New Device can Accurately Mimic Coronary Arteries

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a new device that can accurately mimic coronary arteries in the heart and can be used for personalized testing of anti coagulants.

The researchers made use of the microfluidic device to test out the effectiveness of aspirin in preventing heart attacks among a group of 14 people and found that while the drug does provide protection against dangerous blood clots in some patients, it was not effective in preventing in all patients with narrowed arteries.

The researchers also added that a benchtop diagnostic device similar to the one used in their study could help lower costs and prevent heart attacks by providing better guidance to physicians on how the drugs affect individual patients.

"Doctors have many drug options and it is difficult for them to determine how well each of those options is going to work for a patient. This study is the first time that a prototype benchtop diagnostic device has tried to address this problem using varying shear rates and patient dosing and tried to make it more personalized", Georgia Tech's Melissa Li said.



Source: Medindia