Researchers have invented an electronic headband which can diagnose a stroke within five minutes, could save lives and improve the chance of getting a full revival. An ischaemic stroke occurs when a clot is formed in an artery in the brain and slashes the supply of oxygenated blood in the affected area.
About eighty percent of all strokes are ischaemic, which are often caused due to high cholesterol, smoking, and irregular heartbeat. While haemorrhagic stroke occurred when an artery or vein bursts inside the skull and blood pours out into the brain, it occurs as a result of high blood pressure.
The chances of patients’ survival and recovery are much better, if they are injected with clot-busting drugs within the first three hours of appearing the symptoms, such as slurred speech, a droopy eye or mouth and weakness on one side of the body. On reaching hospital, stroke victims are rushed off for a brain scan to see which type of stroke has happened.
The problem doctors often face, it takes several hours for scans to be organized and for the results to be available, which increased the chances of severe brain damage. However, the new high-tech headband developed by research team from University of Cincinnati in US could solve problem. The headband uses a technique known as impedance spectroscopy to examine what is going deep inside the skull.
In this manner how waves of energy flow through different tissue or materials are calculated. The energy is a meek electric current produced by up to ten electrodes in the headband, which encircles the skull. It is worn like a tennis headband. While putting on patient’s head, a doctor flicks a switch and an electric field is generated which flows through the brain.
Each electrode is placed directly opposite another. When the current is passed between each pair, a criss-cross pattern of signals is formed as they pass through the brain, building up a picture of the location and type of damage. Whether, it is an ischaemic stroke, the current is impeded by the clot that has formed and flows less freely.
If it is a haemorrhagic stroke, the rate at which the current flows is higher than normal as it passes through blood more effortlessly than brain tissue. The results are fed to a laptop connected to the headband and converted into an easy-to-read chart that can tell doctors within minutes which type of stroke it is.
In addition to that wearing the headband is not painful; the patient feels only slight pressure as it has to be applied fairly tightly to the scalp. The headband is still in the early stage of development and so far it has been trailed on a small group of participants to prove that the device can quickly generate images of the brain.
source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health