Low Frequency Mechanical Actuation Accelerates Reperfusion In-Vitro

Background Rapid restoration of vessel patency after acute myocardial infarction is key to reducing myocardial muscle death and increases survival rates. Standard therapies include thrombolysis and direct PTCA. Alternative or adjunctive emergency therapies that could be initiated by minimally trained personnel in the field are of potential clinical benefit. This paper evaluates a method of accelerating reperfusion through application of low frequency mechanical stimulus to the blood carrying vessels. Materials and method We consider a stenosed, heparinized flow system with aortic-like pressure variations subject to direct vessel vibration at the occlusion site or vessel deformation proximal and distal to the occlusion site, versus a reference system lacking any form of mechanical stimulus on the vessels. Results The experimental results show limited effectiveness of the direct mechanical vibration method and a drastic increase in the patency rate when vessel deformation is induced. For vessel deformation at occlusion site 95% of clots perfused within 11 minutes of application of mechanical stimulus, for vessel deformation 60 centimeters from the occlusion site 95% percent of clots perfused within 16 minutes of stimulus application, while only 2.3% of clots perfused within 20 minutes in the reference system. Conclusion The presented in-vitro results suggest that low frequency mechanical actuation applied during the pre-hospitalization phase in patients with acute myocardial infarction have potential of being a simple and efficient adjunct therapy

Architecture and Design of a Low Frequency Mechanical Actuation Device for Pre-Hospitalization Treatment of Myocardial Infarction Patients

One of the major factors in increasing the survival rate of patients suffering from acute coronary ischemia is the speed of intervention. Two major techniques are currently in use: pharmacological and interventional. The former is slow acting and often leads to incomplete reperfusion, while the latter requires specialized personnel and a cathlab. This thesis proposes a novel method for pre-hospitalization treatment of patients with acute coronary ischemia that can be safely applied by a minimally trained individual prior to or during patient transportation to hospital. It consists of applying low frequency mechanical vibration to the left intercostal space of patient’s chest during diastole to induce vibration on the heart and thus on the coronary arteries. Additionally, the method includes application of direct, distal, mechanical, arterial deformation to induce turbulence in the blood flow. Mechanical vibration increases coronary blood flow, acts as a strong vasodilator, and relieves heart spasms likely to be seen in heart attack patients. Direct arterial deformation generates turbulence in the blood, which amplifies mixing of clot busting agents with thrombi. Furthermore, it imposes shear stress on the clot wall to achieve clot displacement and/or disruption. In order to investigate the impact of mechanical actuation on clot lysis and also to examine feasibility of a device for application of mechanical vibration on the chest of myocardial infarction patients, three major studies are presented that also form the three objectives of this work: the first study introduces an electromechanical apparatus to study the effects of mechanical vibration and deformation on disrupting blood clots in-vitro with and without combined use of thrombolytic agents. The second study describes the design and architecture of a prototype device for application of Diastolic Timed Vibration (DTV) on the chest of heart attack patients for increasing the coronary blood flow, and improving the weak relaxation of the ill myocardium. The final experiment presents a preliminary investigation on a human subject to determine whether direct distal arterial deformation could cause turbulence in the blood flow for better mixing of fibrinolytics with clot and induce stress on the clot and the clot wall

Smart Traffic Light [glare reduction traffic light]

The Smart Traffic Light (STL) has the ability to sense fog and the intensity of ambient light, upon which it adjusts its lamp brightness accordingly, thereby consuming maximum power only when necessary. The STL will be largely compatible with current traffic light standards and will incorporate some existing glare prevention innovations. The STL also indicates the color of the illuminated lamp by displaying the symbol R for red, G for green, and A for amber. The color of the illuminated lamp is indicated in order to enable people who suffer from color deficiency to distinguish the state of the traffic light