EER - 2008 Grant Awardees

Principal Investigator:	Srikar Adhikari, MD
Institution:	University of Nebraska Medical Center
Amount Awarded:	$9985
Title of Project:	Utility of Bedside Ultrasound in the Prediction of Difficult Airways
Project Summary:	A variety of preintubation clinical screening tests have been advocated to predict difficult laryngoscopy, but their usefulness is limited within emergency department, intensive care unit, prehospital, and combat settings. Patients in these settings are often confused, lethargic, obtunded, or uncooperative. This means that common screening tests for difficult laryngoscopy cannot be applied in a large number of emergency intubations. In the recent past, there has been growing interest in upper airway ultrasound. The purpose of this study is to assess the utility of bedside ultrasound to predict difficult airways in patients requiring emergency intubation.

Principal Investigator:	Azra Alizad, MD
Institution:	Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Amount Awarded:	$10,000
Title of Project:	A Novel Thyroid Imaging Method for Improving Specificity
Project Summary:	Currently, ultrasound is the primary tool used to image the thyroid. However, the conventional B-mode ultrasound system is not specific and leads to a large number of unnecessary thyroid biopsies. This results in high costs and physiologic trauma to the patient. The ultimate goal of our research is to develop a new ultrasound-based imaging system that is cost-effective and at least as sensitive as conventional ultrasound imaging in detecting thyroid nodules but more specific in differentiating such nodules. Our general hypothesis is that vibro-acoustography (VA) satisfies the desired characteristics of a suitable thyroid imaging modality. In the short term, we will conduct a series of in vitro thyroid VA experiments to prove the concept and collect the preliminary data in support of our hypothesis. The purpose of this research is to determine that VA can perform similarly to conventional ultrasound in detecting thyroid nodules, evaluate the potential of VA in differentiating between the benign and malignant nodules and demonstrate that VA can perform better than conventional ultrasound imaging in this respect. We plan to use these data to prepare an application for an extended grant to fully test our general hypothesis on a larger population. Our vision is that the present proposal serves as the starting point for expanded research on improved thyroid imaging techniques.

Principal Investigator:	Justin Lee, MD
Institution:	University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Imaging Centre
Amount Awarded:	$9556
Title of Project:	Ultrasound Microbubble-Potentiated Enhancement of Prostate Cancer Response to Radiation
Project Summary:	Radiotherapy is a major anticancer treatment that is often used in the primary treatment of prostate cancer. This study capitalizes on recent evidence that suggests that the tumor response to radiation is closely related to damage to the tumor endothelial cells and microvasculature. Microbubbles activated by ultrasound waves at or near the resonant frequency can cause damage to nearby endothelial cells lining the vasculature. Preliminary in vitro and in vivo experiments indicate increased tumor cell death with the addition of microbubbles and ultrasound to radiotherapy. We aim to demonstrate that microbubbles in conjunction with ultrasound can be used as a novel therapeutic modality to enhance the radiation-based treatment of prostate cancer.

Principal Investigator:	Nadav Schwartz, MD
Institution:	New York University School of Medicine
Amount Awarded:	$9900
Title of Project:	The Clinical and Pathologic Correlation of Early Placental Volume Scanning
Project Summary:	Our project aims to study our ability to use 3-dimensional sonography to image the entire placenta in early pregnancy. Using special computer software, we hope to be able to examine and analyze the placenta in ways that are similar to the examination performed by pathologists after a pregnancy is over and the placenta delivers. We think that the ability to get information about the size, shape, and vascularity of the placenta in early pregnancy will help us learn how the placenta develops and how early changes in its development may lead to changes in its ability to supply the growing fetus with enough oxygen and nutrition. By comparing our measurements with similar measurements taken after pregnancy, we can see whether early placental characteristics can predict how the placenta will function later in pregnancy. Also, because we will gather information about the pregnancy outcome, we will be able to correlate our measurements with the size of the baby at birth.