WP2 (UNICAMPANIA) [months 1-22] – Design of the home-care surveillance system

The objective of this WP is to design the whole home-care surveillance system. The UNICAMPANIA unit, which is the project leader and the medical unit, will be responsible for the accomplishment of this WP. This WP will provide detailed definition of the system requirements, in compliance with medical guidelines for AVF patients management and with organization of healthcare services.

The design of this new home-care service will take into consideration the current configuration of the health service with which it is to be integrated and will evaluate previous research on early detection of AVF dysfunction and other experiences. After medical committee approval, the WP will be responsible for patients selection at the Nephrology Unit of the Vanvitelli University.

Inclusion criteria will be: patients with ESKD and AVF but not yet on dialysis treatment, undergoing their first surgical intervention for vascular access construction (forearm distal radio-cephalic fistula), without cultural and accessibility problems to manage the monitoring system. Later, dialyzed patients will be enrolled to classify AVF thrill and auscultation of bruit sounds related with stenosis and other AVF functional abnormalities.
Patients will be grouped into homogeneous categories according to the degree of fistula maturation, onset and severity of early stenosis, any comorbidities, etc. In addition, the WP will have to establish the biographical, anamnestic, therapeutic, and objective clinical examination findings to be included in the study database while respecting patients' privacy. During the research project, several review and fine-tuning phases of the proposed system compared to DUS acquired parameters are planned in light of the intermediate findings obtained. The designed home-care surveillance system is the deliverable D1 of the project.