Volume 1, Issue 1

Recent years have witnessed unprecedented advances in medical device industry. New technologies, such as 3D printing, organ-on-a-chip, and surgical robots, have emerged and iterated constantly. Innovation is the cornerstone in the development of medicine. Though we still need robust clinical data to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of these new technologies, we never stop our pursuit of more effective technologies and devices with a cautious attitude. With these intentions, we are pleased to introduce this new quarterly journal, Progress in Medical Devices.

Accurately and efficiently detecting the quantity of blood cells is crucial in routine blood examination, as abnormal high or low numbers of blood cells are associated with the occurrence of various disorders. Due to inherent drawbacks, traditional blood cell analysis equipment cannot meet the demands of modern primary healthcare, particularly in terms of point-of-care testing. In recent years, the development of point-of-care testing blood cell counting equipment has been accelerated, thanks to the rapid advancement of microfluidic technology and the expanding research on blood cell counting using microfluidic chips. In this paper, we reviewed three blood cell counting methods based on microfluidic chips, electrical impedance, light scattering, and microscopic imaging, as well as the recent development and achievements in blood cell counting using microfluidic chips.

The aging population is accompanied by a decline in human body function, leading to an increasing number of people with lower limb dysfunction, which has become a global public health challenge today. The lower limb rehabilitation exoskeleton robot based on surface electromyography is a current research hotspot. It can help people with lower extremity dysfunction perform better rehabilitation training. This review presents the analysis and processing of surface electromyography, feature extraction and recognition, as well as the control methods for lower limb rehabilitation exoskeleton robots.

Assessing the severity and prognosis of patients with craniocerebral damage is a major research area in medicine since it is a prevalent clinical disease. Acute craniocerebral injury, a common traumatic condition, is often caused by traffic accidents, collisions, and falls in daily life. Secondary craniocerebral injury refers to symptoms such as brain edema and intracranial hemorrhage after acute craniocerebral injury, which will aggravate the injury. Secondary craniocerebral injury can be avoided by effective and timely treatment, and real-time detection of brain edema and intracranial hemorrhage by non-invasive medical imaging is a solution. Therefore, non-invasive medical imaging technology has recently emerged as a new area of study. A new imaging technology, namely the brain injury detection technology based on electromagnetic induction, has been discovered after years of research on non-invasive detection of brain injury. Initially, electromagnetic induction technology was widely used in metal nondestructive testing. The human body, as a conductor, also has electromagnetic induction, allowing this technology to be used on the human body. This study reviews the technologies for detecting electromagnetic induction in cases of craniocerebral damage, including induced current electrical impedance tomography, magneto-acoustic tomography, and eddy current damping sensors for detection and imaging.

Tension band wiring has been widely used in patellar fracture internal fixation. However, Kirschner wires (K-wires) insertion is time-consuming, because it requires multiple intraoperative fluoroscopies to adjust the insertion angle, and the accuracy of insertion is not ideal. In this review, we summarize the measurement of patellar anatomical parameters, K-wires placement level, and application of guiding devices, with the focus on improving the accuracy of K-wire insertion from perspectives of K-wire placement and guiding devices. This review hope to provide some inspiration for new guiding devices with auxiliary K-wire placement.

In recent years, the importance of endoscopic procedures has risen significantly in response to the escalating prevalence of digestive system diseases. The gastroenteroscopic technique has undergone several iteration and updates; however, challenges related to patient pain remain an ongoing concern. As a result, patients satisfaction with this examination method is still low. Based on this, research has been focusing on assistive technologies that work with endoscopy to increase patient tolerance. The technologies listed in this review inculde sedation, acupoint stimulation, recumbent changes, gas-filled assistance, warm water infusion assistance, and distraction.

Objective: To study temperature distribution in different electrodes and to evaluate thermal spread during colonic anastomosis induced by radiofrequency energy through finite element modeling, aiming to provide the basis for optimizing the design of new electrodes with improved effectiveness of electrosurgical welding.

Methods: Three electrodes with the feature of concave-convex (CC), rail coupled concave-convex (rail-CC), and cross rail coupled concave-convex (cross rail-CC) were designed for radiofrequency-induced serosa-to-serosa colonic anastomoses to evaluate the thermal spread process by finite element modeling using COMSOL Multiphysics. Parameters used in the modeling were set with a peak voltage of 45 V, a duty cycle of 10% and a repetition rate of 1 s. Additionally, a three-dimensional finite element model of the cross rail-CC electrode was further constructed to compare temperature variation and distribution when the voltage Fwas applied to ridges of upper electrode alternately.

Results: The electrode with CC design produced similar temperature between 'gap' and 'compressed' areas, whereas the electrode with rail-CC design exhibited the highest temperature at 'gap' and 'compressed' areas compared with those with CC and cross rail-CC designs. Moreover, the cross rail-CC electrode, by tightly occluding the upper and lower electrodes, could create uniform compression and temperature variation. When electric voltage was applied to ridges of upper electrode of the cross rail-CC electrode alternately, the temperature at 'gap' was half of that at the 'compressed' section, which was comparable to the temperature at 'compressed' area in the rail-CC electrode (p=0.241).

Conclusion: Alternating application of voltage to ridges of upper electrode of the cross rail-CC electrode can potentially produce an optimal fusion zone by reducing thermal damage with low 'gap' temperature while keeping the 'compressed' temperature high.