The Problem

The liver vascular network is characterized by a highly organized structure. This is progressively deranged due to fibrosis and hepatocyte drop-out in patients with chronic liver diseases, leading to portal hypertension. Non-invasive methods enables to quantify objectively and automatically the degree of liver vascular derangement, so estimating portal hypertension are highly needed.

Our Solution

Temporal analysis of Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (DCE-US) based on disruption-reperfusion of microbubbles enables to obtain a personalised graph model of the vascular network of an organ, such as the liver, with high prognostic value.
We hypothesised that this vascular network model contains relevant information to stratify risk of individuals and support clinical decisions in a more objective manner.

We have successfully proved this hypothesis in a pilot study with liver cirrhosis patients.

Future

We foresee the expansion of this technology to other fields of biomedicine and clinical applications. From studies in animal models to tailored therapies for cancer.