Researchers at the University at Buffalo's Toshiba Stroke Research Center have developed a prototype camera that can turn blurred X-ray images of brain stents made of thin wire into images clear enough to detect the condition of wire as fine as a hair. The stents can prevent stroke by shoring up weak spots in arteries or blocking off aneurysms. The prototype and its image-enhancing capabilities were introduced by him at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Rudin heads a research group composed primarily of physicists within the Toshiba Stroke Research Center, an interdisciplinary research effort involving UB neurosurgeons, engineers, physicists, biophysicists and radiologists. Scientists at the Toshiba Stroke Research Center are in the forefront of research into intravascular treatments for stroke and other circulation-related disorders of the brain.
Intravascular interventions use the body's circulation system as a tunnel to the brain.
Neurosurgeons or neuroradiologists thread micro-thin instruments through the large artery in the groin until they reach the damaged area. This approach avoids the need to open the skull. Having clear X-ray images of the vessels and instruments is critical to reaching the repair site without damaging vessels along the way. We expect this detector prototype to help us locate the stent optimally in the vessel, visualize its integrity in place and reposition it if necessary. If you can't see exactly what condition the stent is in when it's deployed, it's not possible to change the deployment.