Tiny Patch for Cardiac Ultrasound Imaging
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a wearable ultrasound system for cardiac imaging. The postage stamp-sized patch can be worn on the skin of the chest and uses AI and ultrasound waves to perform advanced imaging of the heart. The technology can even be worn to perform cardiac ultrasound imaging during exercise. Each patch can be worn for up to 24 hours, and provides information on how much blood the heart is pumping, a key metric in detecting and appraising a variety of cardiac issues. The researchers hope that the technology may lead to more accessible and widespread cardiac monitoring.
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Source: Medgadget - February 7, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiology Radiology cardiac ultrasound echocardiography UCSD Source Type: blogs
Pop-Up Electrode for Improved Neural Interfaces
Researchers at Penn State designed a pop-up electrode for brain monitoring and other applications requiring neural interfacing. The pop-up design starts life as a folded two-dimensional structure with a rigid outer coating that makes it easy to insert into the brain. Once in place, the hard coating dissolves, revealing a softer and more flexible material that is less likely to cause tissue damage. The device can unfold, like the structures in children’s pop-up books, to form a surface electrode array and four penetrating shanks that can measure signals from deeper within the neural tissue. The researchers hope that the d...
Source: Medgadget - February 3, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Neurology Neurosurgery PennState Source Type: blogs
Microneedle Bandage for Hemostatic Control
Scientists at Penn State have developed a microneedle bandage that can rapidly stop bleeding. Uncontrolled bleeding following a traumatic injury is a major cause of death in the young, and developing new medical technologies that can rapidly stop bleeding would be highly beneficial. This bandage contains an array of biodegradable and biocompatible microneedles made using a gelatin methacryloyl biomaterial. The device also contains silicate nanoplatelets that give it its hemostatic properties, and the needle structure increases the surface area for blood contact and helps to bind the bandage to the injured tissue.
Blood ...
Source: Medgadget - January 31, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Surgery PennState Source Type: blogs
Flexible Sensors Detect Heavy Metals in Sweat
Researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, along with collaborators in Germany and Sweden, have developed a flexible sensor that can detect heavy metals in sweat, an easily obtainable bodily fluid. Heavy metals, such as lead or cadmium, can cause serious toxicity if they accumulate in the body, but detecting the concentration of such metals in biological samples requires expensive laboratory equipment and skilled staff. To address this, these researchers have created a flexible sensor that is easy to use and which can detect metals in sweat samples before transmitting the results to a smartphone. The technology...
Source: Medgadget - January 31, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Medicine Source Type: blogs
Ultrasound Tornado Rapidly Disrupts Blood Clots
A team of researchers at North Carolina State University have developed an ultrasound transducer that can disrupt blood clots in the brain quickly by creating an ultrasound vortex or ‘tornado’. The transducer is designed to be housed in a catheter that can be advanced through the vasculature until it reaches the site of a blood clot in the brain, such as those that occur in cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. The technique can disrupt clots more quickly than conventional forward-facing ultrasounds, as the vortex wave creates shear stress that helps to break the clot into pieces. The approach has the potential to...
Source: Medgadget - January 30, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Neurology Neurosurgery Radiology NCState Source Type: blogs
Nanopore Sensor to Study Protein Aggregation in Neurodegeneration
Researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a nanopore sensor to study the aggregation of tau and tubulin protein molecules. These proteins, and specifically their aggregation in the brain, are implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. This nanopore technology aims to allow researchers to study the effects of different environmental conditions, including pH, salt concentration, and temperature, on how these proteins aggregate. The researchers hope that their advancement can help to understand the underlying mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and potentially identif...
Source: Medgadget - January 30, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Medicine Neurology UArkansas Source Type: blogs
Smart Walking Stick for Visually Impaired People
Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have developed a smart walking stick that can assist blind or visually impaired people to navigate their environment, from grocery shopping to finding a seat in a busy café. The system employs cameras to visualize the environment and items within it, such as products in a supermarket, and uses AI to identify objects and provide guidance for the user. The stick can provide verbal and haptic prompts to help the user to move closer to a desired product on a supermarket shelf, for example. The researchers hope that the technology will assist the visually impaired in gaining...
Source: Medgadget - January 30, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Rehab CUBoulder Source Type: blogs
Balance Boards to Stay Active in the Offfice: Interview with Joel Heath, CEO of FluidStance
Fun and durable, the FluidStance balance board deck can be found at many offices these days as working professionals with desk jobs look for ways to stay active and healthy. Long hours slumped over at a desk means that your muscles remain inactive for long periods of time – a running hypothesis is that long periods of inactivity lead to issues with glucose regulation, as muscles cease their regular glucose uptake and the body adapts to a sedentary lifestyle.
