The science behind our technology

Numerous studies have indicated that the placenta may play a direct or indirect role in stillbirth. Until now there has been no proven non-invasive tool to directly evaluate perfusion within tissue beds, meaning an inability to evaluate in vivo human placental function although placental function and perfusion are strongly interlinked. Umbilical arterial waveforms are assumed to reflect total placental resistance and may correlate with function, although there is little strong evidence.

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A new type of solution is needed that measures organ perfusion directly. An entirely new approach is needed rather than incremental shifts in existing knowledge. Current tools fail because they have either been developed by clinical based teams without technology to support the underlying research questions, or by engineering teams without necessary hands-on patient knowledge. Given the known crucial role of the placenta in fetal wellbeing, the interdependency of placental perfusion and fetal oxygenation and nutrition, and the lack of any direct measure for feto-placental perfusion, we believe that the solution is novel direct measures of in-vivo human feto-placental perfusion.

 

We have created the technology for a non-invasive Doppler ultrasound tool to quantify perfusion at the bedside called Three-Dimensional Fractional Moving Blood Volume (3D-FMBV). Development of 3D-FMBV for both placental and fetal organ perfusion facilitates real-time critical ‘triaging’ for the human fetus in the third trimester of pregnancy.