Real-Time Blood Parameter Monitoring System

Project Summary The purpose of this proposal is to acquire advanced equipment – Terumo CDI ® Blood Parameter Monitoring System 550 – to benefit the users of the S.R. Light Surgical Research Laboratory. The S.R. Light Laboratory is a core facility managed under the Section of Surgical Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). The core is directed by Dr. José Diaz MD, Research Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the Division of Surgical Research. The S.R. Light Laboratory provides hands-on preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative support for surgical experiments in various animal models including dogs, goats, pigs, and sheep. Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a world-renowned institution for organ transplantation, and its preclinical research programs also have a strong clinical focus on organs, including advanced techniques for ex-vivo organ preservation and recovery, and artificial organ therapies including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. These clinical interests have also been reflected in the investigations that are supported by the S.R. Light Laboratory. However, the current monitoring equipment offered by the S.R. Light Laboratory lags state-of-the-art equipment used for clinical transplantation and artificial organ therapies. To continue meeting these growing research needs, the S.R. Light Laboratory will need to expand its capability to not only provide direct technical hands-on support, but also to provide access to such state-of-the-art equipment. Across these ongoing projects, they all share the need for continuous hemodynamic and perfusion monitoring to acquire blood data on pH, pCO2, pO2, hemoglobin, potassium, and other critical measures of health. Currently, the investigators rely upon manual blood draws and analyses to measure these parameters to ensure animal health. Not only are manual blood draws cumbersome and labor-intensive, but they also add financial cost due to the rising cost of disposables to obtain blood gas measurements. The new equipment Terumo CDI will provide continuous readings of blood gases, meaning that there is no added monetary cost after the first set up, and real-time measurements will better inform surgical and clinical decisions during animal experiments. The new shared equipment from Terumo will therefore bring the current NIH-funded research programs up to a clinical standard of perfusion monitoring. For projects that span over multiple days, the CDI system will be beneficial by providing longitudinal trends, and the equipment will also support research and innovation into automated control of circuits. Furthermore, this equipment will also stimulate the start-up of research projects by new faculty who are seeking new funding and would greatly benefit from this equipment. The S.R. Light Surgical Laboratory will be able to continue supporting this growth of Vanderbilt’s organ research.