Mini Transmitter Saves BabiesA NASA-DEVELOPED "PILL TRANSMITTER" IS expected to begin monitoring mothers and their babies following corrective fetal surgery for body temperature, pressure and other vital signs in the womb and then radioing physicians this critical information. An even smaller pill that can be swallowed by astronauts to track vital signs during space travel will be developed later. Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, developed the pill in cooperation with the Fetal Treatment Center at the University of California at San Francisco. "If you implant our pill, doctors are able to monitor the magnitude and frequency of contractions to enable physicians to identify the onset of preterm labor early enough to prevent it from becoming life threatening to the fetus," said Dr. Carsten Mundt, an electrical engineer on the Sensors 2000! team at Ames. Mundt also said preterm labor is difficult to predict and monitor with conventional equipment. Nearly every fetal surgery results in preterm labor that, if left untreated, can lead to the baby's death, according to Mundt. The surgeons at the University of California at San Francisco have recently begun using an endoscopic technique for these corrective surgeries to minimize the risk of inducing preterm labor. In this technique, small incisions are made, and tube-like devices called endoscopes are inserted through the mother's abdominal wall. Prior to this technique, pediatric surgeons at the Fetal Treatment Center pioneered a cesarean surgical approach to implant a larger sensor-transmitter for monitoring mothers and fetuses. In 1981, Michael Harrison, M.D., the Fetal Treatment Center's founding director, performed the world's first corrective fetal surgery. The pill, about one-third of an inch across and one and a third inches long, was developed because sensor-transmitters small enough to fit through the endoscopic surgery tubes were not commercially available. For ulcer patients, pills could monitor intestinal pressure changes and stomach acidity. Smaller pills, currently in development, will transmit fetal heart data and measurements for fetal body chemicals, including ionic calcium, carbon dioxide and glucose, according to Sensors 2000! scientist Dr. Chris Somps at Ames.
"We would also like to use this technology to study what happens to astronauts during space travel," said Ames team member Mike Skidmore. "Not only could they swallow the smaller pill transmitters we plan to develop, but we have a conceptual design of small, flat transmitters that can be taped to the body like plastic bandages." There are many possible medical uses for this technology. A prototype version of another pill to measure and transmit pH, or acidity, in the fetus is being tested by Ames scientists. For more information, contact Mike Skidmore, Deputy Manager, Sensors
2000! Program, at Ames Research Center. |
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