Pump to Push Drugs Through Microneedle Patch

Story from Medgadget:

Pump to Push Drugs Through Microneedle Patch: "

Many drugs that would benefit from transdermal delivery are either made of molecules too large to penetrate the skin or are hydrophilic and so don't absorb very well. To overcome these limitations, Purdue University scientists have created a pump to literally push drugs through microneedles of 20 micron diameter. The pump requires no batteries and is activated by pushing your finger against it for about twenty seconds.

The pump contains a liquid that boils at body temperature so that the heat from a finger's touch causes it to rapidly turn to a vapor, exerting enough pressure to force drugs through the microneedles.

The liquid is contained in a pouch separated from the drug by a thin membrane made of a rubberlike polymer, called polydimethylsiloxane, which is used as diaphragms in pumps.

Researchers have filed an application for a provisional patent on the device.

Ziaie has tested prototypes with liquids called fluorocarbons, which are used as refrigerants and also in semiconductor manufacturing.

Press release: New pump created for microneedle drug-delivery patch

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First Real-Time MRI of Moving Organs and Joints

Story from Medgadget:

First Real-Time MRI of Moving Organs and Joints: "

Moving MRI images of the heart and other organs are nothing new. However, up until now these were always reconstructed afterwards by combining signals and images from the same cardiac phase acquired during breath-holding into the resulting images. Researchers at the Max Planck in Göttingen have now proven it is possible to acquire images in real-time with up to fifty frames per second. Previously it was only possible to acquire images at a maximum rate of about one per second. They have used a combination of fast low angle shot (FLASH) gradient-echo imaging sequences, radial encoding and an iterative image reconstruction by regularized nonlinear inversion to greatly speed up imaging acquisition. The main improvement lays in the iterative reconstruction which has previously been used for reducing CT radiation dose, but has now shown to be very useful in MRI as well. For example, the images of a cross-section of the heart shown above were acquired at 33 milliseconds per image giving a framerate of 30 images per second, with an in-plane resolution of 1.5 millimeters and a slice thickness of 8 millimeters. Linked in the press release is a video of the beating heart and an impressive movie of movements during speech production. The possibility to do real-time dynamic imaging opens up a lot of new opportunities for MR imaging, including, for example, swallowing studies, cardiac and abdominal imaging without breath-holding and interventional procedures using MRI. In principle this technique is possible to implement on most current scanners, however the main limitation is the amount of computing power required to perform the real-time reconstruction. Currently one minute of images requires half an hour to process. However, the authors expect improvements in the image reconstruction algorithms for parallelized GPU's and other improvements to reduce reconstruction time and improve image quality. The results are published online in the journal NMR in Biomedicine.

Make sure to check out this jaw dropping video:

Press release: Going live to the beating heart...

Article abstract: Real-time MRI at a resolution of 20 ms...

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Equinox's SutureAssist Aims to Improve Surgical Workflow and Patient Safety

Reduce operative time by up to 30 percent?

Improve Patient Safety?

Decrease malpractice?

Decrease liability?

Reduces trauma and bleeding?

Wow... Does it also wash the dishes?

It's a box!

Maybe this company would like to show this surgeon the data. Personally, I find this type of marketing insulting to my intelligence. I think the product is nifty. I would maybe even find it nice to use. But after watching this video ... not a chance.

Story from Medgadget:

Equinox's SutureAssist Aims to Improve Surgical Workflow and Patient Safety: "

Reno, NV based Equinox Surgical Solutions has launched the SutureAssist, a device which allows for easier one-handed retrieval of sutures during surgery by holding suture trays in place. Equinox claims that using the device can reduce operative time by up to 30 percent (!?), which, if true, can translate to greater patient safety and cost savings for both patients and hospitals.

From the product page:

SutureAssist™ is a unique, stable, housing device for the retention and dispensing of prepared needles and sutures. As the needle trays are secured within the SutureAssist™, the scrub tech, with a single hand and without movement of the suture tray and needles, can confidently use the needle-driver to dislodge the needle, free from twisted or entangled sutures.

Through its ergonomic design as a needle park, SutureAssist™, was engineered to facilitate in providing the surgeon with the armed needle-holder and solves the problem of quickly dislodging the needle from the lightweight tray without disturbing its position on the Mayo stand.

Press release: Equinox Surgical Solutions Launches Flagship Product, SutureAssist®...

Product page: SutureAssist™...

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MIT Researchers Use Raman Spectroscopy for Noninvasive Blood Glucose Measurements

Story from Medgadget:

MIT Researchers Use Raman Spectroscopy for Noninvasive Blood Glucose Measurements: "

Researchers at MIT's Spectroscopy Laboratory have announced that they are currently working on a Raman spectroscopy machine which can measure blood glucose without a blood sample. The machine sends infrared light through the skin to determine glucose levels in the interstitial fluid. In a paper published in the July 15 issue of Analytical Chemistry, the researchers described their algorithm for determining blood glucose levels based on the interstitial concentration.

From MIT's press release:

Researchers in the Spectroscopy Lab have been developing this technology for about 15 years. One of the major obstacles they have faced is that near-infrared light penetrates only about half a millimeter below the skin, so it measures the amount of glucose in the fluid that bathes skin cells (known as interstitial fluid), not the amount in the blood. To overcome this, the team came up with an algorithm that relates the two concentrations, allowing them to predict blood glucose levels from the glucose concentration in interstitial fluid.

However, this calibration becomes more difficult immediately after the patient eats or drinks something sugary, because blood glucose soars rapidly, while it takes five to 10 minutes to see a corresponding surge in the interstitial fluid glucose levels. Therefore, interstitial fluid measurements do not give an accurate picture of what's happening in the bloodstream.

To address that lag time, Barman and Kong developed a new calibration method, called Dynamic Concentration Correction (DCC), which incorporates the rate at which glucose diffuses from the blood into the interstitial fluid. In a study of 10 healthy volunteers, the researchers used DCC-calibrated Raman spectroscopy to significantly boost the accuracy of blood glucose measurements - an average improvement of 15 percent, and up to 30 percent in some subjects.

Press release: Shining a light - literally - on diabetes...

Abstract of the researchers' paper: Accurate Spectroscopic Calibration for Noninvasive Glucose Monitoring by Modeling the Physiological Glucose Dynamics

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Implantable blood sugar sensor could eliminate daily finger pricks

Can you imagine a bunch of diabetics running around glowing green?... hmmmmm..

Story from Engadget:

Implantable blood sugar sensor could eliminate daily finger pricks: "

Science has been figuring out ways to sidestep those dreaded finger pricks for years now, but it's not often that we hear of such a permanent solution as this. A crew of researchers from The University of Tokyo and BEANS Research Institute are in the process of developing a newfangled blood sugar sensor that 'reacts to glucose and lights up inside the body.' 'Course, injecting dyes into humans in order to receive interpretable signals ain't exactly new, but hydrogel is what makes this approach unique. As the story goes, this jelly-esque material can be implanted within the body, enabling blood sugar levels to be monitored and measured externally with no pain or irritation whatsoever. In theory, a monitoring system could trigger an alert as soon as the internal levels dipped or rose beyond a predetermined extreme, giving those with diabetes a maximum amount of time to get things back in balance. There's nary a mention of when this goo will be green-lit by the FDA, but there's definitely a video explaining everything just past the break.

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Implantable blood sugar sensor could eliminate daily finger pricks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 06:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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