€5.5m mission to develop DVT detector small enough to fit in a pocket

To read the article published by Roger Highfield, Science Editor for the Daily Telegraph, on the 28th August 2006, please click here.

Our full news release:

The European Commission Information Society & Media Directorate General has awarded €3.3 million to a consortium of eleven leading European research and high-tech firms to innovate a digital, handheld, highly accurate medical device for diagnosing Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism. This adds to the consortium’s contribution of €2.2 million, bring the total R&D investment to €5.5 million.

From 1st September 2006, Cenamps, a national centre for emerging small-scale technologies, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Helena Biosciences, a medical devices firm based in Gateshead; and the University of Teesside will lead a team of talented scientists to develop a prototype device for DVT/PE diagnosis. The consortium also includes Haptogen, a leading bio-pharmaceutical spin-out from the University of Aberdeen; the Fraunhofer Institute (Germany); the Pac Cientific de Barcelona (Spain); Claude-Bernard University-Lyon (France); Comenius University (Slovak Republic); Budapest University of Technology & Economics (Hungry); and Universite Paris-Sud (France).

AntiCoagulation Europe (ACE), a charity providing information and advice to people on oral anticoagulation therapy, will work closely with the consortium as both advisors and observers.

Medical tests currently used to detect the illness in patients at the point-of-care can be unreliable. Healthcare workers are referring suspected patients for expensive diagnostic imaging, with only 20 – 30 per cent of these patients actually being diagnosed with a blood clot. This places a heavy burden on healthcare resources. Anticoagulation drugs, which can have other unwanted medical side affects, are also administrated to suspected patients whilst they wait for diagnostic imaging.

The device promises to revolutionise the speed, accuracy and reliability with which DVT and related blood clot conditions can be diagnosed - at the point of first-contact. The handheld device will be the size of a mobile phone, enabling clinicians to use the device anywhere at any time: hospital, local clinics, A&E departments, doctors’ surgeries, home visits, outpatients and by paramedics on the move. The accuracy and reliability of its results will also help reduce related healthcare costs.

Deep vein thrombosis is a medical condition resulting from the formation of internal blood clots in the calf. If the clot becomes free and reaches the lung, it can lead to pulmonary embolism – an often fatal condition. Cramped conditions and the formation of internal blood clots have been shown to be closely linked.

DVT can occur after prolonged periods of travel on planes, trains and cars. It can also occur as a result of prolonged Internet surfing – a condition increasingly referred to as e-Thrombosis. Many factors increase the risk of blood clots forming, including: age, pregnancy, genetics, oral contraception, obesity, recent surgery and dehydration. Recent research has also suggested a person’s height may increase the risk – being very small or tall – and that people shorter than 1.6m (5ft 3in) and taller than 1.9 (6ft 3in) are five times and four times, respectively, more likely to suffer from DVT during and after a flight.

Blood clots such as DVT/PE are the biggest unexpected killer of hospitalised patients in developed countries such as the UK, France, Spain, Germany, US and Japan. During 2001, the number of reported incident cases of DVT/PE totalled 1.2 million in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, UK, Japan and the US alone. This figure is expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2011.

Using the latest advancements in polymer electronics, bio-molecular engineering, lab-on-a-chip, wireless ICT and nano-biotechnologies, the consortium will develop a prototype device that will detect D-dimer levels in blood. D-dimer is one of the smallest antigens found in human and animal blood. A positive D-dimer test is used to identify DVT and PE in at-risk patients.

Shak Gohir, Business and Programme Manager at Cenamps, commented:

“We’re extremely proud to have formed and now manage the DVT project, which promises to significantly improve the diagnosis and treatment of DVT and PE. The project is very much part of Cenamps’ remit to bring forward new enabling technologies - for example, through our establishment of a national Polymer Electronic Technology Centre in North East England - and demonstrates its importance to the UK research-base and economy.”

Professor Zulf Ali of University of Teesside, commented:

“As lead partners we are excited by the benefits and opportunities the project will create for improving healthcare systems in Europe and worldwide. North East England is a hotbed for emerging technologies and our consortium partners represent some of the most talented scientists and technologists in their field.”

Professor Andy Porter, Chief Scientific Officer at Haptogen, commented:

“Our consortium approach is to combine the latest developments in biotechnology with advances in materials science and computing. Haptogen’s science facilitates this fusion of biology with technology to allow rapid diagnosis of DVT at a patient’s bedside or possibly, in later versions, even in their own home.”

Eve Knight, Director, Anticoagulation Europe, said:

“This is a very exciting development in the fight against DVT, which claims the lives of thousands of people in the UK, every year. In recent years we have seen a number of high-profile cases involving young people who have been struck by the illness while receiving routine hospital treatment, and scientific evidence suggests that more people than ever are at risk. It is therefore extremely encouraging to know that scientists are now developing a point-of-care device that promises to save lives and healthcare resources across Europe. AntiCoagulation Europe is delighted to be working with the consortium on such an important and inovative project.”