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More about Crainio
Crainio enables the non invasive measurement of intracranial pressure (ICP) – the pressure inside the skull. Knowledge of this is important for clinicians diagnosing and treating Traumatic Brain Injury. Currently the direct measurement of ICP is through the insertion of a pressure sensor into the brain – a highly invasive procedure. Crainio shines low power infra red light at the scalp and picks up the pulse signals returned from the brain. Machine learning algorithms then take features of the measured pulse signal and convert these into an ICP estimate. This is performed continuously, in real time, and non invasively.

Company Focus

Non invasive intracranial pressure measurement
Traumatic Brain Injury is a leading cause of death and disability – it is the number one cause of death in young adults in Europe. A total of 2.5 million people suffer a TBI in Europe each year with 75,000 people dying as a result. The key physiological indicator of TBI is intracranial pressure – ICP. Currently the diagnosis of the severity of TBI is impaired through the lack readily available ICP measurement. This is because the current direct and reliable measurement of ICP is through a highly invasive and expensive procedure involving the insertion of a pressure sensor into the patient’s brain.

Our Technology

Using low power infra red light to measure ICP
Crainio sets out to revolutionise how we measure ICP by developing a non-invasive, inexpensive measurement instrument that uses a simple probe attached to the patient’s forehead. Since our skull and tissue are translucent, it’s possible to use photoplethysmography (PPG) to pick up pulse signals of the brain by shining low-power infrared light at the scalp. Machine learning algorithms process the features of the pulse signals and convert them into ICP estimates continuously, in real-time, and non-invasively.

FAQ

Crainio will initially be used by doctors tending to patients with TBI in the secondary care setting. In time we will look to make the technology available to all clinical staff (paramedics and primary care doctors) and then to the public to assess seriousness of mild to moderate head injuries.

Crainio is currently being developed as a medical device: clinical studies are being set up to demonstrate the clinical utility and accuracy of the technology with further engineering envisaged to enable CE marking accreditation. We envisage crainio being on the market in 2026.

The technology behind Crainio was invented by a team led by Professor Panicos Kyriacou at City, University of London in the UK. Crainio is a UK based company.

Our Team

News from Crainio

Crainio CTO wins Mercia Award

Maria Roldan (Crainio’s CTO) has won the Worshipful Company of Engineers Mercia Award 2022 for her research on Non-invasive Multimodal Monitoring in Traumatic Brain Injury.

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November 8, 2022

The technology - introduced by Professor Kyriacou