Smart tape helps track Parkinson's disease

A group of US and Korean scientists on March 30 published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology (Nature Nanotechnology) that they created a smart device that is as small as a piece of glue, which helps track Muscular activity of patients with epilepsy or Parkinson's , then can self-medicate the patient to cure disease.

So far, the monitoring of seizure waves and abnormal disorders of Parkinson's disease often use bulky electronic devices and video cameras. The new device looks like a medical tape (Brand-Aid) but uses nanotechnology and can stick to the skin.

Photos: avanceyperspectiva.cinvestav.mx

This smart tape is about 1mm thick, consisting of several layers of ultrathin nanorods and nanoparticles, which are as small as atoms and molecules. With this structure, the new device is limited in size and hardness, much more convenient for patient monitoring

The researchers used ultra-thin silicon nanorods to make motion sensors, gold nanoparticles to make non-volatile memory and drug-impregnated silica nanoparticles to make heat drives. . Research shows that when a patient wears this patch on the wrist, it measures and records the patient's mechanical activity.

Thanks to the help of an ultra-thin humidifier mounted inside, the resulting data "releases" the drug inside the nanoparticles, helping to create a mechanism to deliver the drug to the patient's body through the skin. .

In addition, there is a thermal sensor made of silicon nanorods that helps monitor the temperature of the skin to prevent the skin from burning during the process.

According to scientists, previous surveillance devices are often inflexible and inconvenient for patients. This new device can limit the weaknesses of previous devices such as not accurately grasping information about mechanical activity, high power consumption, requiring storage space and many electronic devices. accompanied by a lack of a mechanism to deliver drugs through the skin