Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers have developed a smart phone app that can measure heart rhythm and rate, respiration rate, and blood oxygen saturation using the phone’s built-in video camera.
As the camera’s light penetrates the skin, it reflects off pulsing blood
in the finger. The app can correlate subtle shifts in the color of the
reflected light with changes in the patient’s vital signs. Measurement
of respiratory rate uses an algorithm developed for use with a
pulse-oximeter, based on amplitude and frequency modulation sequences
within the light signal.
Ref.: Scully, C. et al., Physiological Parameter Monitoring from Optical Recordings with a Mobile Phone,IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 2011; [DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2163157]
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Dec 4, 2011
New ‘smart’ material could help tap medical potential of tissue-penetrating light
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report development and successful initial testing of the first practical “smart” material to use a form of light that can penetrate four inches into the human body, for use in diagnosing diseases and engineering new human tissues in the lab.
They used near-infrared (NIR) light (just beyond what humans can see), which penetrates through the skin and almost four inches into the body. Low-power NIR does not damage body tissues. However, current NIR-responsive smart materials require high-power NIR light, which could damage cells and tissues.
They developed a new smart polymer (plastic). Hit with low-power NIR, the material breaks apart into small pieces that appear to be nontoxic to surrounding tissue. They could put the polymer in an implantable hydrogel, which is a water-containing flexible material used for tissue engineering and drug delivery. A hydrogel with the new polymer could release medications or imaging agents when hit with NIR. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a polymeric material capable of disassembly into small molecules in response to harmless levels of irradiation,” say the researchers.
Ref.: Nadezda Fomina, et al., Low Power, Biologically Benign NIR Light Triggers Polymer Disassembly, Macromolecules, 2011; 44 (21): 8590 [DOI: 10.1021/ma201850q]
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They developed a new smart polymer (plastic). Hit with low-power NIR, the material breaks apart into small pieces that appear to be nontoxic to surrounding tissue. They could put the polymer in an implantable hydrogel, which is a water-containing flexible material used for tissue engineering and drug delivery. A hydrogel with the new polymer could release medications or imaging agents when hit with NIR. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a polymeric material capable of disassembly into small molecules in response to harmless levels of irradiation,” say the researchers.
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A practical "smart" material that may supply the missing link in efforts to medically use a form of light that can penetrate four inches into the human body (credit: University of California, San Diego)
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Ref.: Nadezda Fomina, et al., Low Power, Biologically Benign NIR Light Triggers Polymer Disassembly, Macromolecules, 2011; 44 (21): 8590 [DOI: 10.1021/ma201850q]
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