INDIA - Voices
Loud - Achievements and Achievers march forward!!! - Article 2 - ARTSENS
Affordable and reliable cardiac care invention by IIT Madrasis
Good things never reach people. It has to be taken to
people free of cost. There are a host of new inventions by indian scientist and
technicians and graduates of india's premier institutes and research
organizations which has not yet garnered people's attention. I feel privileged
in bringing these details to the larger audience who will educate the lesser
net savvy audience but are passionate about india's growth stories. Here it is
for you.
ARTSENS is a non expert operable cardio vascular screening
tool invented by technical elite group of IIT madras!!!
Cardio
vascular disease is the prime cause of death of global population. Life style,
stressed habits, mental stress, obesity, lack of exercises are all various
reasons attributed for this cardio vascular disease more in the employed elite.
tiffness
of artery walls is an established marker of vascular health with stiffer
arterial walls often observed in subjects with vascular problems. However,
state of art technology for non-invasive evaluation of the vessel wall
properties typically require an imaging system such as ultrasound to visualize
arterial geometry and an expert radiologist to capture correct images and
identify arterial anatomical features for performing stiffness measurement.
The requirement of expensive technology and extensive
technical expertise to use that technology limits wide spread use of image
based arterial stiffness measurement in clinical practice.
Clinical
Need
There is an unmet need for an
affordable, easy-to-use technology to non-invasively measure arterial stiffness
in an automated manner, which could be used by general medical practitioners
and health workers. Such a non-expert operable device, which performs automated
measurement would mitigate the skill barrier and also reduce the time taken for
test, thereby making it suitable for large scale cardiovascular screening.
ARTSENS Technology - Arterial Stiffness
Evaluation for Non-invasive Screening)
This ARTSENS technology is a two minute procedure could very
well save your heart without scarring the wallets of economically weaker
section of society.
ARTSENS is an image-free technology to non-invasively
investigate arterial wall dynamics and perform automatic measurements of
arterial stiffness with no operator inputs. This device costs less than a lakh
and non invasively measures the stiffness of blood vessels in just a matter of
seconds. ARTSENS utilises a high frequency ultrasound transducer to capture
artery wall dynamics. The transducer insonates the region around the carotid
artery and also receives the echoes reflected by different anatomical
structures in the sound propagation path.
Transducers (senses the artery signals or pulses and converts
into a electrified signal on a controlled computer or Sensors that convert
biological signals into electrical analog signals.)
Intelligent signal processing algorithms, based on advanced
mathematical methods, developed after extensive research into the echo signal
characteristics, allow accurate identification of arterial structures, and
tracking of wall motion to measure arterial distension, with no operator
inputs. Robust artery detection, wall-tracking and on-line distension wave
analysis techniques developed in HTIC, enables the system to give a measurement
of arterial stiffness within a minute of placing the probe over the neck of the
subject.
Subject refers a patient
A healthy person’s arteries are highly elastic and expand and
contract with every heart beat. The arterial stiffness clearly indicates
vascular injury and the need for immediate repair. This alters blood flow and
creates blocks leading to cardio vascular disease.
This will not have any images to be interpreted and everything
will be automated and reading result is very easy. The device will enable
detection in early stages of arterial stiffness thereby help combat the cardio
vascular problems more aggressively.
Miniaturised hardware modules for transducer excitation and
synchronised data acquisition were developed in-house, and integrated with
intelligent computing modules for real-time processing and on-line signal
analysis to develop a prototype device. HTIC is currently developing a
hand-held version of the ARTSENS device.
A prototype of the device has been tested at MediScan Systems,
Thambiran Heart and Vascular Institute and Sri Ramachandra University over the
past six months. "Over the next year, we plan to validate it in multiple
centres across the country before making it commercial," said Dr
Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, head of HTIC
HTIC – Healthcare Technology
Innovation Centre a wing of IIT madras.
Refer for more details the following links:
