CVRx, a Minneapolis, Minnesota company, won FDA approval for the first neuromodulation device designed to address heart failure. Intended as a treatment option for patients with an ejection fraction ≤35% and New York Heart Failure Classification of III or II (with recent history of Class III), the device stimulates the carotid artery and in turn […]
Tag: Cardiology
Fully Flexible and Wireless Body Monitoring Sensors
Flexible body-worn sensors that conform to the skin have great potential for monitoring patient health, conducting long-term studies, and giving consumers a way to track their exercise and overall health. Although there have been flexible sticker-like body monitors developed in the past, they have all involved rigid electronic chips and batteries. So, although they’re flexible […]
Adult Human Heart Tissue Grown Using Biowire II Platform
TARA Biosystems, a firm based in New York City, and GlaxoSmithKline have managed to grow adult cardiac tissue inside the Biowire II platform developed by TARA, and have used this live tissue as a test bed for cardiac drug research. Previously, growing cardiac tissue from human induced pluripotent stem cells that can be used in […]
Carbon Nanotube Fibers as Electrical Bridges for Damaged Heart Tissue
Damaged heart tissue, as a result of a myocardial infarct, is not only a problem because it weakens overall cardiac function but also because it no longer conducts electricity well enough to effectively propagate the heart’s signals. Arrhythmias are a common result of this, and although there are drugs that can help some patients, the […]
Swiss Scientists Print World’s Smallest Stent
In rare cases, some children, often still in the womb, develop urethral strictures that make it difficult or impossible to empty the bladder. Typically, a surgical procedure is performed to remove the narrowed section of the urethra, with the open ends being sewed together. This is traumatic for the children and can be difficult for […]
Ultrasound System to Charge Medical Implants
Batteries power most electric medical implants. Pacemakers, for example, use the same battery for years without recharging, but eventually have to be replaced once the charge starts to run out. There have been numerous attempts to create technology to generate electricity from within the body to power these devices. These have resulted in rather modest […]
LipoGlo Makes Bad Cholesterol Glow Inside Zebrafish
So-called “bad cholesterol” is a molecular complex of fat and protein. Specifically, the protein is Apolipoprotein-B, or ApoB, and the fat is cholesterol. While ApoB helps fat molecules to move around the blood vasculature, it is also what makes cholesterol stick to vessel walls, forming dangerous plaques that are one of the main causes of […]
3D Printed Cardiac Components
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a method to 3D print collagen and cells to form organ components, potentially paving the way for full organ printing in the future. The technique, called Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH), involves printing collagen layer-by-layer in a bath of support gel, which allows it to solidify […]
Breath Analyzer for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a condition in which fluid leaks into the lungs and builds up in the alveoli within. It is a rapidly progressive condition that often leads to terminal consequences, yet it can be difficult to diagnose and monitor. Now, researchers at University of Michigan have developed a portable device that […]
New Device Helps Deliver Accurate Chest Compressions
Chest compressions, if performed properly, can save people from cardiac arrest. Most bystanders faced with an individual requiring resuscitation fail at this task, in many cases because their compressions are too weak and are not delivered correctly. Now, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research and University of Applied Sciences, both in Germany, have […]
Flexible Body Monitor Measures ECG, Breathing, Heart Rate Continuously for Weeks
Continuous, long-term monitoring of physiological activity can provide doctors, caretakers, and scientists with nuanced information about someone’s health. Children, the frail and elderly, and people with all sorts of conditions often have difficulty wearing and using existing body-worn sensors. Now, researchers at Georgia Tech have designed a remarkable device that can be worn on the […]
Hydrogels with Flexible Electronics Herald New Medical Possibilities
Scientists around the world are actively using hydrogels as novel materials to interface with the body in a variety of ways. At the same time, the field of flexible electronics has progressed to the point that there’s real demand to integrate electronic components with hydrogels. Now, researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology […]
Low Power Network for Wireless Body Sensors
As wearable devices multiply and gather ever more data about our bodies, the batteries and wireless networks they rely on can become strained. To give wearables a longer battery life and to allow gigabytes of data to be transmitted at the same time, researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a new type […]
Withings Releases Two Fashionable Wireless Blood Pressure Monitors
Withings is releasing two new wireless blood pressure monitors, the BPM Core and BPM Connect, one of which is a bit more than just a BP cuff. As always, the French company has given a lot of attention to the design of these cuffs, giving them a user-friendly, comfortable look. The BPM Connect is a […]
Centerline’s Radiation-Free IOPS System for Minimally Invasive Procedures
Centerline Biomedical, a company based in Cleveland, Ohio, landed FDA clearance for its Intra-Operative Positioning System (IOPS). The product provides physicians with a radiation-free way to navigate through vasculature during minimally invasive procedures. Currently, X-ray fluoroscopy is used to track where minimally invasive instruments are in a patient’s body. Danger results from ionizing radiation, but […]
Potrero Medical Receives CE Mark for the Accuryn® Monitoring System.
The company received its FDA clearance in 2016 when it transformed the traditional urinary catheter into a smart sensing platform that helps to accurately monitor vital signs in real-time, such as urine output (UO) and intra-abdominal pressure (IAP). Traditional urinary catheters have issues draining urine from the bladder, causing inaccurate UO measurements. Using active drain […]
Blood Flow Measurement Using Tiny LED Catheter
Measuring blood flow is important during a variety of surgical procedures, as well as in intensive care settings. Typically, this is performed intermittently, so there’s not a lot of temporal detail in the readings. Now, a team of researchers at Flinders University in Australia has developed a proof-of-concept prototype vascular catheter that can detect tiny […]
BIOMONITOR III Injectable Cardiac Monitor Wins FDA Clearance
Having unveiled their BIOMONITOR III a couple of weeks ago, BIOTRONIK just won FDA clearance for the device. The new version of the BIOMONITOR injectable cardiac monitor is less than half the size of the previous model, but it offers the ability to provide a substantially improved signal quality. Designed to be injected under the […]
Tiny Nanowire Probes Measure Intracellular Electrical Activity
Researchers at the University of Surrey and Harvard University have developed tiny nanoprobes that can measure electrical signals inside cells, such as neurons and cardiac cells. Unlike previous technology for intracellular electrophysiology, the nanoprobes cause minimal destruction to the cells, and could pave the way for human-machine interfaces such as neural prosthetics. Measuring electrical activity […]
Artificial Bacterial Protein Allows Stem Cells to Home to the Heart
Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a way to make stem cells move toward heart tissue when they are injected intravenously. The treatment could improve the efficacy of stem cell therapies for heart disease, which are currently hampered when most injected cells are filtered out of circulation by organs such as the lungs […]