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Wirelessly Powered Medical Implant Propels Itself Through the Bloodstream

Posted by Soulskill on from the boy-it's-dark-in-here dept.

cylonlover writes "With the wait still on for a miniaturization ray to allow some Fantastic Voyage-style medical procedures by doctors in submarines, tiny electronic implants capable of traveling in the bloodstream show much more promise. While the miniaturization of electronic and mechanical components now makes such devices feasible, the lack of a comparable reduction in battery size has held things back. Now engineers at Stanford University have demonstrated a tiny, self-propelled medical device that would be wirelessly powered from outside the body, enabling devices small enough to move through the bloodstream."

9 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. What do you call... by Overzeetop · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What do you call a small, disabled/inert object flowing through your circulatory system? A stroke waiting to happen.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:What do you call... by jimbolauski · · Score: 2

      What happens when shit goes wrong and the device loses power, it will wind up in the lungs (Pulmonary Embolism) or brain (stroke). What fail safe could there possibly be to stop an object from moving freely without stopping the flow of blood around the object.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    2. Re:What do you call... by timeOday · · Score: 2

      Applications aside for the moment, I am absolutely amazed that the propagation of RF energy through the body was so wrongly understood previous to this. With all the types of imaging and treatments that involve radiation, from x-rays to airport mm wave scanners to radiotherapy, how can it be nobody had tested frequencies in this range? I'm sure the cellphones-cause-cancer crowd will be fascinated to hear that the optimum frequency for tissue penetration is around 1 GHz, which just happens to be in the middle of cellphone spectrum.

    3. Re:What do you call... by izomiac · · Score: 3, Informative

      The blood brain barrier refers to the tight junctions between endothelial cells in the capillaries of the brain. With age these junctions loosen. Here is a scanning electron microscope picture of such a capillary.

      A stroke generally involves a macroscopic embolus getting stuck in an artery in the brain. As-in a pathologist can often physically find it during an autopsy (I once heard of one that showed how one fit together with a thrombus in the leg much like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle). The scale of the BBB and a thrombus is completely different.

      IOW, a stroke involves blocking an artery, which happens long before it reaches the capillaries and BBB. You can contrast this with a pulmonary embolus which is usually a shower of small clots blocking smaller blood vessels in the lungs (although you can get things like a saddle embolus where a large clot blocks both pulmonary arteries... it's very bad).

  2. oh no by formfeed · · Score: 3, Funny

    First thing that came to my mind was the Breeding cycle of the black helicopter

    I should get out more

  3. Cool but ... ? by RNLockwood · · Score: 3, Informative

    What's that word I'm looking for? Ah, yes, embolism. That's what it's called if it get's stuck in too small artery.

    --
    Nate
  4. ditch the batteries by L3370 · · Score: 2

    While we wait for nanobatteries, we could ditch the battery supply altogether and use external magnetic forces to propel it through the vessels. Maybe an MRI unit with some tweaks? Then harness the energy of rushing/flowing blood to power the sensors taking readings.

  5. Re:Frosty implants by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2

    Tiny, self-propelled medical device, moving through the blood-circulatory system?

    We men of-a-certain-age, DEMAND these include RAQUEL WELCH!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  6. It it just a model? by Extremus · · Score: 2

    I gave a look at the article, but didn't find any mention to a working prototype. Since the device requires a new model of human tissue to be right, it will be nice if they could test the model first.