A portable ultrasound device attached to a durable, adhesive, elastic material enables continuous medical imaging of internal organs and tissues for moving patients, researchers report. They tested their patch on real people doing activities like running and drinking fluids.
Ultrasound imaging is one of the most widely used medical tools for non-invasive imaging of soft tissues and organs within the body. Continuous or long-term ultrasounds over days or months could allow doctors to monitor health status and observe disease progression, as well as lead to new insights into developmental biology.
However, in most cases, conventional ultrasound devices require close and continuous contact between a bulky and rigid transducer and the skin, which makes long-term internal observations difficult, especially in patients who need to be mobile.
Although stretchable ultrasound imaging devices have improved portability, they still suffer from limitations such as low image resolution, unstable image quality during body movement, short continuous image duration ( ~ 1 hour) and susceptibility to device failure.
Chonghe Wang and colleagues present the “BAUS” (bioadhesive ultrasound) patch, a device that could overcome many of these challenges. The BAUS device consists of an array of thin, rigid piezoelectric ultrasound transducers, which is bonded to the skin with a durable, soft, bioadhesive hydrogel-elastomer, which allowed more than 48 hours of robust adhesion to the skin throughout preserving its acoustic transmissivity.
Wang et al. demonstrated its ability to provide continuous in vivo imaging by tracking carotid artery, lung, and abdominal tissues using BAUS and a commercially available ultrasound platform under various environmental conditions and for different patient movements, including running and drinking fluids. In a related perspective, Philip Tan and Nanshu Lu discuss the potential and limitations of the BAUS patch in more detail.
Source:
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Journal reference:
Wang, C. et al. (2022) Bioadhesive ultrasound for long-term continuous imaging of multiple organs. science doi.org/10.1126/science.abo2542.