Best Circulatory Assist System And Cobweb Sutures For Medical Sutures. What Medical Solutions Have Been Developed In Russia

Best Circulatory Assist System And Cobweb Sutures For Medical Sutures

This year, as part of the Made in Russia 2022 award, the Snob editors, club members and readers choose the best projects designed and implemented by Russians for the 11th time . We tell you more about the nominees in the category “Science and Technology”, whose inventions are related to the healthcare sector

Neural Network That Warns About Breast Cancer

Researchers at Kazan Federal University (KFU) have developed the world’s first algorithm that helps restore poorly visible parts of a mammogram and captures even minor changes by comparing images taken at different times. Doctors needed such an algorithm, since the tumor in breast cancer (BC) can be smaller than a millimeter – because of this, it is difficult to identify the disease.

The algorithm, which is based on the capabilities of a neural network and a mathematical approach, tells the doctor what to pay attention to and reports on possible tumors. “This system provides detection of 90% of breast cancer cases, including 48% of invisible and 87% of poorly visible cases, on average two years before the actual diagnosis,” the scientists     said .

Assisted Circulatory System

Scientists of the Vladimir State University (VlSU) have patented an electromechanical drive of the circulatory assist system. The invention is needed in order to pump blood to patients with heart disease and those who are preparing for an operation to transplant this organ.

“Now, for the most part, pumps of the so-called constant blood flow are used. In our system, the pulsating principle works, when blood is injected in portions using an artificial ventricle of the heart. In terms of functionality, it is not inferior to foreign analogues, and in terms of price it is at least twice cheaper than existing systems,” said Alexei Zhdanov, Associate Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology at IMiAT. The walkable design weighs around 300 grams and is also suitable for children.

Spider Web Threads For Medical Sutures

A group of scientists from the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) has created a wound healing material from natural spider silk (it acts as a frame) and carbon dots (they are fluorescent – that is, they glow when they absorb light from a certain wavelength).

Here is what the author of the study, a student of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, Elizaveta Maltseva, says about the function of carbon dots: “These nanoparticles can serve as a sensor for detecting pathogens, since when interacting with them, the luminescence of the particles decreases, and no optical response is observed. Usually, when we expose our material to blue light, it turns red. But after interacting with pathogens, the material stops glowing.”

Thus, Maltseva says, it is possible to check how wounds heal after surgery: if during the light test performed by the doctor, the material glows, everything is in order, if not, there is an inflammatory process in the tissues. It turns out that the “hybrid” material can be used both as a thread for suturing, and as a marker signaling wound infection.

Computer Vision Algorithm

Yana Kim, a software engineer, worked for several years at the Aimax web development studio and created websites for X5 Group, VTB and Alfa-Bank. After that, she began working for the 3DiVi software development company. There she oversaw the product line. Together with the co-founder of this company, Andrey Valik, she launched the EVA Lab startup in 2021. First, the team was developing a computer vision algorithm that should help doctors, and now they are trying to improve it.

The algorithm works like this: during endoscopy, it analyzes data from the camera that is in the patient’s body, finds neoplasms and inflammation in the lower gastrointestinal tract, and shows potentially dangerous areas to the doctor on a special screen.

“On the one hand, computer vision is a kind of safety net, a “second opinion”, because a doctor can accidentally miss a small polyp due to inattention or inexperience, on the other hand, this allows a more holistic, comprehensive examination of the organ. At the current stage of technology development, it is only possible to endlessly pump over the knowledge of the algorithm so that, relatively speaking, the machine can surpass even a doctor with twenty years of experience in this regard, ” Kim  explained .

EVA Lab has already moved from theory to practice: now the algorithm is being used in pilot mode at the Chelyabinsk Cancer Center.

Algorithm For Searching For Epileptic Foci In The Brain

In 30% of cases, patients with epilepsy can be helped by neurosurgical intervention, during which doctors remove a section of the cerebral cortex – the epileptogenic zone. It is quite difficult to detect it: its size is about a square centimeter. Now magnetic or electrical encephalography (MEG and EEG) systems are used for this, but the data obtained with their help is not always accurate.

Researchers at the HSE Center for Bioelectrical Interfaces, led by director Alexei Osadchiy, have developed a biometric technique that can be used to find signs of epileptic activity in different parts of the human cortex on an electroencephalogram. The results of the study by Russian scientists are published in the scientific journal Journal of Neural Engineering.

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