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Needle Free Injections With Microjets
IZ Reloaded writes "Do you hate needles? In the near future, the fear of needles would be a thing of a past. Bioengineering students at the University of California, Berkeley have developed the MicroJet. It uses an electronic actuator that could one day propel vaccinations, insulin or other drugs through the skin of the patient - without the device even touching the skin - with far less pain than a hypodermic needle."
I hate wasting oxy....
alas,makes no difference to potheads
here's one for salen t-company.com/product/PPF/ID/4200/new_prod_full.as p
http://diabetic-supplies.medical-supplies-equipme
Medi-Jector Vision(tm)Needle-Free Insulin Injection System
Accurate delivery of insulin injections from 2-50 units in 1 unit increments. Injector reusable for 3000 injections. No maintenance or cleaning required. Smaller, lighter weight and easier to use than previous models. Contains: injector, carrying case, training video, instruction manual, 2 Needle-Free Syringes (for easy and medium skin penetration) and 1 vial adaptor. Replacement Needle-Free Syringe kits sold separately.
what's amazing here?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
And they've had "needle-less" injectors around for a long while, however the current ones are expensive and rather inaccurate at dosing when compared to needles.
However, I must say I really don't care if they come out with a needle-less injector that works better. It's not the shots themselves that bother me, but rather the constant maintenance that people take for granted. I'd still need to do something. Right now I have a pump, and it's better than doing individual injections, but it's always with me. I'm waiting for the day when I no longer have to worry about this disease any longer because I've been cured.
Hypospray, anyone?
Yes, but anonymous... close, but ruled out on a technicality.
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But I'm Conroy's plant!
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Sounds similar to the jetgun the military use to use. Does anyone know the difference?
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
So, will we get Tricorders with these?
I have no tag line
Someone got his blog pointed at slashdot, while I love the subject, its 4 days old, been on blogs for 3 days and a poor cut and paste job from the original Press release.http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/release s/2005/03/16_microjet.shtml :)
Read the press release, its better
Sounds very Star-trek'y... the whole pneumatic against the neck thingy. *FSSHT!*
Cool though - I wonder if this can work for any type of injection? Things like insulin shots, etc.
Event Management Solutions : http://www.stonekeep.com/
Oh, yes please. But would this cost more than old method? I hate needless, but I hate losing money also.
And trust me.. It is not exactly pain-free.
Press Release!
Engadget!
This technology's already in the marketplace:u se/index.php
http://medevoice.co.uk/themedicalho
Mah Gawd!
Are the editors this stupid? Doesn't Tripod allow like 10 page views an hour before it shuts itself off?
Editor: First link to the main page for archival sake, then Mirrordot or Coral Cache. Same goes for Submitters.
While they have not yet started tests on humans, the researchers said the range of the injector is well beyond what would be needed to deliver drugs through human skin.
So for God's sake, ask the nurse to check the settings before she pulls the trigger.
The coolest voice ever.
these have been around for insulin injections for years.. though not manufactored on a large scale.. here's a modern distributor, and here's an article about tests on pigs in sept of 2004 that went well.
** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
So it's still going to hurt? (Yes I'm a wimp)
I am trolling
It is not thair invention. I saw this injector 3 jears ago on german television. And it is already in use.
It would be interesting to know if it use some really new ways to inject.
I remember getting vaccinated in the 1960's (yes, I'm that old) and they used some sort of air gun that shot the vaccination through the skin.
That thing HURT!
This is a microjet
What happens when some crazy guy with AIDS starts shooting his blood at people and infecting them?
Good point. I really hope there needs be some proximity while 'injecting'. In that case it wouldn't really be different from an HIV patient attacking you with a needle.
In need of reliable and affordable server monitoring?
I was reading an article a few years ago about how they are going to try reducing the surface area with nerves with syringes by putting tiny hair-like fibres along it, similar to a mosquito's proboscis (which can't be felt by most people).
I have yet to see them use that idea, and if you ask me that sounded a lot more cost effective then this does.
For some drugs, like those that should diffuse into the body slowly over time, transdermal diffusion devices already exist right now. A prime example of those is the nicotine patch, and I hear there are patches for diabetes too.
