Researchers rely on Artificial Intelligence to improve patient outcomes for dialysis patients. The device works by optimizing blood flow in veins. A team of researchers from London’s Imperial College conducted the study. Researchers used computer modeling techniques to test unsteady currents in the blood flow of dialysis patients. Earlier, this same computer modeling technique evaluated the impact of unsteady air pockets flows over a plane.
Blood optimization is critical to achieving the end outcomes for dialysis patients. Hemodialysis is a lifesaving procedure that improves the life expectancy rates of patients with acute kidney diseases. The new AI breakthrough will revolutionize medicine’s outings on dialysis.
This machine will need a special junction between an artery and a vein in the patient’s wrist or upper arm. The junction, arterio-venous fistulae (AVF), will be critical in the AI initiated procedural. The journal, Physics of Fluids, published the study. Reportedly, the researchers took inspiration from the modeling techniques used in the aerospace industry. The researchers employed machine learning algorithms to train computers.
Meanwhile, the AI optimized the shape of AVF to improve the unsteadiness in blood flow. The prototype device, developed to hold the AVF in the optimal shape, has undergone preliminary tests in pigs. According to the researchers, the pigs test for the device has come successful.
AVF is a critical component that dialysis patients rely upon to improve life expectancy. However, dysfunction and failure in the AVF complicate patient outcomes for dialysis patients. According to the researchers, AVF failure is the ranks as the top risk factor to hospital admissions and extra operations.
“This technology offers great promise for these patients. By improving outcomes from AVF surgery, it could reduce the need for repeated operations, which could and lead to better quality dialysis,” said Richard Corbett from Hammersmith Hospital in the UK.