Moving Research into Action
 Bela Suki: Preventing Damaged Lungs
The hum and hiss of ventilators pushing air into the lungs of patients who cannot breathe on their own are common sounds in intensive care units and operating rooms. For most, these ventilators are life saving, but some patients develop a serious complication called Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury (VILI), a condition with a mortality rate of 30–40%.
Biomedical engineer Bela Suki’s research focuses primarily on understanding the biomechanical properties of lungs that contribute to cell damage, but with the support of a Coulter grant he is also developing a novel system that he hopes will prevent VILI and help thousands of patients every year.
Suki looks at lungs as basic biomechanical devices that stretch and contract ten times every minute. While many researchers focus on the biology of lungs and the presence of enzymes or other chemicals that affect how lungs work, Suki argues that mechanical factors have a huge impact as well.
When hospital patients are put on a ventilator, it pushes air into their lungs then lets them exhale. Doctors calculate the volume and rate of the air to be forced in with a standard chart that considers a person’s height, weight, and age. But a small number of patients develop complications. “Even if there were no problems with your lungs initially, the machine can cause problems,” Suki says. He suspects that if a patient’s lungs are being over-inflated cell damage may result, leading to fluid accumulation in the lungs and further complications. If part of a lung collapses, but the ventilator continues to push the same amount of air into the reduced space, overstretching and damage may also occur.
Suki notes that while ventilators use a constant volume and rate of air, our breathing normally varies: sometimes we breathe deeply, other times not. He has developed a method of variable ventilation that uses an algorithm to adjust the flow of air from ventilator to patient. In tests on guinea pigs, rats, and sheep he found that the method not only prevents injury but also allows more air to get from the lungs into the bloodstream. He is awaiting FDA approval to test the system in humans.
During the 15 years that he has been at Boston University, Suki has collaborated with researchers in a number of departments from Physics to the School of Medicine. “You can find almost everything here,” he says.
For more information, see www.bu.edu/dbin/bme/faculty/?prof=bsuki.
— by Trina Arpin
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