ISLAMABAD, Feb 06 (Online): Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportingTrusted Source that nearly 700,000 Americans died of heart disease in 2021, the most recent year with available data.<\/p>\n
While regular doctor visits and a healthy lifestyle can help lessen the risk of heart disease, a number of new technological advances will give patients and doctors alike new tools to monitor and assess cardiovascular health.
\n\u201cThis is a huge field that will become commonplace in the future care of patients,\u201d Dr. Chang-Han Chen, a cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in California, told Medical News Today.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that we can start getting these technologies in clinical practice,\u201d he added.
\nHere\u2019s a look at five of the new technological advances for monitoring heart health.<\/p>\n
EKG monitoring
\nElectrocardiography (or ECG or EKG) monitoring can offer brief, at-a-glance metrics on a person\u2019s heart rate. In fact, if you\u2019re wearing a smartwatch right now, you may already have this capability on your wrist.
\nOne of the issues with wearable smart devices, though, is battery life. Continuous heart monitoring will inevitably run the power down, necessitating a recharge.
\nHowever, in the near future, this may not present a challenge.<\/p>\n
Researchers in China are developing soft, wearable EKG devices \u2013 effectively a sensor with electrodes that can be taped directly onto the skin \u2013 that generate energy from the wearer\u2019s movements. This means that the device will not need to be externally charged because the electrodes draw power from the body.
\nDr. Shalini Prasad, a professor and department head for the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Texas Dallas, told Medical News Today that because multiple devices can be affixed to multiple areas of the body, they have the potential to be more accurate than a smartwatch.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can measure it just like you can with an Apple Watch, but with the more points you have, the more accurate it becomes,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo right now they\u2019re trying to figure out ways and strategies to do that.\u201d
\nTest strips
\nTest strips are nothing new, as they\u2019ve been used for glucose meters, urine tests, and various other applications for decades.<\/p>\n
A new type of test strip, presented as a proof-of-concept, could be a game-changer when it comes to assessing heart health.
\nResearchers say they have developed paper strips to measure blood serum, which can give readings on three known markers of heart failure.
\nThe straightforward test could yield results in about half an hour and a specialized reader can feed these results directly into a smartphone.<\/p>\n
Soft, dissolvable implant
\nPlacing a sensor inside the body can offer important information on a person\u2019s heart health or their recovery after surgery.
\nHowever, these inorganic devices need to be removed most of the time, necessitating invasive follow-up surgery.
\nA new generation of implants that can measure lactic acid, volatile organic compounds, pH balance, and pressure, could provide some of these same insights \u2013 all without needing to be taken out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter heart surgery, monitoring recovery is going to be very important,\u201d said Prasad. \u201cSo how can you do that inside the body? These sensors are biocompatible and break down, so they can simply dissolve without another surgery. This could open the door to patients not needing to go back to the hospital or doctor every week but having technologies that allow for cardiac health monitoring off-site.\u201d
\nImplantable smart stents
\nHeart stents are an invaluable tool for treating people with heart disease.
\nThe principle is simple: the stents are essentially tubes that are placed in the coronary arteries to keep them open and help facilitate blood flow to the heart.<\/p>\n
However, traditional stents come with a few caveats.
\nWhile they\u2019re designed to be permanent, they can narrow over time and become less effective. They can also be prone to various complications. Finally, while they work on a mechanical level, they don\u2019t offer data on how they\u2019re holding up.
\nVarious researchers have been working on a way to make stents more reliable and durable, which could give doctors insights into various risk factors within the stent before they become a bigger problem down the road.<\/p>\n
Some of the more intriguing research proposes a self-reporting stent that provides more data than earlier \u201csmart\u201d stents, thanks to a larger inductor coil and external antenna. This method would detect whether the blood is flowing as expected.
\n\u201cTechnologies like this, with the ability to monitor things in a relatively non-invasive manner, can port data through the internet and other frameworks, allowing for telemedicine to monitor the health of patients,\u201d Prasad said. \u201cThat\u2019s where you\u2019re going to see cardiovascular disease impacted by this type of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blood biomarkers
\nBlood tests can reveal a lot about a person.
\nIn fact, new research has shown that biomarkers in the blood could help assess a person\u2019s brain health after they go through a cardiac event.
\nTesting on mice shows that immune cells in the blood could indicate whether the brain is inflamed or injured after cardiac arrest.
\nThis means that someday, doctors could be able to better predict \u2013 and improve \u2013 the brain\u2019s recovery after a cardiac event \u2013 all with a simple blood test.<\/p>\n
Why new heart monitoring technology is important
\nIt\u2019s safe to say that doctors have more diagnostic tools today than ever before \u2013 and thanks to emerging medical advances, the accuracy will only continue to improve.
\nChen said that any sensor that provides continuous information can be more helpful than a journal or self-assessment.
\n\u201cWithout these types of long-term continuous monitoring, we wouldn\u2019t be able to diagnose a lot of the hard problems that we need to,\u201d he said. \u201cFor instance, a patient might tell their doctor that they\u2019re having symptoms every few days. With a monitor, a patient can take it home and wear it, and this gives us continuous information that we otherwise wouldn\u2019t have. They\u2019re very essential in the diagnosis of a lot of conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD, Feb 06 (Online): Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportingTrusted Source that nearly 700,000 Americans died of heart disease in 2021, the most recent year with available data. While regular […]<\/p>\n
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