Enabling renal blood flow autoregulation assessment: A convergence of robotic soft-body interaction and AI-assisted ultrasound

The kidneys receive 20–25% of total blood flow at rest and are vulnerable to reduced blood flow. Larger trauma, major surgery, and critical illness are therefore often complicated by acute renal failure, called Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). AKI negatively impacts the function of the immune system, the lungs, the heart, the gut, and other organs, and may lead to multi-organ failure, prolonged, painful, and expensive treatment, and increased morbidity and mortality. Among survivors, there are long-term risks for chronic renal failure, cardiovascular disease and premature death. The global occurrence of AKI is approximately 13.3 million a year and contributes to 1.7 million deaths. The societal economic burden of AKI is huge, where the cost related to primary hospital treatment of AKI in the USA in 2012 was at least 5,4 billion dollars. A major problem is that the conventional diagnostic method for AKI, based on functional biomarkers, establishes diagnosis 2–3 days after the insult. The initial AKI damage is potentially reversible. Failure to intervene may result in progression to more severe and ultimately permanent kidney damage, and poor patient outcome. Treatment is time-critical, and the chance of recovery depends on early detection. Our primary objective, and vision, is to enable early AKI diagnosis through the determination of renal blood flow autoregulation by combining simultaneously measured arterial blood flow pressure with continuous blood flow measurements in the kidney arteries acquired by robotic soft-body interaction and AI-assisted medical ultrasound. To ensure that UltraRob outcomes benefit society, we integrate a responsible research and innovation (RRI)-approach in all parts of the project and establish an interdisciplinary collaboration hub consisting of relevant stakeholders such as the researchers themselves, engineers, designers, clinicians, patient organizations, hospital department leaders, and health policymakers.

The kidneys receive 20–25% of total blood flow at rest and are vulnerable to reduced blood flow. Larger trauma, major surgery, and critical illness are therefore often complicated by acute renal failure, called Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). AKI negatively impacts the function of the immune system, the lungs, the heart, the gut, and other organs, and may lead to multi-organ failure, prolonged, painful, and expensive treatment, and increased morbidity and mortality. Among survivors, there are long-term risks for chronic renal failure, cardiovascular disease and premature death. A major problem is that the conventional diagnostic method for AKI, based on functional biomarkers, establishes diagnosis 2–3 days after the insult. The initial AKI damage is potentially reversible. Failure to intervene may result in progression to more severe and ultimately permanent kidney damage, and poor patient outcome. Treatment is time-critical, and the chance of recovery depends on early detection. The global occurrence of AKI is approximately 13.3 million a year and contributes to 1.7 million deaths. The societal economic burden of AKI is huge, where the cost related to primary hospital treatment of AKI in the USA in 2012 was at least 5,4 billion dollars. Our primary objective, and vision, is to enable early AKI diagnosis through the determination of renal blood flow autoregulation by combining simultaneously measured arterial blood flow pressure with continuous blood flow measurements in the kidney arteries acquired by robotic soft-body interaction and AI-assisted medical ultrasound. To ensure that UltraRob outcomes benefit society, we integrate a responsible research and innovation (RRI)-approach in all parts of the project and establish an interdisciplinary collaboration hub consisting of relevant stakeholders such as the researchers themselves, engineers, designers, clinicians, patient organizations, hospital department leaders, and health policymakers.