Infrascanner: Hand-Held Brain Scanner

InfraScan US-based recently launched a medical gadget that can spot blood clots on the surface of the brain known as hematomas. This potentially fatal problem can be detected long before the doctors can figure out things. The device was tested on 15 patients that have been enrolled in its clinical trial for hematoma detection.

The Infrascanner unit is a small (the size of a tin can), portable handheld device based on a PDA platform with wireless detector probes. The handheld features a non-invasive, harmless near-infra-red light (NIR, like that in a remote-control) based mobile imaging device. It is used to detect brain hemotama at the site of injury, a process that is essential in the patient pre-analysis stage. After the scan, the device will wirelessly send the data to the PDA device in order to allow doctors assess the neurological condition of the patient. Due to the fact that it's portable, it can also be carried by paramedics to the scene of accidents in order to prioritise the injured.

The device is intended to fasten up a doctor's decision to proceed with other tests such as Head Computed Tomography(CT, a special kind of X-ray machine). While the methods behind the normal CT scanning are quite sophisticated, the Infrascanner uses diffused optical tomography to convert the light differential data seen in the local concentrations of hemoglobin in to interpretative scientific results. Apparently, the cost-effective small unit would be priceless in hospitals that can't afford professional Computed Tomography scanners.

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