:-)
As for lots of micro-needles vs. one big needle, it might not be all that new: I seem to recall getting some vaccine shot at school when I was a kid, where the nurse used some ring-looking plastic thing she put on her middle finger, with the business end of the device being a small, round "nail-bed" in her palm, and she slammed me on the shoulder with it, which probably accounts for the ugly mark I have there at that spot too
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Boot camp. Line up for pnuematic inoculations. I got several of these. Heck, two arms at once on occasion. This might be a non-pnuematic method but the technology is as old as the hills. Nothing new.
hopefully someone will link or replace this article link - it's awful!
"The researchers even joke that the MicroJet injector could be used to make getting tattoos much more bearable."
heh heh heh.... wait.. that's not a funny joke at all.
and the article fails to address the issue that this technology could become so painless that you do not even realize that you are receiving drugs. This becomes very scary.
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AFAIK this isn't new... When I entered the US Army in 1969, almost all of the multitudes of shots that are given during the medical part of military induction were given by some kind of air gun, which was nearly painless.. I'd always wondered what happened to these air-guns.. Guess I'm from a alternate universe, if this is really new here in this universe... :->
LVDave
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
a good page to take a look at is http://www.cdc.gov/nip/dev/jetinject.htm Its the CDC's index to the technology and hasa lot of useful information
I look forward to serving our micro-jet overlords...
Everyone's doing it!
What about taking blood? I can handle injections but when they try to find a vein to take blood from I cant take it.
"The universe is my dwelling place and my house is my only clothes! Why are you entering into my pants?" - Liu Ling
I got vaccinated with an "air gun" back in the day. it hurts, probably as much as a needle. But you can do a whole group of people quickly, 'cause you don't need to change needles.
Jet injectors have been around since 1940. They were designed to inoculate in Africa, but they kept on jamming because of dust and sand. It was tossed aside for a 3 pronged fork-like needle which you just stabbed someone a couple of times, or scratched them to vaccinate them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector
Finally, the last barrier to my upcoming heroin addiction (Fear of needles) has been overcome!
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
An F15 jet fighter is minaturized using alien technology at area 15 after the pilot has consumed large quantites of water and whatever medication is required. Pilot then flies micro jet into patients body, locates a vein, flies into it and ejects. Pilot then whips out his tool (not yet tested with female pilots) and urinates medication into patient. Pilot is then torn to pieces by patient's antibodies.
Its a clever system but is proving somewhat expensive in terms of planes and pilots.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
That is what I remember. It hurt. But it is good for treating people like cattle...
This is probably news sprung up since over the begining of the month it was the '10th Annual International Conference on Needle-free and Auto Injectors'
Major uses seem to be vaccination and insulin.
But if I were a super villian, I'd love to have one of these to turn people into my mindless slaves or some shit.
Most people dont realize that the needle itself doesnt sting much. Its the medicine. Some medicines when they come into contact with the flesh inside, sting like crazy. Others dont.
-Dracken
The microjet looks scarier than a needle.
The girl in the picture doesn't look to happy about getting that shot.
i hate needles, just reading the word 'injections' in the title makes me feel weak.
if only they'd invent something like this for taking blood - thats the stuff of nightmares.
Although it may not be possible, I can imagine a similar process only reversed for giving blood would really increase donors. Many people don't give blood for the simple reason that they don't like needles.
Reading at high threshold levels is group-think.
NURSE: doctor, you're hitting the bone
DOCTOR: Oh so I am. It does make a lovely scraping sound though.
The new needles are so thin, that they don't hurt anyway. I noticed this year that the flu shot needles were much, much thinner than last year. Pretty soon, they'll be almost invisible.
Back in the days of yore, we walked through six feet of snow uphill both ways to school and the needles were as thick as water pipes...
As long as they are not replacing the cute nurse ...
I was about to reply with a John Madden BOOM! but then I realized the topic wasn't "Fracture Free Interceptions With NY Jets".
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
When I was a kid/teenager, I hated flu/booster shots. Og no like pain, pain bad, no pain.
