Ultrasonic patch attached to skin could provide early warning for strokes and heart attacks

Gulf Today Report

Engineers at the University of California, USA, developed a soft, stretchable, ultrasonic patch, which can be fixed on the skin to monitor blood flow through major arteries and veins.

Knowing how fast and how much blood flows through blood vessels can help doctors diagnose various cardiovascular diseases, including blood clots, heart valve problems, poor circulation in the fingers, or blockages in the arteries which can cause strokes or heart attacks, as doctors said.

Photo used for illustrative purpose.

A team led by Sheng Shu, professor of nanoengineering at the University of California College of Engineering, said the patch could be placed on the neck or chest and could sense and measure cardiovascular signals 14 centimetres deep inside the body, in a non-invasive way.

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"The patch provides a more accurate picture of what's going on, in deep tissues and important organs like the heart and brain," Shu said.

"It will introduce new insights into healthcare," said Zhong Wang, a former nano-engineering graduate student in Zhou's lab and one of the study's first authors. "It also has the advantage that the ultrasound beam can be leant at different angles and directed to areas of the body that are not under the patch."