Archive for October, 2008
Card-Swiping For Medical Tests
by andreas on Oct.30, 2008, under general research
Marc Porter and Michael Granger sit next to the test station that uses card-swiping technology to test blood, saliva, urine or other fluids for disease-related substances. Image Courtesy of Eric Dufek, University of Utah
Researchers at the University of Utah have created a sensitive prototype device that could be used to test for up to hundreds of diseases simultaneously using a credit card-swipe machine to scan a card loaded with microscopic body-fluid samples.
The device works uses the principle of giant magnetoresistance, which is also utilized to read data from computer hard drives or portable digital music players.
“Think how fast your PC reads data on a hard drive, and imagine using the same technology to monitor your health,” says Marc Porter, a Utah Science, Technology and Research professor of chemistry, chemical engineering and bioengineering.
“You can envision this as a wellness check in which a patient sample – blood, urine, saliva – is spotted on a sample stick or card, scanned, and then the readout indicates your state of well-being,” says USTAR research scientist Michael Granger, a co-author of the research. “We have a great sensor able to look for many disease markers.”
More information on this research is available here.
Using Ultrasound To Treat Pain
by andreas on Oct.29, 2008, under medical devices
The PainShield MD from NanoVibronix
NanoVibronix has introduced a patch-based therapeutic ultrasound system to treat pain. Known as the PainShield MD, the device is a portable, battery-powered electronic unit connected to a disposable patch, which is used to deliver ultrasonic waves to treat localized pain and induce soft tissue healing. Recently cleared by the FDA, the pocket-sized device is designed to be easy to operate. In tests, it has shown to be suited for a range of applications such as reducing acute and chronic pain and for reducing inflammation.
French Scientists Develop Artificial Heart
by admin on Oct.28, 2008, under cardiology
A photo of the artificial heart.
A team of researchers, led by Dr. Alain Carpentier of the Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris, have reportedly developed the most-advanced artificial human heart even developed. Said to beat almost like an actual heart, the device provides hope to the thousands of patients in need of a heart transplant or other treatment.
New Down Syndrom Screening MethodTo Be Tested
by admin on Oct.28, 2008, under general research
DNA
According to Market Watch, San Diego-based company Sequenom has launched an independent multi-center observational study to test the performance of one of its products to screen for Down Syndrom.
According to the company’s press release:
The 16-month RNA Study will evaluate the SEQureDx T21 technology performance by obtaining blood samples from up to 10,000 pregnant women in high prevalence pregnancies late in the first trimester to be confirmed by chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or early second trimester to be confirmed by amniocentesis. The study will include 30 worldwide clinical sites and three independent laboratory sites. The study…is aimed at producing sufficient data for submission to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.
Current screening technology for Down syndrome includes serum marker analysis, such as the quad screen and first trimester combined screening that combines serum marker testing with nuchal translucency. These approaches have detection or sensitivity rates of 80% and 85% to 87%, respectively, which means that between 13% and 20% of all Down syndrome-affected pregnancies will not be identified as needing further evaluation. In addition, these approaches also have false positive rates of between 5% to 10%, resulting in hundreds of unnecessary, highly invasive CVS or amniocentesis procedures. These invasive procedures, which are used to determine whether the fetus has Down syndrome, carry a risk of miscarriage in the range of one-in-100 to one-in-300.
Wiring Neurons To Computer-Circuit Components
by andreas on Oct.28, 2008, under brain research
The New Scientist recently published an article on engineers who have interfaced neurons with computer circuits. The brain is a fascinating web of dense neural connections but the brain can be unreliable. As the article points out: “one neuron can successfully provoke a signal in another only 40% of the time.”
So what if scientists could improve the brain’s neural network using silicon-based technology? That has, so far, been an elusive goal that, once achieved, cuold be used to treat a variety of diseases associated with damaged nervous systems.
Engineers working with neurons in the lab have built reliable digital logic gates that perform like those inside electronics.
The starting point is a glass plate coated with cell-repellent material. The desired circuit pattern is scratched into this coating and then coated with a cell-friendly adhesive. Unable to gain purchase on most of the plate, the cells are forced to grow in the scratched areas.
The scratched paths are thin enough to force the neurons to grow along them in one direction only, forming straight wire-like connections around the circuit.
Using this method the researchers built a device that acts like an AND logic gate, producing an output only when it receives two inputs.