Then, at the age of 23, I found a lump. It was cancer. While I didn't need chemo, I did get a lot of CT scans requiring an IV with a radiopaque substance (6 in my first year post-surgery) and bloodwork (12 in that same year).
After that, my GP strongly recommended I get a flu shot, as is suggested to anyone who's had cancer. I was a bit nervous (it had been years since I'd had one, partly because I was generally healthy, partly because I didn't like getting jabbed), but I got it anyway. And it didn't hurt. Let me tell you - after a few IVs and bloodwork needles, I can barely feel those flu shot needles anymore! I can't believe I used to be nervous about those damn things.
This year, I got a flu shot as well. And it didn't hurt.
I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis four years ago (at the age of 22). Then, the best treatment available was Avonex, which is given intramuscularly once a week. The needle is about 26 gauge and 1 1/4" long. With that needle, the pain was mostly psychological. There is nothing natural about stabbing yourself with a long, sharp object.
:-)
In fact, up until about a century ago, sharp objects piercing into your body has generally been a detrimental event. It meant that you were being bitten (with poison or germs getting injected past your outer layer defenses) or you were getting punctured by something that would result in an infection. So everything about your physical makeup and your psychology is evolved to consider injections to be a bad thing. In a twist of events, now it turns out that shard objects getting jabbed into your body is mostly a beneficial thing. But it will take a long time for evolution to change our aversion to injections. And with new technologies, it may not even be necessary for that adaptation to occur. I certainly hope this becomes the case in the *very* near future.
The nerves on the surface of your skin tend to cluster. So, the amount of pain related to the actual puncture of the skin varies greatly, depending on whether or not you happen to hit one of those nerve clusters. Sometimes the penetration of the skin would result in a strong pinching sensation; other times, I would not feel anything at all. For the intramuscular injections, it is also possible that you will hit another nerve on your way into the muscle tissue. That usually just results in a reflex reaction (you jump or twitch). The act of the actual injection is painless, since the solution is injected far below the surface pain receptors. But then you tend to get long-term dull pain similar to a charly horse; it's like a blunt end of a stick whacked you in the thigh and you have a nice bruise in your muscle. And $deity help you if you happen to hit your bone with the tip of the needle.
About a year ago, I switched therapies to Rebif, which is given subcutaneously three times a week. The needle is a smaller gauge and is signifianctly shorter (~1.5cm). It is unintuitive, but the subcutaneous injections, even though the needle is shorter and thinner, are much more painful than the IM injections, because the solution is injected just below the surface of the skin, where you have a lot more pain receptors. So it's not the needle really that I worry about. I hardly even feel that any more; it's the stinging sensation from the liquid getting pushed into the subcutaneous tissue just below the skin.
I use a spring-loaded injection contraption that hides the needle from my view entirely; I just hold the casing to my skin and push a button. The spring-loaded plunger pushes the needle in and presses the plunger of the syringe down to inject the medicine. I don't even worry about the needle any more; I worry about the sting with the liquid getting pushed under my skin and the subsequent itchy and burning red blotch that stays in that area for weeks afterward. So in my case, at least, the needle is a non-issue; this needle-less technology is neat, but it will not help with the pain associated with liquid getting pushed under my skin, and it will not help with the site reaction.
Wake me up when they figure out how to effectively administrate interferon-beta with a pill.
Do you hate needles? In the near future, the fear of needles would be a thing of a past. That's all nice and all, but you'll still need to get a needle in to get a blood sample no?
My family doctor has been treating warts this way for at least the last fifteen years.
...and neither are most standard injections, when done properly.
I got my German Measles (rubella) vaccination with a pneumatic injector. I think this was in 6th grade, which would have been sometime in 1970-71 for me. I don't really remember it hurting any more or less than a standard hypodermic needle injection (which didn't really bother me much as a kid, anyway), but it was quick, taking maybe 10 minutes, tops, to administer to a class of 30 students. School officials really played up the fact that there was no needle involved, and I think this had the psychological effect of making it much easier on the students who were scared of any type of injection.
I'll admit I'm jumping the gun with my reply here, so I'll need to read a little more to see what the difference is between the old pneumatic injectors and this new-fangled device.
