Blood

Blood pressure is one of the main vital signs, measuring the pressure of the blood upon the walls of blood vessels as it is pumped around the body by the heart. High blood pressure, or hypertension, places increased stress on the heart and can be an indicator of other potentially fatal health problems, such as stroke, heart attack, and heart failure. Most people will have had their blood pressure tested using a sphygmomanometer on a visit to the doctor, but a new wristband device is set to provide a more convenient and continuous way to keep a watch for signs of trouble.  Read More

The spleen’s job is to filter our blood. When people are critically ill or have received traumatic injuries, however, the spleen alone is sometimes not able to remove enough of the pathogens on its own – potentially-fatal sepsis is the result. In order to help avert such an outcome in those situations, scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University are developing a device known as the spleen-on-a-chip.  Read More

Blood tests usually involve drawing some blood out of the body. Now scientists from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed an implant that allows blood to be analyzed from within the body, with results then transmitted wirelessly to a computer. While still at the experimental stage, the device could make it easier for health care providers to monitor the chronically ill and provide more personalized treatment to cancer patients.  Read More

Industrial and medical accidents have resulted in about 3,000 cases of acute radiation syndrome with over 100 deaths over the past 60 years. Far larger numbers are possible in the future from major reactor accidents or the use of dirty bombs. In the aftermath of a major incident, the radiation dosages of victims must be sorted out quickly, so that suitable treatment can begin as soon as possible. Medical researchers at the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now developed a simple blood test to determine the exposure of a patient to ionizing radiation, that can be carried out in the field with a hand-held analyzer.  Read More

Blood clots are one way in which the body heals itself after injuries on even the tiniest level. The process is fast, reliable and goes on every minute of the day without our being aware of it. Now, a team led by MIT assistant professor of materials science and engineering Alfredo Alexander-Katz is studying blood clots as a new model for producing self-healing materials.  Read More

Ordinarily, when medical clinicians are conducting blood tests, it’s a somewhat elaborate affair. A full vial of blood must be drawn, individual portions of which are then loaded into large, expensive machines such as mass spectrometers. The results are usually quite accurate, but they’re not instantaneous, and require the services of trained personnel in a well-equipped lab. That may be about to change, however. Scientists from Houston’s Methodist Hospital Research Institute and MD Anderson Cancer Center have created a credit card-sized gadget, that can instantly check a single drop of blood for up to 50 different substances – and it costs about US$10.  Read More

How could cattle become any more useful? Their hide is already used to produce leather, their milk is used for cheese butter and, well, milk, they taste great in a burger and continue to serve as draft animals in many parts of the world. British architecture school graduate Jack Munro has found a way to make a building material using one of the few materials from cattle that currently largely goes to waste – blood.  Read More

While it may not be possible to grow functional human kidneys in a lab just yet, scientists at Italy’s Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research have definitely come a step closer. In a paper published last week, they reported that they have created kidney-like “organoids,” that perform the same functions as kidneys when implanted in rats.  Read More

While the overall lung cancer five-year survival rate in the U.S. is 15 percent, the odds of survival increase significantly with early detection. However, the expense or invasiveness of current screening methods and the lack of symptoms at early stages of the disease means most people aren’t diagnosed until the cancer is well advanced. Findings by researchers at the University of York could pave the way for a simple blood test that would detect the disease even in its early stages.  Read More