Thursday 3 February 2011

Finding Blood clots before they become dangerous

For several decades cardiologists have searched for ways to see blood clots before they cause heart attacks or other cardiovascular diseases.
Now, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have reported that they have designed nanoparticles that find and attach to blood clots and make them visible to a new kind of X-ray technology.

There are already ways of finding out whether a person who comes to a hospital with chest pain is actually experiencing a heart attack or not, but it involves a complicated procedure and an day long stay. This new technology will reduce the wait to a few hours, and a much cheaper procedure.

It can also be used in people who have not had a heart attack yet, but who might have an increased risk factor, overweight people, or smokers for example, to detect risks, or potential blood clots, and help people avoid cardiovascular disease.

The nanoparticles work because they contain the metal bismouth, which can be seen in the body using a new kind of CT-scan, that uses the full spectrum of X-Rays meaning that it can image in colours, not just black and white as normal X-Rays do.
Bismouth is however a toxic heavy metal, and to use it without damaging tissue even more, it has been packed in a chain of fatty acid that cannot be broken apart by the body.

But the new nanoparticle does more than just confirm a heart attack/blood clot, it also shows the exact location of it, which has the potential to save countless lives.

Image of a blood clot (Credit: Massachusetts General Hospital: Vascular Centre)



Also, 100 followers. Wow, in a week! You guys are awesome :)

48 comments:

  1. I wish they had this type of technology about 3 years ago when my uncle passed. might have saved his life.

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  2. Just goes to show that given the right amount of passion and talent, mankind can achieve anything.

    "Advancement only comes with habitually doing more than you are asked" -Gary Ryan Blair

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  3. This is a great news for medicine indeed. Also congratulations to the 100.

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  4. Congrats on the 100, just went past myself!

    following!

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  5. I had a blood clot in my leg, it was pretty scary, it was random, and out of no where, I have low blood pressure, I was lucky to find it.

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  6. Those little sucker really scare me. One minute you're ok, the next you're dead. O_o'
    Congrats on the 100! :)
    Following and supporting!

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  7. Fascinating stuff. Raw bismuth has got to be the craziest looking metal on the planet? Have you ever seen it, it looks like an Escher painting on acid!

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  8. This is great news, i've never had a blood clot but now i know theres a faster solution :)

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  9. Technology is developing so fast. It's like taking a look into the future sort of. Followed!

    ---
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    For all your Pokemon needs!

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  10. ugh, that picture, I get really sick when it's something about blood. At least those are good news.

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  11. this is really cool, medical advances like this always amaze me

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  12. Wow, thanks for spreading the awareness.

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  13. Nice post, medical science always amazes me.

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  14. I can't help to think of tiny robots whenever I hear "nanotechnology", so I'm afraid of them getting out of control inside my body. Of course that is impossible with what is described in the article, but I keep seeing those scenes from "I, Robot" :/

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  15. I've lost a close relative from heart disease. I hope technology will improve enough to prevent those deaths...

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  16. medical technology is just amazing. seriously

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  17. Grats on the big 100 dude! May there be many more :D

    Followed!

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  18. Blood clots are scary things. My father in law, the patriarch of the family, died because of one. One moment he was fine, the next he was in a hospital bed, hurrying through his will to make sure he had everything in order....

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  19. And some day, we'll live till we're 150... hopefully in my lifetime haha!

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  20. This is pretty cool. They are making some amazing advances in medical technology nowadays. I saw a news clip yesterday about a company that developed a spray on technology using stem cells to regrow a burn victims skin in a matter of a few days.

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  21. really great inventions. nanotechnology will save the world someday

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  22. Gotta watch out for nanotechnology, you never know when the robot overlords will enslave us all.

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  23. wow good stuff! and grats on 100 followers!

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  24. This is cool, but of course people have to be willing to get preventative checkups for it to be useful :p

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  25. What an amazing article; I can only hope they can further this technology to be used to find blot clots in the brain. My worst fear ever is having a brain aneurysm; they can occur in almost any one at any age and that horrifies me!

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  26. Technology is amazing now a days. Congrats on 100!

    supporting and following

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  27. Further proof medicine is advancing quite quickly.

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  28. Will be exciting to see development over the years.

    Grats on 100 viewers!

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  29. GOGO nano tech!

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    http://geeknewsb.blogspot.com

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  30. i always worry about blood clotting when i'm on a plane. those seats are just not roomy.

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  31. As someone who very nearly died from a pulmonary embolism a few years ago, this is very interesting!

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  32. Excellent! I'm glad they've made such progress.

    Unrelated: It humors me how that in views of blood cells you can see the vein/artery wall, however if it were to scale, you could be seeing the individual cells in the wall because blood cells are quite tiny.

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  33. Following and Supporting. Thanks alot!
    I love the background!
    Quite spectacular.

    http://goretekz.blogspot.com/

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  34. that image makes me feel like i'm back on the magic school bus

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  35. man nanotechnology is amazing

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  36. Wow interesting, great news on this blog!

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  37. Nice explanations, thanks for sharing.

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  38. Excellent breakthrough in Science!

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  39. i made like this pic by Cinema 4d and after effects it is nice post

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  40. Wow, that is pretty good going! Congrats xo

    http://lifesacarnivalx.blogspot.com/

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