Georgia Tech’s Woon-Hong Yeo has developed a 3D-printed, stretchable, battery-free, wireless sensor, implanted in brain blood vessels to measure incoming blood flow, to evaluate aneurysm healing. The tiny device wraps around stents or diverters implanted to control blood flow in affected vessels. It is believed to be the first demonstration of aerosol jet 3D printing to produce an implantable, stretchable sensing system for wireless monitoring.
Inserted using a catheter, the sensor uses inductive coupling of signals to allow wireless detection of biomimetic cerebral aneurysm hemodynamics.
Current cerebral aneurysms monitoring requires repeated angiogram imaging with potentially harmful contrast materials. Cost and potential negative effects limit the use of these techniques. A sensor placed in a blood vessel could allow more frequent evaluations without the use of imaging dyes.