Patients unable to breathe because of acute lung failure or an
obstructed airway need another way to get oxygen to their blood -- and
fast -- to avoid cardiac arrest and brain injury. A team led by
researchers at Boston Children's Hospital has designed tiny, gas-filled
microparticles that can be injected directly into the bloodstream to
quickly oxygenate the blood.
The microparticles consist of a single layer of lipids (fatty molecules)
that surround a tiny pocket of oxygen gas, and are delivered in a
liquid solution.
In a cover article in the June 27 issue of Science Translational Medicine,
John Kheir, MD, of the Department of Cardiology at Boston Children's
Hospital, and colleagues report that an infusion of these microparticles
into animals with low blood oxygen levels restored blood oxygen
saturation to near-normal levels, within seconds.
When the trachea was completely blocked -- a more dangerous "real
world" scenario -- the infusion kept the animals alive for 15 minutes
without a single breath, and reduced the incidence of cardiac arrest and
organ injury.
The microparticle solutions are portable and could stabilize patients
in emergency situations, buying time for paramedics, emergency
clinicians or intensive care clinicians to more safely place a breathing
tube or perform other life-saving therapies, says Kheir.
"This is a short-term oxygen substitute -- a way to safely inject
oxygen gas to support patients during a critical few minutes," he says.
"Eventually, this could be stored in syringes on every code cart in a
hospital, ambulance or transport helicopter to help stabilize patients
who are having difficulty breathing."
The microparticles would likely only be administered for a short
time, between 15 and 30 minutes, because they are carried in fluid that
would overload the blood if used for longer periods, Kheir says.
Kheir also notes that the particles are different from blood
substitutes, which carry oxygen but are not useful when the lungs are
unable to oxygenate them. Instead, the microparticles are designed for
situations in which the lungs are completely incapacitated.
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