Detecting Infections in Prostheses
Last summer, D. A. Henderson, who led WHO’s Smallpox Eradication Campaign, died from a MRSA infection following a prosthetic hip implant. His work saved the lives of about 300 million people, but a hospital in suburban Baltimore couldn’t control a germ to save his life. That’s not a terribly uncommon outcome, but researchers at the University of California in San Diego may have a system for making implants more infection-resistant. It relies on a new means of imaging, and a thin film that is applied to a prosthetic. “The imaging technique the researchers relied on is an improved version of electrical capacitance tomography — or ECT — which measures the human tissue and prosthesis’ electrical properties using safe electrical fields. An algorithm processes the measurement data to allow physicians to reconstruct a predetermined area’s electrical properties to reveal the health of the tissue, bone and prosthesis. Infection causes changes in the field, which can be detected via ECT.” The thin film is a conductive polymer, with embedded carbon nanotubes, that is sensitive to pH. The imaging detects subtle changes in electrical conductivity resulting from bacterial grown in a low pH environment. MORE
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