By now, we have realized that technology can prove to be helpful in a wide variety of situations. More importantly, it can do so without hurting its attention to a particular situation. This is the quality which has done a lot to bolster technology’s stock across the globe. It’s not to say that technology would have fallen face-first if it wasn’t for the versatility, but the presence of such a feature preached to make it a centerpiece of all the major sectors. The results we see today clearly validate our decision. There is not a single commercial sector that didn’t reap at least some benefit from the emergence of technology. No matter how subtle the effect looked, it was still there, fanning the sphere’s growth. While you can observe this case in multiple places, there are also industries where you don’t have to work so hard to learn what kind of impact technology had for them. One such industry would be of medical sciences. What the addition of tech framework did for medical world cannot be stated enough. It was only a couple of decades ago when medical sector looked anything but promising. Be it the doctors or the patients, everyone had to suffice with substandard tools that hardly used to trigger any feelings of confidence or trust. However, now we have gone to the other extreme end of the spectrum. There is no lack of effective medical devices today, devices which can fix our problems while making sure we are experiencing minimal or no discomfort at all. The focus has shifted to less work and more productivity, and it shows up quite evidently in Michigan State University’s latest discovery.
A team of researchers at the university have developed a setup that facilitates the imaging and identification of inflamed atherosclerotic plaques. The methodology uses carbon nanotubes that are carried up by macrophages and monocytes as they lodge around inflamed plaques. Once that is done, the professional would shed light on the blood vessel they want to examine, and as soon as they do that, the instilled nanotubes would vibrate in response. The purpose of this photoacoustic effect is to guide the professional in locating and visualizing plaques at risk of rupture.
Atherosclerotic plaque rupture has remained one of the biggest reasons behind strokes and heart attacks, yet the progression in regards to identification of these plaques has been sluggish. Hence, this development from Michigan State University comes as a substantial breakthrough for the field of medicine. When asked to give an insight into this new technology, a member of the researching team, Bryan Smith said:
“The power of our new technique is in its selectivity. There are certainly other methods to image plaques, but what distinguishes this strategy is that it’s cellular.”
Several medical experts are speculating this creation to be the next chapter for now globally-used 3D imaging techniques.
