Functional respiratory imaging (FRI) company Fluidda has announced that an FRI study of COVID-19 patients has shown that the virus is resulting in narrowing of small capillaries in the lung, resulting in higher flow pressures that in turn causes higher pressure in the main blood vessels and suggests that vasodilators delivered to the lung may be a useful therapy.
According to the company, the ongoing study, which has enrolled 500 subjects so far, has shown that in patients with confirmed small vessel obstruction “the timely administration of vascular dilation inhalants seems to have the potential to restore oxygen uptake and overall clinical improvement. More importantly, this approach would have the potential, at least in patients responding to this approach, to avoid invasive ventilation.”
The announcement urges quick action, saying, “well-timed and focused pharmaceutical treatments, like inhaled vasodilators among others, are highly needed. It is therefore critical that the pharmaceutical industry has these treatments in place as soon as possible.”
In addition, Fluidda points out that conventional lung function measures and chest X-rays can miss serious lung damage in COVID-19; FRI, which provides real-time imaging of regional ventilation, blood vessels, and volumes in the lung has the potential to diagnose and treat COVID-related damage much earlier. The company’s Broncholab FRI platform was recently cleared for clinical use and is being used for research in almost 200 hospitals.
Read the Fluidda press release.