FluidStance’s balance board, Level, provides an engaging alternative to this by forcing your body to engage different muscles to balance. Yet, it’s not ...
Source: Medgadget - January 20, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Alice Ferng Tags: Exclusive balanceboard FluidStance Source Type: blogs
Biobots Use Optogenetic Muscle Actuators for Movement
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed centimeter-scale biobots that combine soft materials, mouse muscle tissue, and wireless electronic components. The tiny devices can be controlled remotely through optogenetics. The muscle within the devices forms an optogenetic actuator and creates movement when exposed to light. The researchers can control this movement remotely by activating on-board micro-LEDs wirelessly, which then stimulate the muscle actuators to propel the biobot. The technology could be used in the future to perform tasks within the body, such as surgical applications or d...
Source: Medgadget - January 20, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Genetics Materials Medicine Surgery optogenetics uiuc Source Type: blogs
Artificial Neuron Uses Ions Like the Real Thing
Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have developed artificial neurons that demonstrate 15 of the 20 characteristics of biological neural cells and can communicate with natural neurons in the body. The researchers call their device the “conductance-based organic electrochemical neuron,” or c-OECN, and it is based on materials that can conduct a negative charge, including organic electrochemical transistors and n-type conducting polymers. By printing thousands of such transistors on a flexible substrate, the researchers have been able to create artificial neurons. The device uses ions to control the fl...
Source: Medgadget - January 19, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Neurology Neurosurgery liu_universitet Source Type: blogs
Hydrogel Scaffold Makes a Living Electrode
A team of researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a soft, hydrogel scaffold that can function as a living electrode for brain-computer interface applications. The researchers used electrically conductive materials and created a porous and flexible scaffold using a freeze-drying process. They then seeded the scaffold with human neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and cultured the scaffolds for extended periods, prompting the cells to differentiate into a variety of neurons and astrocytes. The researchers hope that the resulting ‘living electrode’ could be useful for brain-computer interfaces, as its soft and...
Source: Medgadget - January 18, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Neurology Neurosurgery Source Type: blogs
Bioprinted Eye Tissue to Study Retinal Diseases
Researchers at the National Eye Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, have created a method to 3D bioprint eye tissue that forms the outer blood-retina barrier. This tissue supports the photoreceptors in the retina and is implicated in the initiation of age-related macular degeneration.
The outer blood-retina barrier is the interface of the retina and the choroid, including Bruch’s membrane and the choriocapillaris. Image credit: National Eye Institute.
The researchers combined different cell types, which are primarily derived from patient stem cells, in a hydrogel carrier that is suita...
Source: Medgadget - January 6, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Ophthalmology NatEyeInstitute NIH Source Type: blogs
Point-Of-Care Biosensor to Detect Oral Cancer
Researchers at the University of Florida have created a point-of-care biosensor that can rapidly detect a biomarker for oral cancer. The device uses test strips, such as those used in blood glucose tests, to spot cell proliferation regulating inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A), a protein biomarker that can reveal the presence of oral cancer. The device requires a liquid sample that is introduced to the end of the test strip, where it runs into channels that contain antibody-covered electrodes. The antibodies are specific for CIP2A, and antibody binding changes the electrical signal the electrodes produce, providin...
Source: Medgadget - January 5, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics ENT Oncology oral cancer UF uflorida Source Type: blogs
Optogenetics Tech for Long-Term Changes in Neuronal Excitability
Scientists at MIT have developed an optogenetics technique that can lead to long-term changes in neuronal excitability by altering neuronal membrane capacitance. Unlike conventional optogenetics, which involves using light to rapidly activate ion channels on engineered neurons, the new technique relies on a light-sensitive reaction to increase the presence of conductive or insulating polymers in the cell membrane. The method creates long-term changes in neuronal excitability, and does not require continuous illumination to maintain these changes. The method is primarily intended as a research tool that can increase our und...
Source: Medgadget - January 5, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Genetics Neurology Neurosurgery Source Type: blogs
Microbial Fuel Cell Powers Ingestible Devices
Researchers at Binghamton University have developed a microbial fuel cell that can power ingestible devices, such as cameras, that can detect health issues in the gastrointestinal tract, and specifically within the small intestine. The fuel cell contains dormant Bacillus subtilis endospores that only germinate and become active when they encounter nutrient-rich intestinal fluid. Another check on activity is a pH-sensitive membrane that only allows the fuel cell to activate when it reaches the neutral pH of the small intestine. The technology may provide an alternative to conventional batteries that could pose a health risk...
Source: Medgadget - December 27, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: GI binghamtonu Source Type: blogs
