mehmet A. Ağırbaşlı, MD (Dept. of
Cardiology, Marmara University, Istanbul, Türkiye)
Extremophiles for cardiovascular research – Songül Yaşar Yıldız, PhD
Candidate (Dept. of Bioengineeering, Marmara University, Istanbul,
Türkiye)
Impact of Pulsatile Perfusion on Clinical Outcomes of Neonates and
infants with Complex Pathologies undergoing Cardiopulmonary
Bypass Procedures –
Tijen Alkan-Bozkaya, MD (Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medipol
University, Istanbul)

5
Importance of Neonatal/Pediatric oxygenators with or without
Arterial Filters for capturing microemboli during CPB procedures –
Akif Ündar, PhD
18:00pm Closing Remarks – Kerem Pekkan, PhD

Real-time heart beat simulator

Real-time heart beat simulator visualizes pulsation and disease. Thanks Onuralp Söylemez for sending this video:

This simulator can represent the complex pulsation of the heart. It is being developed by a group including members from National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center and Riken.

Until now, simulating heart pulsation has required huge amounts of computing, done by supercomputers or offline. But this new system makes it possible to visualize heart pulsation on a notebook PC in real time, by applying computer graphics technology.

“Previously, simulation methods were based on mechanics. Our method is completely new because we use technology called shape matching, based on shape constraints. To put it simply, we divide a heart model into 7,000 parts, and make each part contract independently. The main point about this method is that it calculates the shape of the heart overall by minimizing contradictions between the contracted parts.”

“The 3D heart model can be created by extracting regions from a patient’s CT scan. The course of the cardiac muscle fibers has already been designed. The timing of contraction can be specified through this graph. Normally, the atrium contracts first, then the ventricles.”

Because the heart model runs in real time, it’s possible to deform the heart by applying tension, and to observe cross-sections. Additionally, heart attacks can be simulated by stopping the motion and painting a region. This also makes it possible to create virtual heart disease.

“First of all, we’d like to utilize this simulator in clinical practice. Its primary purpose is to help physicians and patients communicate with each other. Another purpose is to help train physicians. We’d also like to use it simply for elementary education.”

The remaining issues that need to be overcome include, reducing the complexity of creating individual patients heart models, as well as finding ways to handle complex patterns such as ventricular fibrillation.

Source

A Primer on Computational Simulation in Congenital Heart Disease for the Clinician

Interest in the application of engineering methods to problems in congenital heart disease has
gained increased popularity over the past decade. The use of computational simulation to
examine common clinical problems including single ventricle physiology and the associated
surgical approaches, the effects of pacemaker implantation on vascular occlusion, or
delineation of the biomechanical effects of implanted medical devices is now routinely
appearing in clinical journals within all pediatric cardiovascular subspecialties. In practice,
such collaboration can only work if both communities understand each other’s methods and
their limitations. This paper is intended to facilitate this communication by presenting in the
context of congenital heart disease (CHD) the main steps involved in performing
computational simulation – from the selection of an appropriate clinical question/problem to
understanding the computational results, and all of the “black boxes” in between.

More

Handmade Glass Anatomical Models by Farlow’s Scientific Glassblowing

Gary Farlow can make art out of arteries. He and his team of 10 at Farlow’s Scientific Glassblowing are able to transform the body’s vasculature—and nearly all of its other parts—into an ornate borosilicate glass sculpture, from the heart’s ventricles to the brain’s circle of Willis. “We do almost every part of the body,” Farlow says. “It can take a pretty artistic mind to make some of these things.” With the help of cardiologists, the team creates custom see-through systems for science and medical training.

Their anatomically correct models can be designed to simulate blood flow, teach placement of catheters and angioplasty devices, or simply test or demo new surgical gizmos. Individual arteries, veins, and capillaries are shaped and fused together, one at a time. Ground-glass joints are added at the exposed ends so a head, say, can be connected to the carotid arteries should customers want to expand their model. A full-body setup could cost $25,000, so don’t get any bright ideas about using one as a brandy decanter.

Fluid Dynamics and Simulation of Giant Oil and Gas Reservoirs

Mathematical Methods Conference -subjected as Fluid Dynamics and Simulation of Giant Reservoirs- will be held in Istanbul from 3-5 September 2012.
Click for the details.
Conference PDF

Thanks Kareemoff for sharing this link.

4th Istanbul Symposium: Pediatric Support Systems and Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Bypass

The 4th Pediatric Support Systems and Pediatric Cardiopulmonary

Bypass Symposium will be held on 28th July 2012

at Istanbul Mehmet Akif Ersoy

Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery Training and Research Hospital.

.

Engineered microvessels provide 3-D test bed for human diseases

University of Washington bioengineers have developed the first structure to grow small human blood vessels, creating a 3-D test bed that offers a better way to study disease, test drugs and perhaps someday grow human tissues for transplant.

“In clinical research you just draw a blood sample,” said first author Ying Zheng, a UW research assistant professor of bioengineering. ”But with this, we can really dissect what happens at the interface between the blood and the tissue. We can start to look at how these diseases start to progress and develop efficient therapies.”

Zheng first built the structure out of the body’s most abundant protein, collagen, while working as a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University. She created tiny channels and injected this honeycomb with human endothelial cells, which line human blood vessels.

During a period of two weeks, the endothelial cells grew throughout the structure and formed tubes through the mold’s rectangular channels, just as they do in the human body.

When brain cells were injected into the surrounding gel, the cells released chemicals that prompted the engineered vessels to sprout new branches, extending the network. A similar system could supply blood to engineered tissue before transplant into the body.

After joining the UW last year, Zheng collaborated with the Puget Sound Blood Center to see how this research platform would work to transport real blood.

Microfluidic vessel networks (credit: Y. Zheng et al./PNAS)

The engineered vessels could transport human blood smoothly, even around corners. And when treated with an inflammatory compound, the vessels developed clots, similar to what real vessels do when they become inflamed.

The system also shows promise as a model for tumor progression. Cancer begins as a hard tumor but secretes chemicals that cause nearby vessels to bulge and then sprout. Eventually tumor cells use these blood vessels to penetrate the bloodstream and colonize new parts of the body.

When the researchers added to their system a signaling protein for vessel growth that’s overabundant in cancer and other diseases, new blood vessels sprouted from the originals. These new vessels were leaky, just as they are in human cancers.

“With this system we can dissect out each component or we can put them together to look at a complex problem. We can isolate the biophysical, biochemical or cellular components. How do endothelial cells respond to blood flow or to different chemicals, how do the endothelial cells interact with their surroundings, and how do these interactions affect the vessels’ barrier function? We have a lot of degrees of freedom?,” Zheng said.

The system could also be used to study malaria, which becomes fatal when diseased blood cells stick to the vessel walls and block small openings, cutting off blood supply to the brain, placenta or other vital organs.

“I think this is a tremendous system for studying how blood clots form on vessels walls, how the vessel responds to shear stress and other mechanical and chemical factors, and for studying the many diseases that affect small blood vessels,” said co-author Dr. José López, a professor of biochemistry and hematology at UW Medicine and chief scientific officer at the Puget Sound Blood Center.

Future work will use the system to further explore blood vessel interactions that involve inflammation and clotting. Zheng is also pursuing tissue engineering as a member of the UW’s Center for Cardiovascular Biology and the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine.

Ref.: Ying Zheng et al., In vitro microvessels for the study of angiogenesis and thrombosis, PNAS, May 29, 2012

Source