{"id":8275,"date":"2021-12-16T20:11:21","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T20:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=8275"},"modified":"2022-03-29T13:18:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T13:18:19","slug":"a-new-warrior-in-the-fight-against-pulmonary-hypertension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=8275","title":{"rendered":"A New Warrior in the Fight Against Pulmonary Hypertension"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pulmonary hypertension kills roughly 15,000 Americans each year. A researcher at Auburn University, however, has a potential solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom Denney<\/a>, the Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Donnellan and Family Professor of electrical and computer engineering, and director of the Auburn University MRI Research Center, believes MRI testing is vital to early detection while routine physical exams rarely reveal the arterial disease. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany are not even aware they have pulmonary hypertension,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know you have the disease, then you can\u2019t seek early treatment.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Pulmonary hypertension is a type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries in the lungs and the right side of the heart which can lead to heart failure, blood clots, arrhythmia and more. Treatment includes a variety of medications, or even surgery, depending on the severity and stage of detection. A common symptom is shortness of breath. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPhysicians must go through a large diagnostic algorithm to determine what might be wrong,\u201d Denney said. \u201cPatients might be subject to heart catheterizations, which are quite invasive and are not pleasant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Denney, an electrical engineer and marketing representative for the IBM Corporation before pursuing academia in the late 1980s, has a better idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tom Denney, the Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Donnellan and Family Professor of electrical and computer engineering, believes accurate measures for arterial stiffness can be found via phased contrast imaging, which analyzes blood flow through the pulmonary artery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through 10 years of collaboration, he and a team of cardiologists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) created Arcus-Med LLC, a start-up that utilizes MRI technology to measure expansion and contraction of arteries leading from the right side of the heart to the lungs, and the blood flow profile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThrough a technique called phased contrast imaging \u2014 which measures the velocity of moving tissue, blood \u2014 these procedures can analyze blood flow through the pulmonary artery,\u201d Denney said. \u201cFrom those measurements, we get a quantity that\u2019s related to the stiffness of the pulmonary artery. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen blood flows, the ventricle contracts and the artery expands. When the valve closes and the ventricle fills with blood, the artery contracts and that keeps blood flowing \u2014 like a rubber band. A stiff artery doesn\u2019t do that. What our MRI reveals is how stiff the blood vessel is. Heart catheterizations are invasive, so if we can reduce the number of heart catheterizations, there will be much interest in that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Denney said MRIs would not replace heart catheterizations, but should be incorporated into the physicians\u2019 diagnostic algorithm. <\/span><\/p>\n

MRIs could be performed prior to right heart catheterizations \u2014 providing doctors with information that could potentially be an early indicator of pulmonary hypertension or eliminate pulmonary hypertension as the source of the problem. <\/span><\/p>\n

Denney is chief scientific officer at Arcus-Med, while other team members include: Simin Sanaye, CEO; Barry Kyu, director of business development and global alliances; Ford Fujii, director of global sales and business development; and Himanshu Gupta, chief medical officer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Denney hopes the device can become mainstream one day in the medical community. He encourages innovators from all backgrounds, including fellow faculty peers, to pursue their entrepreneurial passions. It won\u2019t be easy. It might even take years. But you never know when past relationships will come into play. It took Arcus-Med 10 years to move from idea among scientists to start-up with a patent. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBe patient,\u201d Denney said. \u201cWe came up with this idea years ago, and we thought it was a good idea. We started pitching it to people for grants, but we didn\u2019t have any takers. People were saying, \u2018Hey, this is a really good idea but we\u2019re not really sure that it will work.\u2019 But that\u2019s the way it goes, you know? When you come up with an idea, you have to show that it works.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

During their fellowship at UAB, a cardiologist ran tests on a group of patients. Not only were the tests successful, but relationships built early in his career as an engineer at IBM proved fruitful. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI worked with people in North Carolina\u2019s Research Triangle Park \u2013 Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill,\u201d Denney explained. \u201cI don\u2019t know how this happened, but somehow I connected back with them. These people had moved up the food chain professionally, did some great things at IBM, then retired and became investors.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Now a full-fledged professor and MRI specialist at Auburn, the former sales representative pounced. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI gave a presentation and showed them the technology we developed,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said, \u2018This is a great idea! We\u2019d like to take it to market.\u2019 So, here we are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Auburn University\u2019s MRI Research Center is home to one of the first actively-shielded whole-body 7T MRI scanners in the U.S.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denney said if a researcher believes he or she has a viable business product tied up in a bow and ready to go, \u201cYou\u2019re just getting started.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much more than just creating a product,\u201d he said. \u201cYou must navigate working with a variety of people \u2014 collaborators, potential investors, etc. \u2014 and sometimes people are working for free.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

For academic innovators, they must have a conflict-of-interest mitigation plan in place. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause when you work for a university, there are always rules you must adhere to,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, I didn\u2019t find them particularly burdensome, but it might for others. There are regulations to follow. On one hand, people are saying, \u2018If you want something, just go do it.\u2019 Then, in the back of your mind you\u2019re thinking, \u2018Is this going to be a conflict of interest?\u2019 But I wouldn\u2019t let that discourage anybody who chooses to take the entrepreneurial route.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Obtaining a patent, of course, brings credibility to any product, but it\u2019s also a tedious process. Arcus-Med applied for a patent \u201ctwo or three years ago\u201d before finally earning the patent in January, Denney said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor those who apply, it\u2019s going to be frustrating but you\u2019ve got to keep hammering away at the process until it\u2019s complete,\u201d he said. \u201cJust know that when you send your patent application, it\u2019s not going to be immediately accepted. The patent office will find things wrong with it, but you\u2019ve just got to respond and correct them. It\u2019s wise to work with a patent agent because patent agents have a certain way of stating things. The field has its own lingo. You must understand the patent lingo to write an effective patent application.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Denney, who earned bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in electric and computer engineering at Auburn before earning a doctorate at Johns Hopkins, grew up wanting to fix stereo systems and never imagined he\u2019d be exploring arteries. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had told me back then I\u2019d be doing this research, I would have laughed you out of the room,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated with technology. I was always a tinkerer, so I was always taking stuff apart and putting it back together,\u201d he added. <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of rewiring tape decks and car stereos, he\u2019s helping the human heart.<\/span><\/p>\n