While others enjoy their vacations, medical practitioners and scientist work hard to come up with long-awaited solutions and save lives. Understanding how overloaded the workflow if today, we have picked some most interesting and useful news from the past month, so that the readers enjoyed their 5 minute breaks.
Looking Deep Into Body Using Virtual Ultrasound Lens| Carnegie Mellon University
July 19th
Light is a great tool for imaging the outside of the body and for looking at the interior using endoscopes, but looking through more than a few millimeters of tissue typically requires other modalities such as X-rays and ultrasound. Using light to peer through skin, muscle, and other soft tissues has remained an elusive goal for many scientists. Now, a team from Carnegie Mellon University has come up with a remarkable new way of using light to look deep into tissues like never before.
Applying Ultrasound to Cell Sorting| University of Toronto
July 10th
A team from the University of Toronto have pioneered a new of rapidly sizing and counting cells. Strohm et al. combined a microfluidics-based single-cell stream with ultrasound acoustics to yield measurable ultrasound echoes of single cells.
Their approach uniquely compares these distinct spectral features with established theoretical models to achieve a means of accurate cell sizing. The trailblazing method relies on multi-parameter cellular characterization using fluorescence, light scattering, and quantitative photoacoustic techniques.
Ultrasound is Transforming Care Delivery for the Bariatric Patient | ITN
July 1st
The impact of obesity on image quality is highlighted in a 15-year longitudinal study. This study analyzed more than 5 million radiology reports and determined that abdominal ultrasonography was the modality most commonly associated with habitus-limited reports. “If a patient has a habitus-limited report on abdominal ultrasound, it is likely that the next step would be additional imaging with CT or MRI … likely with contrast. If we could confidently answer those tough clinical questions right away in ultrasound, we could help to reduce these types of follow-up exams, associated costs, and unnecessary patient anxiety,” said Dr. Barr.
Ultrasound Can Monitor Exact Drug Dose Site in the Brain | Washington University
July 23th
An ultrasound imaging technique called passive cavitation imaging was able to create an image and estimate the amount of a drug that crossed the blood-brain barrier to reach a specific location in the brain, according to a study by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)-funded bioengineers at Washington University.
The technique monitors the activity of microbubbles, microscopic bubbles that help create clearer ultrasound images using detectors to estimate the effects they have on the different biological structures—in this case, the brain.
Remote Control Ultrasound Uses 5G Wireless| University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
July 1st
Thanks to high-speed bi-directional communications, the system allows a doctor to remotely guide the ultrasound. A paramedic in an ambulance wears a haptic glove that receives remote inputs from a joystick operated by a clinician. The vibrations in the glove guide the paramedic’s movement of the ultrasound transceiver so that the physician can get the precise image needed in real-time. The system displays the images in the ambulance as well as in the hospital. The clinician also has a second live video image of the interior of the ambulance, providing additional information about what is happening.