MICRO MEDICAL DEVICES IN THE CARDIOVASCULAR FIELD
3/19/14 Cardiovascular disease kills 1 in 3 people around the world, that is why cutting edge micro technology research is so crucial to saving the lives of millions in the future.
Research is being done in this field on everything from using nanosensors to detect a heart attack before it happens to pillsized leadless pacemakers. Micro sized devices are less invasive, result in less healing time and generally less expensive than bigger more invasive devices. These three things are key elements to improving medical procedures.
Researchers are currently working on a nanosensor that would detect a heart attack or stroke before it happens. It would be implanted in an area of the body like a finger and it would watch the circulation of endothelial cells which begin to move sporadically before a heart attack happens. This sensor would then send a message to the persons smartphone informing them that they need to see their doctor right away. This technology could branch out to benefit many other health issues, like tracking cancer or watching for signs of rejection of an organ that was just put into someones body. One of the challenges when developing anything that is put into the human body is to make sure it won’t harm the body and is small enough to move around freely in a certain area of the body without moving into an unwanted area. With this chip currently at 90 microns in size (smaller than a grain of sand), it has accomplished this issue.
Research companies are also improving on a pill-sized pacemaker that could be implanted into the heart via a minimally invasive catheter procedure. This will decrease the need for leads when inserting a pacemaker, which has been the Achille’s heel of pacemaker devices. The size of this new pacemaker is about 1/10th the size of the pacemakers currently being used. The first mini-pacemaker has already been implanted into a person and more are scheduled to be implanted in the second half of 2014.
With Micro Engineering Solutions being at the top of its field we are helping to change the future of medical procedures to be more pleasant for people to deal with and cheaper for the medical industry to manufacture.
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