My Human Gets Me Blues.
I know that some 'needle less' injectors use a very small guidy doodad. Like a small wire or pellet,Even though it's purely placebo, the idear is that if they feel some discomfort they may somethink it works better. This do gizmo unlike ones used for mas inaucations makes NO contact all- arisole kind of thing.
Our business is making movies, but we will prevent the stealing of our valuable content by any means necessary, including illegal distribution by microjet. It's clear Microjet's only purpose is the illegal distribution of content, and it performs this function by violating the DMCA.
Metallica guitar player Lans Ulrich defended the position, saying Any heavy metal fan knows there's no substitute for the needle.
I hate those damn butterfly needles. I don't know how they'll put a microjet inside the vessel to shoot the blood out to the container though; that's what would be necessary, from what I gather.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
It's been covered that needleless injections are probably 50 years old. Its been mentioned that people in africa and the army should be familiar with them. What hasn't been said is that these are so not new, that 9 years ago I saw on in a box that had the red tv box logo on it "As Seen on TV" Yup as in sold through infomercials.
It was painful to me. Some of our veterans' comments give a mixed respose. Some of them say it was painful, some say it wasn't, and some needed stiches due to movement during the "injection". I know that spraying liquid thru your skin can be painful, but with one who is skillful with a needle can make it damn near painless.
Are they thinking of how to numb the area? Or to apply a "spray on" tatoo. I think the spray on idea is much better. Just think, it could be used to apply semi-permanent makeup for the ladies!
Yes, most of these things hurt more than needles. A thin needle irritates far fewer nerve fibers than a rather traumatic hydropneumatic blast o' vaccination.
Most of the pain from an injection comes from the injection of the fluid itself rather than the needle puncture
There are interesting efforts to use microporation (through vaporizing the top layer of skin, using ultrasound, etc) to deliver vaccines/insulin/etc which could be less traumatic.
My first day at boot camp, in fact at arrival at boot camp we all lined up for pneumatic shots of some sort.
Granted this is probably much smaller, and works electrically rather than pneumatically.
29 years ago. Hmm Prior art?
GIF image above is off a report on JET GUN INJECTION TRANSMISSION and the Potential for cross-contamination from use of a needleless injector.
Peizo printer head technology was picked up by the automotive industry and modified to create the newest generation of fuel injectors.
t m_3.html
This device is basically a mini fuel injector -- just replace the fuel with medicine.
The problem with this is that there are already purley mechanical devices that do the same thing:
http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2005/03/vitajet
Nearly all of the 23,487,892 injections I got while in the military (1996-2001) were done with a device fitting that description. How is this news?
Just curious,
What is the rationale behind getting flu-shots because you had cancer?
Did you get that weird taste in your mouth when they hit you with the radio contrast fluid?
Many drugs that can't be administered orally could be administered in a mist to the lung epithelium, such as insulin. As any good cigarette smoker knows, absorbing a drug through one's mucosa and alveoli can be quite effective. I'm unsure if this would work well with non-live immunization, though the lung does have a large quantity of macrophages that can act as antigen presenting cells.
I know a guy that was Vanessa's agent for a short time. She apparently really did have terrible, terrible skin (makeup and photoshop to wonders) and the Proactiv helped her a lot. I actually swear by it myself.
I never minded a needle being popped in emptied and being subtracted. As mentioned here it seems a good thing to eliminate the need of needles for that. But as the "recipient" it doesn't make much of a difference it seems.
Now, when they bypass the need sticking a needle in one's vein to tap off blood for analys I'll be cheering! That is just so uncomfortable.
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Hallelujah!
Why choose white shoes?
I thought this technology has been around for quite a while? Isn't it really similiar to something that the military uses, and that they used to use in the 1940s-1950s? I know that both my mother and father and I think most kids of their generation (born 1945-1950), have permenant marks left by a vaccination in their arm, in which they didn't use a needle; they used a similiar method as the one described here to inject the vaccination.
YOU'RE WINNER !
Another lame blog
So, if it's not a thing of another past, would that mean it's still a thing of the (a?) present?
