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Why bother with risky battery-changing surgical operations when your own cardiovascular system can provide all the power your heart-shocking pacemaker will ever need? Engineers at Switzerland’s University of Bern have been working on tiny turbines; turbines small enough, in fact, to fit inside a human artery. Working like a blood powered hydroelectric generator, a working prototype — tested in a simulated artery — has been able to produce 800 microwatts of electricity. That’s roughly eighty times the power required to power the average pacemaker; such a device could provide independent, sustainable power to neurostimulators, blood-pressure sensors, and other implanted medical gizmos. Researchers are concerned, however, that a blood turbine’s adding agitation of blood flow might lead to clotting, and are continuing to tweak and rework the design to minimize this risk. Similar, but unrelated cardiovascular power designs have attempted to alleviate the concern by doing away with the rotating, fluid powered components, opting to generate electricity by oscillating magnets by utilizing changes in blood pressure — which sounds awesome, but still falls shy of “blood turbine,” in the contest for most Metal medical device.

Blood turbine to power your pacemaker, become legendary band name originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 08:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Move over, Canon, because scientists at the University of Lincoln have just seized the crown for world’s biggest CMOS image sensor with their new Dynamic range Adjustable for Medical Imaging Technology microchip — or ‘DyNAMITe,’ for short. Measuring a hefty 12.8 square cm (or about five square inches), DyNAMITe is roughly 200 times bigger than the chips you’d find in most PCs, making it the largest imager ever made on a wafer of standard, eight-inch diameter. This extra girth allows the active pixel sensor to capture images in high detail, with a 100-micrometer pitch boasting 1280 x 1280p aligned next to a 50-micron layer, carrying 2560 x 2560p. DyNAMITe can also run at up to 90fps and withstand high levels of radiation for several years, making it ideal for medical imaging, including radiotherapy and mammography. Researchers say these enhanced images could help doctors detect cancer in its earliest phases, while allowing them to monitor radiotherapy treatments more closely. No word on when we should expect to see DyNAMITe pop up in hospitals (or a Hasselblad back), but physicists at the Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital are busy looking for other, potentially life-saving applications. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading World’s biggest CMOS sensor could help doctors detect and treat cancer

World’s biggest CMOS sensor could help doctors detect and treat cancer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 09:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The scientific community has spent a decade exploring ultrasound as a means of breaking through the blood-brain barrier — a layer of tightly-packed cells that surround the brain‘s blood vessels, making it difficult for doctors to deliver chemotherapy and other treatments to cancer patients. Thus far, though, most ultrasound-based techniques have relied upon complex and often costly equipment, including MRI machines and infusion pumps. But researchers at a startup called Perfusion Technology think they may have come up with a less invasive, more cost-effective alternative — a new headset designed to deliver low-intensity ultrasound therapy to the entire brain over the course of extended treatment periods. This approach differs markedly from most other methods, which typically target smaller areas of the brain with high-intensity ultrasound doses. As with most other potential breakthroughs, however, Perfusion’s technique still needs to undergo some major testing. The company has already conducted several tests on animals, but the last time a similar method was tried on humans, many subjects ended up suffering from excessive bleeding. And that doesn’t sound good at all.

Startup’s headset will bathe your brain in ultrasound, might help fight cancer, too originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen robots that perform brain surgery and lasers that cook tumors, and now a team of researchers are well on their way to bringing mobility to the battle against brain cancer. The NovoTTF-100A, which just received FDA approval, is basically a set of insulated electrodes, attached to an electronic box, that pumps low intensity electrical fields to the site of a freshly diagnosed GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) tumor. The fields, known as Tumor Treatment Fields (TTF), play off the electrically charged elements of cancer cells to stunt the tumor’s growth, and may in some cases actually reverse it. A recent test of the system showed comparable results to chemotherapy, without the usual lineup of side effects, including nausea, anemia, fatigue, and infection. Given, patients using the system are expected to wear the thing continuously, but we’d say walking around with a cap full of electrodes is a small price to pay for giving cancer the boot. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Portable brain tumor treatment system kills cancer while you take out the trash

Portable brain tumor treatment system kills cancer while you take out the trash originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Disabled users have long been able to control computers with just the flick of an eye, but those hardware and software packages are prohibitively expensive. Heck, the surprisingly accurate Tobii PCEye is a veritable steal at $6,900. And, while we can’t vouch for its usability, engineering students at Brigham Young University have managed an impressive feat, by whipping up an eye-tracking Windows 7 tablet that costs under $1,500. The system was created as part of a partnership with EyeTech Digital Systems, which plans to market the devices in parts of the world where other eye-tracking solutions are unaffordable — like just about anywhere the roads aren’t paved with gold. We could even see a few able-bodied (but incredibly lazy) bloggers getting some use out of this — mornings around here would be a lot easier if we could double-fist piping hot coffee mugs while typing with our eyeballs.

Continue reading Students create affordable eye-tracking tablet for the disabled

Students create affordable eye-tracking tablet for the disabled originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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