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Biotech Medicine

MIT Engineers Develop Stickers That Can See Inside the Body (mit.edu) 22

Live and high-resolution images of a patient's internal organs are already possible with ultrasound imaging technology. But currently the technology "requires bulky and specialized equipment available only in hospitals and doctor's offices," explains an annoncement from MIT.

Now a new design by MIT engineers "might make the technology as wearable and accessible as buying Band-Aids at the pharmacy." In a paper appearing today in Science, the engineers present the design for a new ultrasound sticker — a stamp-sized device that sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours.

The researchers applied the stickers to volunteers and showed the devices produced live, high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach. The stickers maintained a strong adhesion and captured changes in underlying organs as volunteers performed various activities, including sitting, standing, jogging, and biking....

From the stickers' images, the team was able to observe the changing diameter of major blood vessels when seated versus standing. The stickers also captured details of deeper organs, such as how the heart changes shape as it exerts during exercise. The researchers were also able to watch the stomach distend, then shrink back as volunteers drank then later passed juice out of their system. And as some volunteers lifted weights, the team could detect bright patterns in underlying muscles, signaling temporary microdamage.

"With imaging, we might be able to capture the moment in a workout before overuse, and stop before muscles become sore," says Chen. "We do not know when that moment might be yet, but now we can provide imaging data that experts can interpret."

They're already envisioning other possibilities: If the devices can be made to operate wirelessly — a goal the team is currently working toward — the ultrasound stickers could be made into wearable imaging products that patients could take home from a doctor's office or even buy at a pharmacy. "We envision a few patches adhered to different locations on the body, and the patches would communicate with your cellphone, where AI algorithms would analyze the images on demand," says the study's senior author, Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT.

"We believe we've opened a new era of wearable imaging: With a few patches on your body, you could see your internal organs."

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MIT Engineers Develop Stickers That Can See Inside the Body

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  • - or maybe the size of a wrist watch -
    Now add the stethoscope function and you're halfway there. Where? Well, for my part I'm still hoping for the continuous glucose monitoring option. And, while you're at it, surprise me with something even better!

    • Glucose is done by blood sample not ultrasound. This is better than a stethoscope. A Stethoscope can listen to noises in the body such as breathing and heartbeats this can do so much more by "seeing" what is going on. Ultrasound is awesome technology, however it would seem to be that this is a transducer and a coupling to the body system, so have to add to that a significant amount of electronics and power to get the signals and transmit them wirelessly or over wires. There will need to be a box attached wh
  • Meta is gonna be all over this.

  • This is badass (Score:5, Informative)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Sunday July 31, 2022 @08:32PM (#62750628)

    This is pretty damn cool. It could give advance warning or confirmation of heart attacks, many of which often take 30 minutes or longer for a person to even start feeling. Half the deaths from a heart attack occur in the first 3 or 4 hours after symptoms begin. One out of three heart attacks comes without any chest pain. Reference: https://www.cedars-sinai.org/h... [cedars-sinai.org] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/h... [cedars-sinai.org] Also could make at-home regular checkups for things like kidney stones really easy without having to go to a doctor. Plus, it's a cool gadget .. I want one.

  • This is very cool, and very promising - I just wish TFA was longer on detail and shorter on hype.

    The patches pictured in the article must be only the ultrasonic transducers. I'm pretty sure the electronics driving the emitters would have to be a lot bulkier than what would fit into the patch, and I don't believe there's room there for a power source that would run the patch for one hour, never mind 48 hours.

    If there is a box, how big is it, and why isn't wireless capability an already-solved problem? Inquir

    • It doesn't need to run for an hour. If it can run for about 5 seconds periodically or/and upon some trigger event, that too could be very useful. It would be cool if it could be done with a patch the size and thickness of a smartwatch.

    • I was looking at the linked material on the Science[.]org site. The full article is available for purchase but there are a few videos for download that show some interesting supplemental material. I was still thinking of practical uses for these when I saw a companion study from August 2019: Simultaneous transrectal ultrasound and photoacoustic human prostate imaging [science.org]

      Without digressing into the obvious jokes that will probably follow, men with prostate cancer or enlargement problems would probably find t

      • by vivian ( 156520 )

        The only unfortunate side effect is dogs want to bite you in the arse to make the sound stop.

      • Video clearly states it is a trasducer array and backed by a gel sandwich and adhesive that can hold it in place for up to 48 hours. It still beats a nurse holding the wand for long periods of time so is a great idea!
    • by mark-t ( 151149 )

      Honestly, I had the same question at first. I would assume that wireless isn't a solved problem here because of power requirements which may be impractical for any kind of portable solution

      Not that I'm saying I know this is the case here, it's actually just a guess, but it's the only thing I can think of.

  • size (Score:4, Funny)

    by mcswell ( 1102107 ) on Sunday July 31, 2022 @09:43PM (#62750768)

    What's a "postage stamp"?

  • I had this idea many years ago using miniaturized arrays of Piezo (like piezo speakers), they can emit a high focussed high frequency sound which can pierce the skin and bounce back, if you had a transistor array for the amplification and a led array on the other side, maybe that could work?

  • Can they make it with the stretch fabric they use instead of bandages? If not... I've had EKGs several times in the last year.

    For those of us who aren't fashionistas, and don't shave every hair off our body below the neck, let me say this about that: OUCH!!!!!

  • 48 hours is a really long time. Most ultrasound sessions today last around 30 minutes (from some basic Google searching). Doing the math: 48 hours is about 96 ultrasound sessions. So the question is: Is it safe to be subjected to ultrasound waves for 48 hours straight? I don't think there is any data on that because it probably hasn't come up before. Ultrasound is currently used to break up kidney stones in a controlled medical setting, so there is a definite non-placebo impact on the body. It's jus

    • by q4Fry ( 1322209 )

      It's a pity hospitals have never encountered anything like this situation before, where some device might need to alert the staff after a certain amount of time elapsed to come check in. That's why hospitals are so blissfully quiet and serene without beeping technology or interruptions by nurses to change your IV.

      Yes, this wired device is a truly frightening addition to the realm of medical science.

It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

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