Misquitos somehow manage to inject stuff without us ever feeling it at the time. If we fealt it, we would swat the little beast, so it has evolved good pain stealth. It is the itchy after-affects that are the problem.
Maybe inject the vaccination into a bunch of misquitos and then let the patient stay in a closed room with them until they are done. Just find an anesthetic to mix in that one is not allergic to so that there is not after-itch.
A silly idea, but it might inspire a different approach somehow.
Table-ized A.I.
Unfortunately, I see nothing in the article that even mentions the issue of scarring, which imho should be a pretty big deal.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
Would-be-junkies everywhere will finally be able to mainline regardless of their fear of needles. What an age we live in.
Most drugs that are taken IM can also be taken rectally. This is because unlike taking something orally, it bypasses the liver on the first pass.
IANAD, a nurse told me this.
My father remembers back in the 60's when he joined the Navy, they administered the first innoculations with a needle-free microjet injector. They would warn you ahead of time not to move during the injection because the jets of vaccine could cut you quite badly.
No, this is a Microjet
They also have transdermal patches for many things including nitrolglycerine, scopalamine (seasickness), duragesic (mega painkiller)...
And they have a patch for birth control drugs, the ad has scantily-clad women with these things placed somewhere below their navel.
They could have saved a lot of money on this, just get a big band-aid and write "GET OFF ME" on it...
The multi-prong thing you had might have been a Tuberculosis "tine" test.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Thanks to advances in needles, there are insulin injection methods even for those of us that don't pump that are basically painless.
/.ers don't, but modern insulin needles (at least name-brand ones, if your pharmacy tries to sub in generics you're screwed) are TINY. The Becton Dickinson Ultra-Fine II/III series have almost invisible needles that are short and VERY thin. I rarely ever feel them. (Occasionally I hit a nerve directly - ouch. But most of the time they're not felt at all.)
You probably already know this but many other
Bloodsugar tests are a different story. My fingers are slightly callused from all the pinpricks - There are no real painless and definately no viable noninvasive bloodsugar monitoring techniques. Noninvasive bloodsugar monitoring is probably the second biggest Holy Grail in diabetes research (the biggest being an actual cure). The "alternative site testing" advertised by many modern meter manufacturers is highly overrated. If you read the manual of such meters you'll find that alternative site testing is inaccurate and gives a delayed reading and should not be used in many situations. (Of the 5-6 tests per day I run, only one is in conditions where AST is fine. And for that one test it's not worth changing lancet device heads.)
The thing I want most as a diabetic right now though is not painless/easier insulin injections (my NovoPen Junior with B-D Ultra-Fine III needles is both painless and convenient), or noninvasive testing (fingersticks are annoying but I'm used to it), it's CHEAP diabetes supplies. Bloodsugar meter test strips run on the order of $0.50-$1 per test. Insulin prices are skyrocketing. You're basically screwed unless you have a high-end medical insurance plan, which is TOUGH when you're a grad student.
But eventually, an actual cure would be damned nice.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
oh great just what the MLB needs
Flu shot needles used to be huge and hurt like hell.
Starting 4-5 years after I became diabetic, most flu shots changed to much smaller needles similar to those used for insulin injections.
Now you can't feel flu shots at all, just like I can't feel 95%+ of my insulin injections because the needle is so small.
On the other hand, the flu shots tend to make your arm sore as hell starting an hour or so after the injection and continuing for a day or two.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
"Bioengineering students at the University of California..." This was clearly a bunch of students who needed a fix and had a project to turn in. Oh well... The best things in life seem to have all been invented at a time of desperation. More power to em!
-ubuntu others as you would have others ubuntu you.
My brother was working on this 4 years ago! He was the ONLY engineer at a company (powderject), which developed this technology from research done at Oxford University. The system used compressed gas at twice the speed of sound to inject powder directly into the skin with no feeling and no needles. It should be used in the USA soon to deliver the flu vaccine. Strangely, the best thing about it was that it only used 10% of the medicine needed for a normal injection, making the cost of a $100 injection to $10, and they still charge $100 for it.
