Dr Sensen with his CAVEman
creation
Source: Ken Bendiktsen,
Univ of Calgary |
Hi-tech
CAVEman born in AB
CALGARY — A medical modelling device like no other
has been unveiled by a team of University of Calgary
scientists led by Christoph Sensen, PhD, director of
the Sun Centre of Excellence for Visual Genomics. Dubbed
the CAVEman by the researchers who created it, the device
is described as a 4D human atlas, representing the highest-ever
resolution in a computer model of the human body.
It's also the most anatomically-thorough
of its kind. The tissues and systems represented in
the model, which were rendered by a graphic artist,
permit it to be resized to any scale. As a result, the
CAVEman can be viewed as a whole or, amazingly, zoomed
in to the molecular level.
The model is viewed within a virtual
reality "holodeck," projected from the walls and floor
into the centre of the room where, hovering above the
floor, the CAVEman can be manipulated.
In addition to being a virtual
reality teaching tool, the CAVEman has imaging applications
because medical or genomic data can be translated into
the 4D images.
One of the project's aims is to
model growth and development, both normal and pathological,
over time. The model will also be used to help physicians
planning surgical pathways. Plans are in the works for
a virtual CAVEwoman and CAVEchild.
The SmartPill capsule,
complete with pH meter
Source: SmartPill Corp
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The
latest in mini medicine
KANSAS CITY — Diagnosing gastroparesis, a condition
that causes slow stomach emptying, could be as easy
as swallowing a pill. The Smart Pill, which is roughly
the size of a multivitamin, is a capsule equipped with
a variety of sensors and a radio transponder that patients
swallow. Once the pill is ingested, it moves its way
through the GI tract with its sensors collecting data
on pH, temperature and mechanical pressure.
The information the Smart Pill
collects is transmitted to a receiver worn by the patient.
When the capsule completes its fantastic voyage, details
of its journey are assessed and GI diagnoses like gastroparesis
can be made more accurately. The device, developed by
the University of Kansas Hospital, has moved beyond
the experimental stage, now helping docs assess GI conditions.
E-nose
sniffs out asthma
SAN FRANCISCO — Imagine a device that can sniff
out asthma diagnoses. An electronic "nose," or "e-nose"
which may one day pinpoint who has the potentially deadly
respiratory condition, was presented at the American
Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference by Dr
Silvano Dragonieri, from the Leiden University Medical
Centre in the Netherlands.
The device uses exhaled volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) as disease markers. To identify
the compounds, an array of chemical vapour sensors responds
to the VOCs to produce a pattern of activity. This is
then compared with a stored archive of previously 'trained'
patterns to determine if the patient has asthma.
The team compared the 'smell' patterns
of moderate to severe asthmatics with those of non-asthmatic
controls, and found that the device was capable of distinguishing
which participants were asthmatic with a 95% accuracy,
although it could only determine the severity of asthma
with a 65% accuracy. Electronic noses are also being
assessed as diagnostic tools for VOC characteristic
in cases of pneumonia and lung cancer.
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