ALLIANCE RESEARCH INITIATIVE

The College of Medicine’s Alliance Research Initiative was designed to provide seed funding and support for multidisciplinary teams of scientists, from colleges and centers across the University’s campus, to find answers to the health challenges that disproportionately affect Kentuckians.

Meet some of the early-career faculty who have made a significant impact through the initiative.

When he was a cardiology fellow, Gaurang Vaidya, MD, faced a persistent question while providing care for heart failure patients – how much extra water is in the patient’s body? The answer to that question is important in determining treatment at bedside, but the standard procedure for measuring the extra water volume is either invasive or requires dedicated training in using imaging tools.

Dr. Vaidya is now an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. With guidance and support from the Myocardial Recovery Alliance (MYRA) –and its principal investigators Emma Birks, MD, PhD, and Ken Campbell, PhD – he recently conducted a pilot trial to test an easier alternative: a portable ultrasound.

“Many people see the utility of being able to do a bedside assessment of a patient’s volume status using an ultrasound without requiring an invasive means of putting a catheter through their vein into the heart to measure pressure,” Dr. Vaidya said.

Dr. Vaidya’s clinical trial tested the accuracy of using a portable ultrasound to measure a patient’s right atrial pressure and determine whether that patient has excess water and is congested. He used an iPad connected to the ultrasound, which allowed for a portable assessment at the patient’s bedside, and in less than five minutes. The clinical trial examined patients who were scheduled to undergo right heart catheterization, allowing researchers to compare results and test the accuracy of ultrasound with direct invasive parameters.

The results were promising, and they garnered national attention. They were presented at the American College of Cardiology, and the abstract was selected among the top of those submitted at the American Society of Echocardiography.