I had this type of injection 40 years ago. There is nothing new here, move on.
back in the end of the 90s about using needle-less injectors to deliver microencapsulated drugs throught the skin. A team of us investigated the prospect, as injecting depot systems with needles causes lots of hold-up/loss in the vial and needle - and overfill is moreexpensive than normal. There was a ton of various injection technology back then, and it isn't like these people have stagnated innovation, especially as high-potency drugs are being investigated - so you need very small injection volumes. Insuling injections always seem to be pushing the market, but it is quickly adapted other places in pharma and biotech.
One Can Never Own Enough Musical Instruments...
As a diabetic, I've tried lots of new gadgets (helps to have a doctor that's rather technologically literate)... and the Medi-Jector was the first device aside from needles that I've tried.
It's definitely NOT painless, but for around 5-10 units of insulin, it's rather "comfortable", but anything above that can be downright painful (more of a blunt pain than a sharp needle stick pain), and has also caused me welts. It's definitely not for injections where there's a lot of fat (stomach)... only for areas like the arms and legs.
Why are the University of California, Berkley students doing working on a device that with a quick search I see references dating back to 1968.
Man those students are on the cutting edge.
Maybe if all the hippie Berkley students would kick of the Birkenstocks, give up the weekly protesting group and actually study something, they could get up to date, and maybe even see about contributing something new to society.
Hey man that's coooool, got any Twinkies?
Now I've got to be frightened of air, too?
Bioject has been doing this since 1985
The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the Mind -- William Blake
An inkjet tattoo for the needleprobic.
Just think, that with the proper drivers, you can print from any application.
Needles don't always GIVE, you know. Sometimes they TAKE. Consider blood tests. Also I doubt this could be used for continuous intravenous flows.
So the fear of needles will by no means become a thing of the past. Besides, there will probably be people who are afraid of these things, too.
So advances in needleless injections are newsworthy? This in an era when tattoos and piercings have become commonplace? Even my pharmacist has facial piercings. Who's afraid of needles anymore?
I dont know how these air gun type work, but my father has been using a needless injector for his diabetes for the past 10 years or so. The tech used in his is basically a huge spring, the insulin is sucked into the unit and the tension on the spring is adjusted to the users skin type(it does take some trial and error with saline solution when you first get it). Then the unit is pushed up against the skin and the button is pressed releasing the spring. The spring fires so hard that it forces the liquid through the skin. At that pressure, the liquid is harder than a needle. I have used it a few times because I was curious about what my dad was doing everyday. On a good day, you literally feel almost nothing. On a bad day, it feels just like a shot, no worse. The difference being how clean the unit is. Depending on use, they do need to be boiled to remove any buildup in the chamber, its the buildup that slows the liquid and then makes it hurt a bit. The one my father had orginally was 6 inches long, a bit bigger around than a highlighter and weighed about pound. Heavy bastard for its size. Since then he has gotten newer ones that are smaller, lighter, and stonger. It was not the pain that he was opposed to, this is a man who spend 75 days in Stanford ICU, but the psychological aspect of having a metal piece in his flesh.
I remember when I was a kid growing up in the Soviet Union, we had yearly tuberculosis tests. Some years they were given not with a syringe but with a device about the size of hand-held bycicle pump: the nurse would "pump" it once, i.e. pull the top half and press it back into the bottom half, this armed some spring which was enough for several shots. The device was placed on the skin but it had no needle, it made a hiss and fired a jet of liquid into the skin. Did not penetrate very far, just under the skin. When I first saw it, it was way cool. But that was about 25 years ago.
If they've improved the ability to deliver the medicine without bruising, then it's a huge win.
I've recently switched over to an insulin pump from hypodermic based injections, and I can't recommend it highly enough. My control is much improved, it's easier to eat whatever I like, and I enjoy being a cyborg and saying, "You have ten seconds to comply."
Two beta cells up!
or indeed, an HIV patient attacking you with a gun :)
stay frosty and alert
...doesn't the military already use this for their "line up and get shot in the arm" vaccinations and the like?
To quote Health Canada: "people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, anemia, cancer, immune suppression, HIV or kidney disease". Apparently no differentiation is made between someone with a current tumor and someone who, like me, is "under close surveillance".
