In a new study, researchers have developed a new medical device for the diagnosis of various heart health conditions, including arterial stenosis and heart failure.
The research finding was from the EU-funded CARDIS project.
The project aims to design a robust and low-cost mobile device to screen arterial stiffness and detect stenosis and heart failure.
According to the World Health Organization, more people die annually from heart disease and stroke than from any other cause.
However, previous studies have shown that the diagnosis of heart disease requires specialized testing that can be expensive and difficult to perform.
Identifying people who are at high risks of heart disease play a crucial role in early intervention.
In the current study, the team developed a device that requires minimal physical contact with the patient and minimal skills for the screening of arterial stiffness.
According to the researchers, the operating principle of the device is Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV).
When the device is turned on, a very low-power laser is directed towards the skin overlying an artery.
The patient skin’s vibration amplitude and frequency from the heartbeat can be extracted from the Doppler shift of the reflected beam.
Moreover, the device can scan multiple points on the skin above the artery in parallel.
A silicon photonics chip in the center of the system contains the optical functionality of the multi-beam LDV device.
So far, the team has finished a clinical study with 100 patients in Paris to test the device.
They plan to produce a small series of the device and perform a study that covers a larger group of patients and over a longer time period before starting high-volume production.
The team suggests that at high-volume production, the chip can be produced at low cost.
The project partner is Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (imec).
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