blood

Temple University physics department chair Rongjia Tao made headlines in 2008 when he developed a simple device that creates an electric field to thin fuel, thereby reducing the size of the droplets injected into the engine and improving fuel efficiency.

Now, Tao and former graduate student Ke Huang are unveiling their latest research that this same principle, when applied to the human body, can help thin blood and reduce one's risk of heart attack--without the side effects of blood thinners such as aspirin.

After testing numerous blood samples at Temple, the physicists were able to use a magnetic field of 1.3 Telsa (roughly equivalent to what is used in an MRI) for just one minute to polarize the red blood cells, which contain iron, thereby causing those cells to link together in short, streamlined chains flowing down the center of blood vessels and reducing friction along the walls.

The result: smoother blood flow. In fact, after just 1 to 12 minutes of exposure to the magnetic field via a 1,000-pound magnet, blood viscosity decreased by 20 to 30 percent for several hours. Eventually, blood viscosity returned to previous levels.… Read more

It's inspiring to visit a university laboratory and see fresh-faced college students working on experiments that may some day have huge impacts on our lives. And on our trip to the University of California at Berkeley this week we found just that. In the campus' Stanley Hall, there's a team of researchers working on a new blood-analysis chip or Self-powered Integrated Microfluidic Blood Analysis System (SIMBAS), that can potentially detect hundreds of diseases at once in a matter of minutes.

During my campus visit with cameraman and editor Jared Kohler, we interviewed bioengineering Professor Luke Lee and post-doctoral … Read more

Researchers have unveiled encouraging results of the first human randomized control trial of a procedure called therapeutic renal denervation to reduce and control hypertension in patients where medications aren't working. The announcement came at this week's Society of Interventional Radiology's 36th Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago.

While the study involved only 106 adults and was funded by the manufacturer of the catheter and generator, the procedure--which uses a catheter-based probe to emit high-frequency energy directly into the renal artery to deactivate nerves linked to high blood pressure--does appear to be effective. That's particularly notable because these … Read more

With some 26 million Americans living with diabetes (8.3 percent of the U.S. population), according to the American Diabetes Association, a lot of research is going into how to make blood glucose monitoring more effective and affordable.

Researchers at Arizona State University and the Mayo Clinic are partnering up to develop a monitor that enables people to dab their tear ducts instead of prick their fingers--which could be a big deal for those who currently draw blood as many as a dozen times a day to monitor their blood glucose levels.

"The problem with current self-monitoring blood glucose technologies is not so much the sensor, it's the painful finger prick," Jeffrey LaBelle, a bioengineer and chief designer, said in a news release. "This new technology might encourage patients to check their blood sugars more often, which could lead to better control of their diabetes by a simple touch to the eye."

The team reported on the first stage of their research on the sensor in Diabetes Science and Technology in March 2010, and quickly sparked interest from Arizona-based nonprofit BioAccel, which works to speed up the process of bringing biomedical technologies to the marketplace.

Using funding from BioAccel, the team is now compiling data to apply for human clinical trials of the device, but major challenges remain, including accuracy, efficiency, speed of performing the test, reproducible results, and of course making sure the test sample does not evaporate before it can be read.… Read more

In what is being hailed by experts as a "scientific breakthrough" that could "revolutionize" the way blood pressure is measured, researchers in Singapore and the UK report in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on a novel device that can measure blood pressure near the heart.

The CASPro blood pressure monitor is named after central aortic systolic pressure (CASP), which is the pressure exerted by the aorta--the body's largest artery--that extends out from the heart. CASP is a key indicator of stroke and heart disease risk, and its measurements … Read more

The toughest part of covering health and fitness at CES is that the job inherently involves being reminded that, at least as far as this week is concerned, we should be consuming less coffee and junk food and getting more sleep.

Fortunately, the new Withings Blood Pressure monitor is so sleek and easy to use that my high blood pressure reading this morning didn't get me down.

Just out this month for $129, the monitor wraps around the upper arm like any other, but it can plug directly into an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, allowing the simple set … Read more

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

It's tablet time at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. We are expecting to see tablets from Verizon, Toshiba, Lenovo, and Vizio

Toshiba will also show off a glasses-free 3D laptop

Netflix announces a one-click button coming to TV remotes

A new iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app helps you read your blood pressure

The newest version of Rock Band will feature the music of Johnny Cash

Be sure to keep up with all things CES this week here on CNET

How'd you like to check your pulse, respiration, and blood pressure as you brush your teeth in the mirror each morning? A PhD candidate at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology is working to make this a reality in the near future.

Electrical and medical engineering student Ming-Zher Poh has already used low-res Webcam imaging to measure the human pulse. He's now working on adding respiration, blood oxygen levels, and blood pressure to the list--all by having people simply peer into a camera or, for those who'd rather multitask, into a mirror in front of that camera.

The system works by measuring the slightest variations in brightness produced by blood flow through blood vessels in the face. Poh used public-domain software to identify facial positions in any given image and break that information into separate red, green, and blue portions of the video images.

To deal with both movement in front of the lens as well as different ambient light, Poh adapted a method known as ICA (Independent Component Analysis)--a signal-processing technique originally developed to extract a single voice from a room of conversations--to find the pulse signal amid all the video noise.

Initial results of the project, which Poh conducted with Media Arts and Sciences Professor Rosalind Picard and Media Lab student Daniel McDuff, were outlined in May in the journal Optics Express.

The pulse results turned out to be pretty reliable when compared with measurements taken by an FDA-approved monitoring device.… Read more

Both Natali Del Conte and Jill Schlesinger join the show today to talk all sorts of mischief, and what an apropos day because we have gifts! That's right, our good friend Joe from Hawaii sent in wooden plaques of our beloved 404 stickers, and they look fantastic.

As you can see, Natali is very pregnant and might pop any day. If you ask her, the New York City heat wave is not only crushing Con Ed; it's not helping her mood. Jill and all the women in the office are jealous, though, that she manages to keep her … Read more