• Home

Latest Medical Technology

• Engineers Have Big Ideas for the Latest in Medical Scanners

  14Aug
  Categories: Developmental stage, Diagnostics, Hearing Technology, Imaging, Information, Management and Treatment, News and Updates, Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines Comments: 0

  
  Image Source:www.ex-astris-scientia.org

  Rutherford-Appleton Laboratories have developed one of the World´s largest imagers that could form the heart of future medical scanners. The new technology will allow doctors to produce more sensitive and faster images of the human body at a lower-cost to the healthcare profession.

  The innovative technology, which has been developed as part of the £4.5m Basic Technology MI-3 Consortium, will help in providing instant analysis of medical screening tests and the early detection of cancer.

  Easier to use and faster than the imagers used in current body scanners, and with very large active pixel sensors with an imaging area of approximately 6cm square, the technology has been specifically developed to meet demanding clinical applications such as x-ray imaging and mammography. This silicon imager is about 15 times larger in area than the latest Intel processors.

  The next step of the project is to produce wafer-scale imagers which can produce images that approach the width of the human torso. This will eliminate the need for expensive and inefficient lenses and so enable lower-cost, more sensitive and faster medical imaging systems. Very large active pixel sensors could soon be making a major impact on medical imaging by further reducing the need for the old technology of film. The UK is a World-lead in such sensors for scientific and medical applications and this is a lead that UK intends to maintain.

• New Alzheimer’s Treatment

  22Apr
  Categories: Management and Treatment Comments: 0

  

  A new treatment that underwent clinical trial for a year has proven to be safe and helped reduce the progress of the disease. Researchers from Purdue University designed a molecule that inhibits the eventual formation of amyloid plaque in the brain, which causes the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. This is developed into a drug which was given to volunteers for clinical trial in 2007. The levels of protein amyloid beta is measured in plasma, and is considered a biomarker. Reduction of this protein indicates the effectiveness of the new drug. A second clinical trial is scheduled this year.

  Alzheimer’s disease shows its symptoms usually after the age of 60.

  (source)

• LASIK

  28Feb
  Categories: Management and Treatment Comments: 0

  
  LASIK means Laser-Assisted in situ Keratomileusis, which is a refractive laser eye surgery done by opthalmologists to treat patients with astigmatism, myopia and hyperopia. This procedure results to less pain and faster healing period compared with other procedures like photorefractive keratectomy. With a successful LASIK surgery, a patient regains a healthy eyesight, and need not use corrective eye glasses or contact lenses.

  The procedure has three stages: the pre-operative stage where the patient’s cornea is examined to determine the area from which tissue will be removed; the operation proper where a flap of the corneal tissue is created to allow the surgeon to remodel the cornea with a laser; and the post-operative stage where the patient’s recovery is ensured by protective goggles and medications to avoid infections.

  (source)

• Brain cooler for heart attack victims?

  15Feb
  Categories: Management and Treatment, News and Updates Comments: 0

  
  A portable ‘brain cooler’ could help save the lives of many cardiac patients for whom current treatment is ineffective.

  Thousands of people suffer heart attacks each year, but only 5 to 10 per cent of people are successfully resuscitated. A defibrillator machine, which delivers electric shocks, is usually used to get the heart to restart.

  Brain cooling is being heralded as the technology with the greatest potential to improve survival rates.

  Two studies in 2002, published in the New England Journal Of Medicine, established the importance of body cooling after cardiac arrest. Researchers found patients whose bodies were cooled had improved survival rates and that their brains functioned better in the months following the arrest.

  A new portable cooling device, called the BeneChill, can be used conveniently and easily, even without medical training.

  The device was invented by Dr Denise Barbut, a UK-trained neurologist now living in New York. She took advantage of the unique anatomy of the nose, which contains many blood vessels designed to warm the air you breathe in.

  The device uses perfluorochemicals (PFCs) chemicals already widely used in eye surgery and for liquid ventilation of the lungs that are stored in small canisters and delivered to the nose in a fine mist through a nasal tube inserted into each nostril.

  Once PFCs hit the back of the nose, they evaporate and remove heat from the nose. The resulting temperature drop transfers directly to the brain, which lies adjacent to the nasal cavity. BeneChill can achieve a two degree drop in one hour up to six times faster than many other available methods.

  (Source)

• Less-invasive lung cancer removal

  08Feb
  Categories: Management and Treatment Comments: 0

  Lung cancer removal requires a patient to stay in the hospital for a week to recover. The traditional method used is open thoractomy incision where muscles are split and the ribs are spread to reach the lungs. Recently, a less invasive method has been developed and is being practiced to remove the cancerous cells. The procedure is called thorascopic lobectomy where only three small incisions are made and special instruments are inserted in the body to reach the lungs. A camera guides the doctors to the tumor, using a bag to remove the latter. Spreading of cancer cells is prevented. This procedure is done on patients with Stage one or Stage two lung cancer that has not yet spread.

  (source)