A University of Rhode Island researcher is using techniques from textile science that in the near future could reduce many of the problems associated with artificial arteries. Martin Bide, URI professor of textiles, fashion merchandising and design, has been working with a vascular surgery research team at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for the past 10 years on a range of issues with the artificial arteries. Beth Israel Deaconess is a major independent teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. However, these materials are prone to complications like clot formation, infection and poor cellular attachment on the blood contacting surface. Bide said while larger diameter artificial arteries work well, doctors are calling on scientists like him to find ways to fight clot formation, infection and poor cellular attachment for small-diameter arteries.
Infection remains a problem in the cleanest of hospitals.
Many have tried to make these materials infection resistant, Bide said, but any surface antibiotic is quickly lost in the body. Previous attempts to prolong infection resistance rely on the introduction of additional binding agents. However, Bide introduced techniques from textile dyeing and discovered means of using antibiotics as dyes. The antibiotic is held in polyester arteries without the use of binding agents. More recently, the researchers have turned their attention to other materials, and have discovered that alternative dyeing methods can do the same thing for polyurethane, another widely used medical material.