A small wire can be guided through the smallest blood vessels in the brain

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A small wire that can be guided through the smallest blood vessels in the brain in surgery could help doctors treat brain disorders

  • Wire uses blood flow through vessels to create a smooth passage
  • Existing techniques require a doctor to push a string through the body by hand
  • The new device will allow clinicians access to all parts of the body

By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Scientists have built a thinner strand of human hair designed to build tiny blood vessels in the brain.

The device allows doctors to access parts of the body that current procedures cannot reach because the capillaries are too narrow.

Swiss researchers developed the device that uses patients ’blood flow to create a smooth passage through sinuous vessels, reducing pressure on the walls and reducing the risk of perforation.

It is hoped that this approach could advance to a new frontier in therapeutic medicine as doctors can get deeper into the brain and nervous system than ever before.

A thinner strand of human hair designed to build small blood vessels in the brain by scientists has also been guided by the use of magnetic fields.

Conventional diagnostic devices involve using a catheter to enter an artery, often the lung or femoral, and then the wire is pushed and pulled around the body.

This can lead to the wire becoming entangled, punching through and rupturing the vessel leading to internal bleeding and making it impossible to get to the periphery of the cardiovascular system.

‘Most of the brain is still accessible because the existing organs are bulky, and navigating through the minuscule and tortuous cerebral vasculature without causing thin damage is good. challenging, ’the researchers write in their study, published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers also tested the procedure to see if they were able to navigate the small blood vessels in a rabbit's ear. 'The hydrodynamic forces carried the flexible catheter inside the rabbit's ear vessels, and magnetic guidance allowed the machine to move through bifurcations,' the authors write

Researchers also tested the procedure to see if they were able to navigate the small blood vessels in a rabbit’s ear. ‘The hydrodynamic forces carried the flexible catheter inside the rabbit’s ear vessels, and magnetic guidance allowed the machine to move through bifurcations,’ the authors write

Scientists are discovering a new type of brain cell

Scientists have discovered a new type of brain cell that will help us remember where we left off our personal belongings.

GPS – like brain cells are already known to store ‘maps’ of the places we have been, such as a kitchen or inside an office.

However, the recently discovered Vector Trace cells allow us to identify objects – such as car or mobile phone keys – within these ‘mind maps’.

The British researcher behind the study says future research on Vector Trace cells could help explain why people with dementia lose memory.

Researchers thought that the process could be slowed down by working with the blood flowing through the vessels and made a prototype that is strong enough to hold its shape but flexible enough to fit. twisting knots if necessary.

This method is completely dependent on blood flow and when the pump was turned off in laboratory tests the wire became limp and lost all tension.

In a video accompanying the study the researchers show how the new device flows through tiny tubes in a laboratory that replicates the network of blood vessels in the body.

The device can also be steered at junctions to get in the right direction using magnets, the researchers add.

Instead of having to manually connect the wire up a vessel against the current, they can insert a small magnetic field from the outside of the body that pulls the head 0.04mm apart. -wired in the right direction and toward the location you want.

Researchers also tested the procedure to see if they were able to navigate the small blood vessels in a rabbit’s ear.

Nine ears were used and the criss-cross the ears were filled with ink to find the location of the wire.

‘The hydrodynamic forces carried the flexible catheter inside the rabbit’s ear vessels, and allowed magnetic guidance for the device to move through bifurcations,’ the authors write.

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