Research

Ventricular dyssynchrony is a serious heart dysfunction, meaning ineffective timing of ventricle contractions. It usually results in significantly lowered ejection fraction and, furthermore, in increased risk of sudden cardiac death. Ventricular dyssynchrony can be effectively treated by cardiac resynchronization therapy - CRT. Unfortunately, up to 30-40 percent of CRT recipients do not benefit from the therapy. The main reason is unspecific guidelines with significant false positivity for selecting CRT patients.

Main goal of this project is design, realisation and implementation of the set of medical equipment for measurement, storage and analysis of ultra high-frequency electrocardiogram (UHF ECG) for non-invasive diagnosis of cardiac diseases. Ultra high-frequency ECG is a completely new methodology that does not have appropriate diagnostic equivalent in cardiology. The aim is to provide a powerful very simple non-invasive diagnostic tool for both preventive as well as highly specialized cardiology. The result of the project will be: 1) Measuring system for recording UHF ECG signal.

Projekt zahrnuje průmyslový výzkum a experimentální vývoj nové lékařské technologie určené pro neinvazivní diagnostiku poruch srdeční elektro-mechaniky. Výstupem projektu je původní technické zařízení VDI monitor (Ventricular Dyssynchrony Imaging) využívající ultra-vysokofrekvenčního EKG záznamu. VDI je primárně určen pro diagnostiku srdečního selhání a závažných srdečních onemocnění. Zcela nová technologie VDI může představovat zásadní zlom v diagnostice onemocnění srdce.

The basis of the project is to discover methods able to precisely identify properties of very weak electrocardiographic potentials. These potentials are measured with high dynamic acquisition system, its frequency range reaches up to 2 kHz and amplitude resolution is in nV (UHF-ECG). UHF potentials reflect spatial-temporal distribution of electrical myocardial depolarization and ventricular electrical dyssynchrony. Since the UHF potentials in ECG signal represent completely novel measure, there is a lack of methodological background.

The aim of the project is to design and optimize an ultra-short echo-time pulse sequence for a direct measurement of the short-T2 signals arising from white matter of the brain. There are two main obstacles to a reliable detection of myelin sheaths: 1) their signal decays to zero in a few tens of microseconds; and 2) their signal is overwhelmed by the predominant long-T2 components from white matter of the brain.

The TRANSACT project (http://www.transact-itn.eu) brings together 10 academic and 4 industrial partners with complementary expertise in the field of magnetic resonance imaging techniques.This consortium as a whole will provide 468 person-months of employment and training to 13 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) recruited for this ITN project.

The project will investigate artificial high frequency electromagnetic structures composed generally from sub-wavelength cells that show unusual electromagnetic response not appearing in nature. These are planar artificial magnetic, and electro-magnetic surfaces, electro-magnetic band-gap, and frequency selective materials including graphene. Materials will be theoretically described and analyzed. The research will be supplemented by fabrication of specimens for experimental verification of their behavior. Investigation of graphene preparation methods will be included.