Medical Design Briefs - January 2024 - 23

n Resorbable Scaffold
Outperforms Angioplasty
In patients with severe artery blockage
in the lower leg, an arterysupporting
device called a resorbable
scaffold is superior to angioplasty,
n Multimodal GrapheneBased
E-Textiles
which has been the standard treatment. A resorbable scaffold is
a stent-like structure that props the artery open but is biodegradable
and dissolves within a few years, avoiding some of
the potential complications of a permanent stent.
The researchers compared the insertion of a resorbable scaffold
- imbued with a drug to reduce the chance of reblockage
- to standard angioplasty in 261 patients with severe artery
disease below the knee. They found that 74 percent of the patients
who received the resorbable scaffold avoided a bad outcome
such as leg amputation or new artery-opening intervention
in the year after the procedure, compared with 44 percent
of patients who underwent angioplasty.
Resorbable scaffolds that slowly release inflammationsuppressing
compounds are already used to treat coronary artery
blockages, and some initial studies have suggested that
they might be more effective than angioplasty for lower-leg artery
disease. Scaffolds provide direct mechanical support to
diseased arteries for much longer, compared to angioplasty.
They also dissolve eventually, unlike permanent stents which
can accelerate artery re-blockage by their long-term contact
with artery walls and can complicate future interventions.
Scaffold insertion also appeared to be as safe as angioplasty,
in terms of procedure-related complications. (Image credit:
Shutterstock)
For more information, visit www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/
roundup/0124/scaffold.
n Soft Robotic System for Brain
Surgery
Researchers have laid the groundwork
for a soft robotic tool and control
system that could grant surgeons an unprecedented
degree of maneuverability
within the brain. A recent study demonstrates that the new system
is both intuitive and highly accurate. The early results suggest
that, with further development, the robot could one day speed up
and improve the efficacy of minimally invasive surgeries for
life-threatening brain aneurysms and other serious conditions.
The researchers designed an air pressure operated - or
pneumatic - catheter tip which they 3D printed using a soft and
flexible resin. The design includes two hollow channels running
in parallel along the length of the tip, which, if pressurized individually,
causes the tip to deflect to either the left or the right.
While the catheter tip itself was inspired by existing designs,
the authors sought to address a need that those previous robotic
systems had not yet tackled - a control system that would fit
well into the current clinical workflow. The researchers intend
to increase their design's functionality by adding tips in series,
which could allow the device to bend into more complicated
shapes and navigate difficult vascular environments. (Image
credit: Noah Barnes, PhD Student, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Johns Hopkins University)
For more information, visit www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/
roundup/0124/soft-robotic.
Medical Design Briefs, January 2024
Instead of using toxic chemicals
or optical masks for patterning,
a research team used laser
direct patterning technology to
form laser-induced graphene
(LIG) on e-textiles and successfully manufactured graphenebased
e-textiles.
Laser direct patterning technology refers to the technology
used for making patterns for functional materials by irradiating
laser onto the surface of the garment so that the materials of
only the parts reached by the laser are converted. When
high-power laser is irradiated to the surface of a polymer film
or a garment, the light energy is converted into thermal energy
on the surface and a carbon material is instantly fabricated on
the part where the laser is irradiated.
By using the newly developed technology, high-quality LIG
materials can be manufactured simply by irradiating laser onto
the surface of fabrics. A major advantage of this technology is
that e-textiles can be manufactured in an environmentally
friendly manner, as neither the use of chemicals nor any additional
processing is required.
The newly developed technology can be used in the future
for manufacturing industrial and military clothes for personal
health management and also for producing customized " smart "
clothes in the healthcare sector. (Image credit: KIMM-KAIST)
For more information, visit www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/
roundup/0124/e-textiles.
n Sensors Measure Uric Acid
Levels
Researchers have invented sensorbased
noninvasive medical devices to
make the monitoring and treatment
of certain physiological and psychological
conditions timelier and more precise.
Noninvasive, repeated monitoring of uric acid (UA) levels in
human sweat over long periods of time could enable the unprecedented
diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis of several conditions
including anxiety and hypertension.
The team developed EPICS, which are flexible and noninvasive
sensors that monitor uric acid in human sweat. They created
the sensors from zinc oxide, a nontoxic, biocompatible and
electrochemically active material.
The design allows the possibility of noninvasive monitoring
of UA with a boosted performance by otherwise wasted mechanical
energy, such as that from the human body. The fundamental
piezo-electrocatalytic principles can also be extended
to other piezoelectric materials with catalytic properties for
high-performance sensing in the biomedical, pharmaceutical
and agricultural areas.
They demonstrated that the EPICS devices achieve a fourfold
enhancement in the UA sensing performance with a small
compressive strain boosted by piezo-electrocatalysis during the
electrochemical oxidation of UA on the surfaces of mechanically
deformed zinc oxide nanorods. (Image credit: Purdue
Research Foundation photo/Jennifer Mayberry)
For more information, visit www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/
roundup/0124/sensors.
www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
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http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/roundup/0124/e-textiles http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/roundup/0124/scaffold http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/roundup/0124/sensors http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/roundup/0124/soft-robotic http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
Medical Design Briefs - January 2024

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