Monday, May 11, 2009

Lab-on-a-Tube for Multimodality Neuromonitoring Post Brain Injury

Filed under: Military Medicine , Neurological Surgery , Surgery

Understanding the state of the intracranial environment is important in patients following traumatic brain injury. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have created a "lab-on-a-tube" device that can drain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) while monitoring the pressure, oxygen content, temperature, and glucose within the intracranial space. The researchers describe the new device that uses sensors wrapped into a helix in the March 20th issue of Lab on a Chip.

From the paper:

The new LOT offers numerous advantages over existing approaches: (a) only one hole is needed to place the LOT, hence it is less invasive; (b) the diameter of the LOT can be contracted or expanded to safely lie within intracranial and intravascular locations, thus minimizing the potential trauma associated with existing technologies; (c) the use of a single device is less expensive and less complicated when compared with the use of multiple individual sensors; (d) the LOT can provide both focal (brain tissue) and global (CSF/blood) information, which is an improvement over the cerebral microdialysis (MD) technique that is limited to focal neurochemical information;3,4 and (e) the buried spirally-rolled microchannels can not only deliver in vivo calibration solution for the biosensors, but also allow convection-enhanced and targeted drug delivery to be realized.

Full article in Lab on a Chip: A novel lab-on-a-tube for multimodality neuromonitoring of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Images: Side 2: Conceptual drawing of a novel lab-on-a-tube for multimodal neuromonitoring of patients with traumatic brain injury. The lab-on-a-tube can measure pressure, oxygen, temperature and glucose information as well as drain CSF simultaneously.; Side 2: Schematic drawing of LOT. PVDF-TrFE film with pressure sensor, Kapton film with glucose, oxygen and temperature sensors, and parylene microchannels were stacked, bonded and rolled spirally to form a tube. Center: Photographs of fabricated devices: LOT (ID = 1.5 mm; OD = 1.7 mm) is anchored through customized bolted ventricular and connected to LabView monitoring system and CSF drainage bag.

(hat tip: gizmag)

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