PatchAssist Laparoscopic Hernia Mesh Placement Tool Gets US Green Light

Story From Medgadget

PatchAssist Laparoscopic Hernia Mesh Placement Tool Gets US Green Light: "

Israel's PolyTouch Medical has received FDA clearance to market its PatchAssist laparoscopic hernia mesh placement device. The tool was developed to allow surgeons a more predictable and standardized approach to apply hernia patches.

Realizing the need for an accurate and easy mesh deployment and placement technique, PolyTouch Medical has developed PatchAssist, a novel mesh deployment and placement technique for laparoscopic hernia repair.

PatchAssist easily unfolds the mesh inside the abdominal cavity, accurately places the mesh over the hernia defect and enables surgeon to verify the mesh position before attachment is made.

Patch Assist does not change laparoscopic techniques used today by surgeons, rather it eliminates manual, complicated, and time consuming tasks.

Advantages:

Accurate mesh positioning reduces the risk of hernia recurrence.

Quicker mesh deployment and placement reduces operation time by 30% - 50%.

Simplified current laparoscopic technique and rapid adoption.

Globes [online]: PolyTouch gains FDA nod...

Product page: PatchAssist...

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Medical devices could be powered by nanowire generators and the human heart

STORY FROM Engadget Alt

Do ya'll see the theme here? Nanotechnology along with disruptive innovation in delivery of medicine can save healthcare. Now... that's if the economy can hold itself together.

Medical devices could be powered by nanowire generators and the human heart: "

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are getting to the heart of the matter, developing nanowire generators which could power medical devices inside a patient that are powered by the patient's own heart. The team -- led by Zhong Lin Wang --first demonstrated working nanowires back in 2005, and have since demo'd the wired generators being powered by a running hamster, tapping fingers, and piezoelectric solar cells. In the most recent and interesting turn of events Zhong and company have just demonstrated the nanowires functioning inside of a living animal (in this case, a rat). These zinc oxide nanogenerators could be ideally suited to as the power source for things like glucose level monitors and blood pressure in the somewhat near future. The ultimate goal, Zhong says, is to make what are essentially self-powered medical devices. Sounds a little creepy, if you ask us, but it's probably better than a hamster running in a wheel powering your pacemaker, right?

Medical devices could be powered by nanowire generators and the human heart originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nanoparticles Predict Return of Prostate Cancer

STORY FROM Medgadget

Nanoparticles Predict Return of Prostate Cancer: "

At Northwestern University researchers have been testing a nanoparticle technology to predict the recurrence of prostate cancer. The underlying technology was developed at Northwestern, and is now being moved toward commercialization by Nanosphere out of Northbrook, Illinois. The latest results, just presented at the American Urological Association 2010 Annual Meeting, show a PSA sensitivity 300 times greater than that of currently available tests.

More about the technology and findings from a Northwestern announcement:

PSA is a protein normally secreted out of the prostate cells into the semen in high concentrations. Usually, very little diffuses into the blood stream, and the normal PSA value for men without prostate disease is less than 2 nanograms per milliliter. When the prostate gland has a disease process, such as inflammation, benign enlargement, or cancer, the barriers to PSA diffusion into the blood stream are breached, and PSA levels rise. In a man who has his cancerous prostate removed, there should be no PSA in the blood except for a minute amount produced by the periurethral glands. However, any PSA produced by cancer recurrence ends up in the blood stream and can be detected earlier with the more sensitive nanotechnology PSA assay.

For the new study, researchers obtained blood serum retrospectively from men whose PSA serum samples had been frozen after surgery and whose assays (blood analysis) showed an undetectable PSA level based on the conventional test. Northwestern researchers then tested those serum samples using the more sensitive nanotechnology-based test. They wanted to see if they could detect PSA at levels below the limit of the conventional test, and if those results could predict the cancer outcome for those patients, who were followed for up to 10 years.

Using the new test, Thaxton [C. Shad Thaxton, assistant professor of urology] and colleagues found that the low and non-rising PSA levels (presumably produced by the normal periurethral glands) of patients meant that the prostate cancer was effectively cured and did not return over a period of at least 10 years. Scientists also found a PSA level higher than that expected from the periurethral glands based on the new test meant the patients would have their disease recur.

As result of the study, researchers were able to assign a PSA level number to a cure for the first time, as well as a number that indicated the disease would recur and if it would recur aggressively. These newly identified levels were below what could have been detected with the conventional PSA test. The researchers were able to quantify PSA values at less than 0.1 nanograms per milliliter, the clinical limit of detection for commercial assays.

Press release: Nanoparticle PSA Test Predicts if Prostate Cancer Will Return...

Nanosphere technology backgrounder...

Product page: Nanosphere's Verigene nanoparticles...

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Nanotattoo Monitors Blood Glucose, Looks Cool

It remains so clear to me that nano technology is the future that will save medicine. It will change the economics of the diagnostic tests that we so heavily rely upon.

Story From Medgadget

Nanotattoo Monitors Blood Glucose, Looks Cool: "

Millions of people suffering from diabetes are forced to endure multiple finger pricks daily - an unpleasant practice that may impede compliance, and whose reliability is operator-dependent. Now, Dr. Paul Barone and Dr. Michael Strano at the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering are developing a new approach to glucose monitoring. Building on work they previously published in ACS Nano, the new technology employs a nanoparticle 'tattoo' as a glucose sensor, which can then be continuously monitored by a device on the surface of the body.

More from MIT:

The sensor is based on carbon nanotubes wrapped in a polymer that is sensitive to glucose concentrations. When this sensor encounters glucose, the nanotubes fluoresce, which can be detected by shining near-infrared light on them. Measuring the amount of fluorescence reveals the concentration of glucose.

The researchers plan to create an “ink” of these nanoparticles suspended in a saline solution that could be injected under the skin like a tattoo. The “tattoo” would last for a specified length of time, probably six months, before needing to be refreshed.

To get glucose readings, the patient would wear a monitor that shines near-infrared light on the tattoo and detects the resulting fluorescence. One advantage of this type of sensor is that, unlike some fluorescent molecules, carbon nanotubes aren’t destroyed by light exposure. “You can shine the light as long as you want, and the intensity won’t change,” says Barone. Because of this, the sensor can give continuous readings.

Press release: 'Tattoo' may help diabetics track their blood sugar

Abstract in ACS Nano: Modulation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Photoluminescence by Hydrogel Swelling

Graphic: Christine Daniloff

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