Medical Design Briefs - April 2023 - 26

Wearable Sensor Uses Ultrasound to Provide
Cardiac Imaging 'On the Go'
The portable device
works even during
strenuous exercise.
UC San Diego
San Diego, CA
Engineers and physicians have developed
a wearable ultrasound device that
can assess both the structure and function
of the human heart. The portable
device, which is roughly the size of a
postage stamp, can be worn for up to 24
hours and works even during strenuous
exercise.
The goal is to make ultrasound more
accessible to a larger population, says
Sheng Xu, a professor of nanoengineering
at the University of California San Diego,
who is leading the project. Currently,
echocardiograms - ultrasound examinations
for
the heart - require highly
trained technicians and bulky devices.
" The technology enables anybody to use
ultrasound imaging on the go, " Xu says.
Thanks to custom AI algorithms, the
device is capable of measuring how
much blood the heart is pumping. This
is important because the heart not
pumping enough blood is at the root of
most cardiovascular diseases. And issues
with heart function often manifest only
when the body is in motion. The work is
described the journal Nature.
Cardiac imaging is an essential clinical
tool to assess long-term heart health, detect
problems as they arise and care for critically
ill patients. A new wearable, non-invasive
heart monitor for humans provides real-time,
automated insights on the difficult-to-capture
pumping activity of the
heart - even when a person is exercising.
The wearable heart monitoring system
uses ultrasound to continuously capture
images of the four chambers of the heart
in different angles and analyze a clinically
relevant subset of the images in real
time using a custom-built AI technology.
The project builds on the team's previous
advances in wearable imaging technologies
for deep tissues.
" The increasing risk of heart diseases
calls for more advanced and inclusive
monitoring procedures, " Xu says. " By providing
patients and doctors with more
thorough details, continuous and real26
The
unique design of the sensor makes it ideal for bodies in motion. (Credit: David Baillot, Jacobs
School of Engineering, UC San Diego)
Hongjie Hu in the lab. (Credit: David Baillot, Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego)
time cardiac image monitoring is poised
to fundamentally optimize and reshape
the paradigm of cardiac diagnoses. "
In comparison, existing non-invasive
methods have limited sampling capabilities
and provide limited data. The wearable
technology developed by Xu's team enables
safe, noninvasive, and high-quality
cardiac imaging, resulting in images with
high spatial resolution, temporal resoluwww.medicaldesignbriefs.com
tion
and contrast. " It also minimizes patient
discomfort and overcomes some limitations
of noninvasive technologies such as
CT and PET, which could expose patients
to radiation, " says Hao Huang, a PhD student
in the Xu group at UC San Diego.
The unique design of the sensor makes
it ideal for bodies in motion. " The device
can be attached to the chest with minimal
constraint to the subjects' moveMedical
Design Briefs, April 2023

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Medical Design Briefs - April 2023

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