A miniature sensor will show doctors the patient's arteries from the inside.

Cardiovascular diseases kill millions of people every year. At the same time, “clogged” arteries and large vessels cause about 385 thousand deaths per year in the USA alone. In principle, doctors learned how to clean clogged vessels for a long time, but the problem is to determine the most narrow and clogged places is not so simple.



New technologies help physicians, and a detailed examination of the human cardiovascular system is no exception. Recently, researchers from the University of Technology in Georgia presented a new development: a tiny sensor that can show blood vessels to physicians from the inside, and in real time.

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The size of the device is only 1.4 millimeters, and it is capable of much. For example, images transmitted by a chip are voluminous, information is transmitted in real time, as already mentioned. The sensor itself is able to work in the heart, coronary artery and any large vessels. The sensor is used along with the catheter.







The chip is manufactured using CMOS technology; a sensor is also used, which is commonly used in cell phones and webcams. The sensor uses an ultrasonic transducer to process the signal directly on the device, and the data is then transmitted over 13 tiny wires. The sensor, according to the team of researchers, can easily move through the vessels, transferring everything "seen" in its path to the doctors.



Now there are devices that transmit images from the heart muscle and arteries, but they have very limited functionality. The new device allows doctors to see without any problems all the "blockages" in the vessels, and promptly eliminate them. It will also reduce the level of surgical intervention to eliminate congestion in the vessels.



Georgia Tech