FRIDAY, July 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) – The future of ultrasound it could be an adhesive stuck to the skin that can transmit images continuously for 48 hours.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a device the size of a postage stamp that creates high-resolution live images. They reported on their progress this week.
“We think we’ve ushered in a new era of wearable imaging: With a few body patches, you could see your internal organs,” said lead study author Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil engineering and environmental at MIT.
The sticker, about 3/4 inch in diameter and about 1/10 inch thick, could be a substitute for bulky and specialized. ultrasound equipment available only in hospitals and the doctor’s office, where technicians apply a gel to the skin and then use a wand or probe to direct sound waves into the body.
The waves it reflects high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs and stomach. Although some hospitals already have probes attached to robotic arms that can provide images for extended periods, the ultrasound gel dries out over time.
For now, the stickers would still need to be attached to instruments, but Zhao and other researchers are working on a way to use them wirelessly.
This opens up the possibility for patients to take them home or buy them at a pharmacy. Even in their current design, they could eliminate the need for a technician to hold a probe in place for a long time.
In the study, the patches adhered well to the skin, allowing the researchers to capture images even as the volunteers transitioned from sitting to standing, running, and cycling.
“We envision a few patches attached to different locations on the body, and the patches would communicate with your cell phone, where AI algorithms would analyze the images on demand,” Zhao explained in an MIT press release.
A different approach tested (extensible ultrasound probes) yielded images with poor resolution.
“[A] The portable ultrasound imaging tool would have great potential in the future of clinical diagnosis. However, the resolution and imaging duration of existing ultrasound patches is relatively low, and they cannot image deep organs,” said co-senior author Chonghe Wang, a graduate student working in Zhao’s lab.
The MIT team’s new ultrasound adhesive produces higher-resolution images by combining an elastic adhesive layer with a rigid array of transducers (they convert energy from one form to another). In the middle is a solid hydrogel that transmits sound waves. The adhesive layer is made of two thin layers of elastomer.
“The elastomer prevents dehydration of the hydrogel,” explained co-senior author Xiaoyu Chen. “Only when the hydrogel is highly hydrated can the acoustic waves penetrate effectively and give high-resolution images of the internal organs.”
Healthy volunteers wore the stickers on various areas, including the neck, chest, abdomen, and arms. The stickers produced clear images of the underlying structures, including the changing diameter of major blood vessels, for up to 48 hours. They held together as volunteers sat, stood, jogged, cycled and lifted weights.
They showed how the heart changes shape as it contracts during exercise and how the stomach swells, then shrinks, as the volunteers drink and then expel the juice. The researchers were also able to detect signs of temporary micro damage to the muscles as the volunteers lifted weights.
“With imaging, we could capture the moment of a workout before overuse and stop before the muscles hurt,” Chen said. “We don’t yet know when that moment might come, but we can now provide imaging data that experts can interpret.”
In addition to working on wireless technology for the stickers, the team is developing artificial intelligence-based software algorithms that can better interpret ultrasound images.
Zhao believes that patients may one day be able to purchase stickers that could be used to monitor internal organs, tumor progression and the development of fetuses in the womb.
“We imagine we could have a box of stickers, each one designed to represent a different location on the body,” Zhao said. “We believe this represents a breakthrough in wearable devices and medical imaging.”
The findings were published July 28 in Science.
More information
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering has more information ultrasound.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, press release, July 28, 2022
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