Investigador responsável – Maria Pedro Guarino – maria.guarino@ipleiria.pt
Promotor – UIS/ EssLei/ IPLEIRIA
Copromotores – IPCastelo Branco; CHLeiria, Makertech, Lda.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a highly prevalent disease worldwide which is asymptomatic in about 44% of patients being critical to search for new ways of early diagnosis. Recent studies have demonstrated that the etiology of this disease may be associated with alterations in the function of the carotid body (CB), a chemosensor organ located within the bifurcation of the carotid artery. In animal models of metabolic syndrome it was observed that the CBs are overactivated, causing an increase in sympathetic nervous system tone, underlying diseases such as obesity, hypertension and T2DM. This discovery provided a new paradigm for Neuroendocrinology, suggesting that diagnostic function of the CBs has predictive value for the development of metabolic diseases. Despite this fact, it is not common in clinical practice to look at the CBs as organs associated with endocrine dysfunction and we believe this is probably due to the nonexistence of a user-friendly, portable medical device that diagnosis the function of the CBs, together with sympathetic and metabolic function assessment. Thus, this project aims to answer this need, with the objective of building an equipment to evaluate the function of the carotid body – a CBmeter. The development of a medical device, currently non-existing in the market, is a transdisciplinary project-based learning. It arises from a problem posed by the medical and scientific community that, faced with the lack of equipment to determine physiological responses to respiratory and metabolic tests, challenged the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (IPLeiria) to develop a device capable of performing these functions. The prototype will be fully developed in IPLeiria and tested in user communities of the region of Leiria and Castelo Branco, with the collaboration of the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco. In the last phase of the project, the CBmeter will be tested in a population of patients with metabolic syndrome in partnership with the Hospital de Leiria, and the PtCRIN- the Portuguese network infrastructure for clinical research.
Projetos Financiados:
- Cbmeter – a new medical device for screening metabolic diseases
- “help2care” capacitação de cuidadores informais no autocuidado
- Teenpower: e-empowering teenagers to prevent obesity
- Mind&gait: promoção da autonomia de idosos frágeis através da melhoria da cognição e capacidade de marcha e utilização de produtos de apoio”
- Promover e empoderar para a literacia em saúde na população jovem – your pel