MIT engineer successfully developed a patch that can be seen inside the body

The ultrasound patch is about the size of a stamp, but is capable of creating clear images of the heart, lungs, and other internal organs of the user's body.

Ultrasound imaging is a safe and non-surgical solution to view the inside of the body, allowing doctors to see a patient's internal organs directly. To capture these images, technicians use tubes with ultrasound detectors to direct sound waves into the body. These waves bounce back to give us high-resolution images of the patient's heart, lungs, and other organs deep within the patient's body.

Currently, ultrasound rendering techniques require bulky specialized equipment, which is only available in hospitals and doctors' clinics. But thanks to a new design by MIT engineers, the technology could be available as a wearable, and it can be accessed by anyone by buying a wound patch at a drugstore.

"You can stick several patches on different parts of your body, and they will communicate with your phone, triggering AI algorithms to analyze the image on demand," according to the study author. , Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil environment at MIT. "We believe this research will usher in a new era of wearable rendering: with a few patches on your body, you'll be able to see your organs."

An ultrasonic patch is present.

The remaining problem

To make an ultrasound image, the technician first needs to apply a gel to the patient's skin, which acts as an intermediate in the transmission of ultrasound waves. A probe, or sensor, is pressed onto the gel and sends sound waves inside the body. Sound waves strike internal structures and bounce back to the probe, where the echo is analyzed and converted into clear images.

For patients who need to take pictures of organs for a long time, some hospitals offer a solution to fix the probe to a robotic arm to keep the sensor in place without worrying about hand fatigue; but the liquid ultrasound gel may wash off and dry out, disrupting the imaging process.

Over the past few years, researchers have explored many designs to improve ultrasound probes, thereby providing a cheaper, more comfortable and convenient organ rendering procedure. But this design employs an array of ultra-small, flexible ultrasound sensors, allowing the device to stretch and adapt to the patient's body.

But those designs only produce low-resolution images, in part because of their stretchability: as they move with the body, the sensors will be displaced from their original position, resulting in distortions. photo can be taken.

"Wearable ultrasound rendering tools will have great potential for future medical diagnosis. However, the resolution and imaging process length of the current ultrasound patch is still relatively low, and not can visualize the organs hidden deep below," said Chonghe Wang, a graduate student at MIT.

MIT's New Ultrasound Patch

New approach

The MIT team's new ultrasound patch produces higher resolution images for longer by combining a flexible adhesive with a rigid array of sensors. "This combination allows the device to adapt to the patient's skin while maintaining their position, for clearer and more accurate images," said Wang.

The device's adhesive layer is made up of two thin layers of elastomer, sandwiched between a solid hydrogel, a water-based material with the ability to easily transmit sound waves. Unlike traditional ultrasonic gels, the MIT team's hydrogel is flexible and can be resized flexibly.

"The elastic layer prevents the hydrogel from losing water," according to Chen. "Only when the hydrogel has a high concentration of water can the sound waves effectively penetrate the body and produce high-resolution images of internal organs.

The bottom elastic layer is designed to stick to the skin, while the top layer of glue sticks to a rigid sensor array also designed and manufactured by the team. The entire ultrasonic patch measures only about 2 square centimeters and is 3 mm thick - about the size of a postage stamp!

Ultrasound patches were tested on many healthy volunteers, who applied them to many parts of the body, including the neck, chest, abdomen, and arms. These patches stayed on their skin and gave a clear picture of the underlying structures for 48 hours. During that time, volunteers perform a variety of activities in the lab, from standing up, sitting down, walking, cycling, and lifting heavy objects.

From the resulting images, the team was able to observe changes in the diameters of many of the major blood vessels when the participants sat and stood. These patches also capture more details about deeper organs, like how the shape of the heart changes when it beats hard between exercises. The researchers also observed stomachs rising and falling as the volunteers drank water and urinated. And when some volunteers lifted heavy objects, the team was able to see changes in the muscle bundles, signaling temporary micro-damage they were experiencing.

"With this imaging technique, we're able to capture those moments during exercise before the patch wearer's overtraining, and stop them before the muscles are stressed," says Chen. "We don't know when that moment is, but we're now able to provide visual data that experts can interpret when looking at it."

The team is developing wireless operability for the patch. They are also exploring AI-based software algorithms to better interpret and diagnose the image obtained from the sticker. Zhao hopes these ultrasound patches can be packaged and sold to patients and the general consumer, and not only be used to monitor multiple internal organs, but also monitor the progression of diseases. tumor, as well as the development of the fetus in the womb.

"We envision selling boxes of patches, each designed to take pictures of a different location in the body," Zhao said. "We believe this is a breakthrough in the field of wearables and medical imaging."