Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2023 - 34

Sensors
takes about 10 minutes to obtain the results,
but the researchers are now working
on improving the signal-to-noise ratio of
the detector, which could help to reduce
the amount of time it takes.
The current version of the sensor can
scan to a depth of about 6 mm below the
skin, which is enough to monitor the
mouse liver or human skeletal muscle.
The researchers are now working on designing
a new version that can penetrate
deeper below the tissue, to allow them to
test the liver diagnosis application in human
patients.
If this type of NMR sensor could be deMIT
engineers have developed a diagnostic tool, based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), that
could be used to detect fatty liver disease and liver fibrosis. (Image: MIT)
toms that include not only jaundice but
also fatigue and abdominal swelling. A
biopsy is needed to confirm the diagnosis,
but this is an invasive procedure and
may not be accurate if the biopsy sample
is taken from a part of the liver that is
not fibrotic.
To create an easier way to check for
this kind of liver disease, Cima and his
colleagues had the idea of adapting a
detector that they had previously developed
to measure hydration levels before
and after patients undergo dialysis.
That detector measures fluid volume in
patients' skeletal muscle by using NMR
to track changes in the magnetic properties
of hydrogen atoms of water in the
muscle tissue.
The researchers thought that a similar
detector could be used for identifying liver
disease because water diffuses more
slowly when it encounters fatty tissue or
fibrosis. Tracking how water moves
through tissue over time can reveal how
much fatty or scarred tissue is present.
" If you watch how the magnetization
changes, you can model how fast the
protons are moving, " Cima said. " Those
cases where the magnetization doesn't
go away very fast would be ones where
the diffusivity was low, and they would be
the most fibrotic. "
In a study of mice, the researchers
showed that their detector could identify
fibrosis with 86 percent accuracy, and fatty
liver disease with 92 percent accuracy. It
Suture of the Future Fights Infection
The smart bandage can dispense antibiotics, monitor wound-healing biomarkers, and report
important data directly to doctors.
Technion Haifa, Israel
I
t is a staple of science fiction to mock
sutures as outdated. The technique
has, after all, been in use for at least
5,000 years. Surely medicine should
have advanced since ancient Egypt.
Professor Hossam Haick from the
Wolfson department of chemical engineering
at the Technion has finally
turned science fiction into reality. His
lab created a smart, suture-less dressing
34
that not only binds wounds together,
but also wards off infection and reports
the wound's condition directly to doctors'
computers. The study was published
in Advanced Materials.
Current surgical procedures entail
the surgeon cutting the human body,
doing what needs to be done, and sewing
the wound shut - an invasive procedure
that damages surrounding
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healthy tissue. Some sutures degrade by
themselves - or should degrade - as
the wound heals. Others need to be
manually removed. Dressing is then applied
over the wound and medical personnel
monitor the wound by removing
the dressing to allow observation for
signs of infection like swelling, redness,
and heat. This procedure is painful to
the patient, and disruptive to healing,
Tech Briefs, March 2023
veloped for use in patients, it could help to
identify people in danger of developing fibrosis,
or in the early stages of fibrosis, so
they could be treated earlier, Cima said.
Fibrosis can't be reversed, but it can be
halted or slowed down through dietary
changes and exercise. Having this type of
diagnostic available could also aid in drugdevelopment
efforts, because it could allow
doctors to more easily identify patients with
fibrosis and monitor their response to potential
new treatments, Cima said.
Another potential application for this
kind of sensor is to evaluate human livers
for transplant. In this study, the re searchers
tested the monitor on human liver tissue
and found that it could detect fibrosis with
93 percent accuracy.
The research was funded by the Koch
Institute Support (core) Grant from the
National Cancer Institute, the National
Institutes of Health, a Fannie and John
Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship,
and a National Science Foundation
Graduate Fellowship.
For more information, contact Abby
Abazorius at abbya@mit.edu; 617-2532709.

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Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2023

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