Part of it - from what I gather - is how nervous they are about my lungs. (Another part of my checkups is a chest x-ray and usually the ol' stethoscope on the back.) One of the carcinomas I had (it was a mixed germ cell carcinoma, one lump with multiple kinds of cancer) is a fast mover and heads right for the lungs. If I come down with the flu and then that little bastard makes an appearance, I'm in trouble. Not only will the symptoms of it be masked by the flu, I wouldn't be able to start the immune-system-punishing chemo right away. It might sound like a longshot - getting the flu and a recurrence of cancer at the same time - but people have wound up dead from longshots before.
Did you get that weird taste in your mouth when they hit you with the radio contrast fluid?
Nope, though they always tell me I will. And that warm gotta-go-to-the-bathroom-right-now feeling doesn't hit me in the bladder like they say. It gets me right in the bowel. Believe me, the longest minute of my life was that first scan I did, where I was simultaneously:
Holding my breath,
gagging on Esophotrast (it'll put you off anything sweet for a day and vanilla for at least a week),
and feeling like my colon was about to explode.
Fortunately, I'm going to a different place now and they don't use the Esophotrast. I'm also used to the minute of sphincter-clenching joy.:)
I thinkn the reason alot of drug users will not use I.M I.V drugs is due to a fear of needles, I feel this would be a very bad idea.
"A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" - DNA
This reasoning is exactly why these systems are no longer widely used. There were quite a few documented instances where hepatitis B was transmitted through the use of contaminated jet injectors. For infection control purposes, it's a lot easier to use a disposable needle than sterilize an injector after every use.
I think needless injections were available decades ago.
In New Zealand a bunch of researchers invented a less painful way of taking blood samples that was needleless. The first application was to test New Zealand Olympic athletes daily for optimal performance. This of course could not be done on a daily basis if it caused scarring or bruising. It was in use on human athletes for a year before the Athens Olympics.
History of Jet Injection
1936 First jet device patented to M. Lockhart, New Jersey
1940 Development of multiple dose jet guns
1947 - 1965 Introduction of jet injection into clinical use (ca. 2,2 Mil. injections reported)
1975 - 1995 Development of first "user-friendly" needle-free injectors
So a technology first patented in 1936 is geek news?
The sweet nurse on my ship was a lot better than a corpman with that damn air gun. Much better.
Maybe it was a first generation but this is how we were given injections when joining the US military, you just stood in line and waited your turn for a gun-like object with several tubes running from it to other equipment, and PSSSFFFT WHAM... It wasn't plesant.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
What's the point of getting your medicine by hypospray if Dr. Crusher's not the one delivering it?
So Star Trek dies but the Hypo-Spray lives on! We already have communicators and the military is trying to build beam weapons so we just need transporters and faster than light travel!
Sometimes at night I imagine the darkness is filled with horrible things with too many teeth, like Julia Roberts.
Something like this was sold to diabetics back in the early 80s, if I remember correctly. I was a small kid then, and my mom decided to give it a try. After a few weeks of nothing but painful bruises, we both decided it the syringes were a better idea. Hurt like HELL!
So, needless to say, I have my doubts.
jas
Jason Van Patten
I still dont understand the fear of needles... I ALWAYS watch with fascination when I get an injection or have blood drawn. Just watch it go in, there's nearly no pain at all. maybe I should be a phlebotomist.
Free electronics!
Are you sure that wasn't a local reaction to the vaccination? Some vaccines cause a rather nasty local reaction that'll leave a scar, skin damage, etc. IIRC the Smallpox vaccine was big on that.
Ooooh, a hypospray! Another example reality catching up to science fiction.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
So I'm still a sissy, but the needles are smaller?:)
On the other hand, the flu shots tend to make your arm sore as hell starting an hour or so after the injection and continuing for a day or two.
Yeah, does it for me (though not this year's for some reason). I'm okay until the next morning, then my arm's darn near useless for the day. It's fine at my side, but if I move it, it hurts and sometimes just refuses to move more than half its standard range. But I suspect that's just my body raising hell with the dead viruses. Temporary arm use for flu defenses seems a fair trade-off.
