InfraScanner
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Researchers at Drexel University
in Pennsylvania have created a unique hand-held PDA
device to detect brain hematoma following head injury.
When a patient is rushed into the
emergency room with severe head trauma, physicians have
an hour to figure out just how badly they're hurt —
and they need a CT scan to do it. But the prohibitive
cost of CT means that a good chunk of brain trauma cases
don't get scanned. When you consider that in Canada,
11,000 people die of traumatic brain injuries every
year, this is serious business.
The university is hopeful that
their InfraScanner will offer physicians a cheaper,
quicker alternative for giving the injured brain a quick
once-over for those times when CT scans just aren't
an option. Pending FDA approval and the completion of
a multicentre clinical trial, the device could be available
for sale in the US by the end of the year. There's still
no word on when it will be available in Canada.
"The new device addresses the critical
problem of detecting brain hematoma as early as possible,"
claims Dr Kambiz Pourrezaei, Drexel University professor
of biomedical engineering. "It can also solve the problem
of how to find head trauma in children, who are brought
to the ER after a crib fall or other injury, without
having to wait to determine if a CT scan is needed."
HOW
IT WORKS
The InfraScanner should be fairly easy to use. A hairbrush
probe is placed on the trauma victim's head and then
the PDA communicates wirelessly — using the same
Bluetooth wireless technology found in many cell phones
and wireless mice — with the probe to produce an
image (See illustration, above).
The device detects hematoma using
a sophisticated technique of near-infrared brain imaging
(fNIR), which can differentiate areas of the brain that
are bleeding. This is possible because of the unique
way in which hemoglobin interacts with light.
So far, the university's investigators
report that trials have gone swimmingly. A pilot study
put the device to use on 305 patients so far and all
cases of epidural and subdural hematoma were caught.
Additionally, 98% of intracerebral hematomas appeared
on the InfraScanner's screen. And what's equally important
in these time-sensitive trauma cases, researchers found
that the InfraScanner tended to catch brain problems
more swiftly than conventional monitoring.
WHO
NEEDS IT
If the InfraScanner is approved, one of its key benefits
will be cost. While no price has been announced, the
university website notes the small gadget will surely
be significantly cheaper than MRI and CT devices, making
it ideal for emergency departments in rural hospitals.
"The InfraScanner promises to be a fast, accurate and
affordable traumatic brain injury screening solution,"
Dr Banu Onaral, director of Drexel's School of Biomedical
Engineering, Science and Health Systems, and also head
of the InfraScanner research effort, told UPI.
"The user-friendly device that
maps out the location of the hematoma with graphics
on a PDA screen can assist paramedics and emergency
room personnel in attending to those injured in traffic
and sports accidents, falls and on the battlefield."
The InfraScanner's potential to gauge the gravity of
injuries on site, far, far away from a CT scanner, led
the United States Army and Navy to invest heavily in
the research. The National Institutes of Health also
contributed to the device's funding.
BORN
OUT OF CHANCE
The device is based on an fNIR patent by Dr Britton
Chance, Professor Emeritus at University of Pennsylvania,
a fascinating man and one of the most prolific scientists
of the past century. Now 92-years-old, Dr Chance filed
his first patent at the age of 17. Aside from his nearly
70 years of conducting distinguished, eclectic research
in medicine, physics, biology and engineering, he also
won an Olympic gold medal in 1952 for sailing.
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