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Get the most interesting and important stories from the University of Pittsburgh.Researchers Get $100K Grant to Track Aneurysms and Predict Rupture
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Abdominal aortic aneurysm is the 15th leading cause of death in the United States. It occurs when the aorta weakens and begins to irreversibly dilate, like a slowly inflating balloon. If left untreated, the risk of rupture increases and has a 90 percent rate of mortality.
Engineering’s David Vorp and Timothy Chung are working in collaboration with the School of Medicine’s Nathan Liang to develop a new model to better predict at-risk patients. They received a $100,000 award from Precision Medicine Initiative for Commercialization for this effort.
The team is using tools to perform shape analysis and biomechanical simulations and will use these data to train a machine learning algorithm to classify different types of aneurysm outcomes. This classifier will be used to develop a predictive model that can help guide clinicians and determine the need for surgical intervention.