I read someplace last year that an Israeli company had come up with a similar technology. If anyone is interested, I will try to dig up that info.
Anonymous
Sure they're nothing new the US military has been infecting people with Hep C for decades with these dirty little things C for your self, http://www.hcvets.com/data/transmission_methods/je t_injection.htm
The high pressure jet creates a little pocket in the injection site and efflux occurs splatering blood all over the injector! If you were part of a mass immunization with one of these puppys and happend to be at the end of the line.. Well ick!!
I've seen ads in magazines for glucose test meters that state that the manufacturer will give you a rebate equal to the purchase price if you buy three months worth of test strips.
Which makes me suspect that the makers of the latest electronic test meters sell them at loss, even free in this case, because they count on a steady market for grossly overpriced consumables. Doesn't this sound familiar? Inkjet printer manufacturer discourage you from using refilled/aftermarket cartridges by claiming it's unhealthy for the printer. If they do damage it, the printers are so cheap you just buy a new one. But if there is a chance that an "unauthorized" glucose test strip might give an unaccurate result.... well there is no second chance when your life is at stake.
... didn't the Perry Rhodan series predict that in
the early 1960s already?
AFAIK this comes up every few years, as does the
painless tooth handling (sorry, English is not my
native language), but it's the same as with the
3 Litres per 100 km cars, or the car engines made
from ceramics, which didn't make it because they
don't make enough income (e.g. the ceramics because
they're too stable and don't break apart soon, like
in Asterix & Obelix "we need less durable stones").
My Karma isn't excellent, damn it! (And
Well all the people who have a fear of needles are now safe, but what about people like me, with the fear of 'injections'.
:P
For me, the problem isn't the needle, the problem is the fact that someone is injecting something into me. I'm not sure why I have such a phobia of it, but I will usually lay down on the floor and scream my way out of it.
The jet powered thing, to me, sounds just as bad! They should develop a tablet form of every vaccination
(Sorry if this kind of thing has been mentioned before XD;;)
I don't not believe there isn't a God.
Think about it: Grind up some castor beans, extract the water soluable protein, and put it into a diabetic's needleless injector. Place in palm of hand. Then shake the hand of your (least) favorite politician. Make sure to make it a real hardy wrist shake like from the olden days when handshakes were to feel for dirks hidden up people's sleeves, not just your every day hand to hand shake. That way, you get to press the needleless injector against the thin skin on the underside of the forearm rather than the victim's callosed palms.
Of course, ricin is water soluable, would have to check on soluability of insulin since you would want to use a solvent that was compatible with the needleless injector....
But possibly Ricin would be too impotent a poison to be effective at the dose able to be administered that way. It might be more effective to slip the guy an LSD mickey right before an important campaign speech. The antics that would ensue would then make their election unlikely to say the least... LSD is EASILY potent enough for such a delivery system...
A flying robot drone with a needle would also work unless the victim was a Reverend Mother able to blunt poisons biochemically in their bodies. A Kwizatz Haderach would see the attack coming and avoid it completely, unless of course he chose to take the hit and make you THINK you succeeded...
These will be the days when a handshake or a pat on the back will drive the paranoid insane...
Fentanyl
I remember getting a dozen high pressure "needle free" injections in boot camp in 1974. Latinos had the worst of it, for some reason, they bled more.
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
I have 4-5 meters in my house, all of which were free.
:)
2x Glucometer Dex (my old meter)
2x Accu-Chek Compact
1x B-D Logic
I didn't even have to deal with rebates or committments to buy test strips for any of them. The first Accu-Chek was free from my endocrinologist, the second was free from Accu-Chek themselves IIRC.
And yes, it's taking the whole "give away the razor, charge $$$ for the blades" business model to new levels.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Not being a diabetic I am not familiar with the technology, but I guess that there is no "aftermarket" or "generic" test strips available. All of these medical devices must have to be "FDA approved", and so the agency just does not approve for sale any test strips not made by the OEM for the meter, and the manufacturers for the meters lobby the FDA to keep it that way.
If they're not going to vaccinate you anyway, what's the point in doing the test in the first place?
fish and pipes