Device

Implanted Devices Detect High-Risk Heart Failure Patients

Implanted devices intended to optimize the cardiac function of patients with heart failure have provided new insights into which patients might be at higher risk of dying suddenly from their disease, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. Besides maintaining optimal electrical stimulation to the heart, these CRT-D (cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillation)...

Columbia study shows widely used artery clearing device does not help patients during heart attack

Interventional cardiologists from Columbia University Medical Center have shown that a commonly used procedure to remove fatty debris from blocked arteries during a heart attack does not improve patient outcomes. The procedure, called distal microcirculatory protection, is commonly and successfully used during angioplasty in vein grafts and stenting in carotid arteries. The study, publish...

Team Invents Device For Weighing Individual Molecules

Physicists at the California Institute of Technology have created the first nanodevices capable of weighing individual biological molecules. This technology may lead to new forms of molecular identification that are cheaper and faster than existing methods, as well as revolutionary new instruments for proteomics. According to Michael Roukes, professor of physics, applied physics, and bioen...

New defibrillator signals doctor of patient's irregular heartbeat or device malfunction

Loyola first in U.S. to implant new FDA-approved device In a major advance for heart patients, Loyola University Health System is the first hospital in the U.S. to implant into a patient a new FDA-approved defibrillator which automatically signals the doctor via wireless satellite transmission if the patient's heart beats abnormally or if the device malfunctions, e.g., battery failure.</p...

Device traps, disables harmful bacteria

A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Colorado at Boulder has removed bioaerosols -- airborne biological particulate matter -- from the air of a hospital therapy pool using a new generation of hybrid filters. The bioaerosols identified in the unnamed Midwestern hospital pool had sickened nine lifeguards who had become ill with hypersensitivity pn...

Breakthrough in micro-device fabrication combines biology and synthetic chemistry

Nanostructured micro-devices may be mass produced at a lower cost, and with a wider variety of shapes and compositions than ever before, for dramatic improvements in device performance by utilizing very small biologically produced structures. These entirely new biologically-enabled approaches are detailed in the current issue of the International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology, published o...

Carnegie Mellon scientists create PNA molecule with potential to build nanodevices

No matter how healthy a life one leads, no person has managed to live much longer than a century. Even though the advances of the modern age may have extended the average human life span, it is clear there are genetic limits to longevity. One prominent theory of aging lays the blame on the accumulation of damage done to DNA and proteins by “free radicals,?highly reactive molecules produced by the...

Researchers make long DNA 'wires' for future medical and electronic devices

Ohio State University researchers have invented a process for uncoiling long strands of DNA and forming them into precise patterns. In the early online edition of the Proceedings of th...

3D ultrasound device poised to advance minimally invasive surgery

Three-dimensional ultrasound probes built by researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have imaged the beating hearts of dogs. The engineers said their demonstration showed that the probes could give surgeons a better view during human endoscopic surgeries in which operations are performed through tiny "keyhole" incisions. If the probes prove beneficial in human testing, the advanc...

FDA approves first medical device using rutgers biomaterial

Rutgers scientists and TyRx Pharma, Inc., have announced the Food and Drug Administration's clearance of a new medical device for hernia repair that incorporates a biodegradable technology developed at the university. This action signals a paradigm shift in the application of biomaterials from permanent prosthetic replacements toward regenerative medicine, in which materials help the body to repa...

Underwater listening devices yield discoveries about endangered large whales

Why whales emit their characteristic calls remains largely a biological mystery, but listening for the distinctive underwater sounds provides a valuable way to track the movements of endangered large whales. Autonomous data-recording devices equipped with hydrophones (underwater microphones), deployed in remote waters off Alaska, have been used in recent years to track seasonal occurrences of bl...

New device could cut chemotherapy deaths

A new method of delivering chemotherapy to cancer patients without incurring side effects such as hair loss and vomiting is being developed. These fibres are bio-degradable and compatib...

Device effective in zapping the pain out of migraines

An electronic device designed to "zap" away migraine pain before it starts may be the next form of relief for millions of people who suffer from the debilitating disease. The study, led by the Ohio State University Medical C...

Professors to develop hand-held pathogen testing device

Testing for deadly food, air and water pathogens may get a lot easier and cheaper thanks to the work of a Michigan State University researcher and his team. Syed Hashsham, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Center for Microbial Ecology, is developing a portable, hand-held device capable of detecting up to 50 microbial threat agents in a...

World's smallest cancer detection device

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have received a $2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study tumor "microenvironments" --where tumors interact with surrounding tissues, cells and chemicals in ways that all too often encourage cancer cells to invade other areas of the body in the process known as metastasis. With the new NCI gran...

Prototype just-in-time medical device enables untrained bystanders to save lives

Human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) researchers at the University of Utah have created a prototype device that could make it possible for anyone ?even those with no emergency medical training ?to perform life-saving actions for victims of sudden cardiac arrest. The just-in-time support, or JITS, device provides bystanders with guidance and information on how to administer CPR and assess the state an...

Nano-devices hold promise for early-stage cancer detection

They are miniature labs that can be swallowed like a pill, injected through a catheter, or woven into fabric. Their function is to screen for, detect, and potentially treat, cancer and other diseases when they are still at a single-cell size in early development stages. They will also detect harmful pathogens in food and water. Engineering researchers at McMaster University will be escal...

MIT device draws cells close -- but not too close -- together

On a popular children's game participants stand as close as possible without touching. But on a microscopic level, coaxing cells to be very, very close without actually touching one another has been among the most frustrating challenges for cell biologists. Now MIT researchers led by Sangeeta Bhatia, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Harvard-MIT Divi...

Are one-third of costly implanted heart devices unnecessary? New study suggests yes

This year, Medicare will pay for tens of thousands of heart patients to have high-tech devices implanted in their chests. Called ICDs or implantable cardioverter defibrillators, the expensive devices are designed to shock damaged hearts back into rhythm and save patients from sudden cardiac death, which kills 300,000 Americans each year. But a new study finds that while many of these patie...