New Method to Measure Brain Pressure to Forego Surgery
Measuring skull pressure through a non-invasive procedure is becoming closer to reality after scientists developed a system that only involved simple sound waves to be detected by a pair of headphones.
Just like blood pressure, the human body controls and cushions the fluid pressure to prevent it from hitting the skull. But brain tumours as well as trauma and concussions can increase the pressure in the skull, which may lead to the clotting of blood and blockage of blood supply, and damage to tissues. Relieving the brain from pressure is crucial to save the patient from the life-threatening effects of brain injury. Therefore, monitoring the pressure is necessary to determine what form of treatment is most suitable for the patient. However, the procedure is so invasive, involving drilling a hole through the skull.
Elevated intracranial pressure has also been noted in severe forms of mountain sickness which affects people living in very high altitudes. Such increase in brain pressure is expected to be observed for as high as 3440 m.
Brain pressure to be detected using sound waves
It was Paul Avan, a scientist from the University of Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand, France who first investigated the possibility of a non-invasive system of measuring brain intracranial pressure. He theorised that brain pressure can be detected and monitored through the inner-ear pressure. He then developed a device that beams sound into the ear and calculates the pressure based on the changes in the sound echoes.
When the CNES space agency in France heard about Avan’s work, they asked to use the new device on a parabolic aircraft flight during 22 seconds of weightlessness. Due to the effectiveness of the invention, it was improved during a study organised by the DLR German Aerospace Centre last year.
"ESA was instrumental in helping to improve the system and make it smaller," says Avan.
After a series of research, his invention resulted into a computer device about a size of a portable hard disk. It can even be used even in noisy environments such as hospital emergency wards. Before it hit the market, the new device will be tested at the international Concordia research base in Antarctica in 2013. For the experiment, it will be used to measure the brain pressure of the crewmembers as they live at an isolated base 3200 m high in Concordia.
ESA researchers specifically chose this place because just like astronauts, people in Concordia tend to suffer from headache and lack of sleep due to their ‘unfavourable’ geographical location. Further research to intracranial pressure may ultimately pave the way to the best ways in dealing with pain in places where headache is a major issue. As Avan puts it, if it works in Concordia, it will work anywhere.
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Measuring skull pressure without the headache
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