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:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/IIT-Madras-comes-up-with-quick-route-to-keep-heart-disease-at-bay/articleshow/24897638.cms

https://www.facebook.com/ReachIITM/posts/684181251603331

http://www.htic.iitm.ac.in/?q=artsens