Kanika Singh

Osteoporosis: New biomedical engineering aspects

There is tremendous interest of research which surrounds the concept of “osteoporosis,” as shown by the intense and growing research activity in the field. The urgency to advance knowledge in this area is motivated by the need to understand not only the causes, diagnosis and treatment but also need for early identification or detection of this silent disease. Despite the various researches work is going on, important issues remain unresolved. In this paper, Osteoporosis has also been discussed with respect to biological, engineering, biochemical and physical aspects. The diagnostic and therapeutic techniques have been described for osteoporosis, for better health care. The novelty of the review paper lies in clarifying several myths, explaining the disease in details with biomedical engineering aspects and focuses on the several detection techniques, providing a new direction for early diagnosis of this deadly disease and gives new directions for the POCT device for Osteoporosis.

Wireless Sensor Networks for biomedical applications in cancer hyperthermia

In case of deep seated brain tumors or cancerous cells, focused ultrasound is found to be an effective treatment tool. Thermal profile under hyperthermia is studied here for a temperature rise of 4 to 5 degree centigrade (up to 42.5 degree), in case of therapeutic treatment of the tumors. An in vitro tumor is studied with temperature sensors to understand the thermal elevation in different layers and different directions of the tumor. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN ) is developed to transmit the tumor thermal information to an expert clinician to monitor the health condition and for therapeutic control of ultrasound dosage level, particularly in case of elderly patients living in remote areas.

Early Detection Techniques for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis (OP) is a serious disease and its early diagnosis is very important at the right time. These days, there are some conventional techniques of the diagnosis of this disease but these techniques have their limitations and reliable information is not obtained at the initial stage of the disease. Therefore, a new technique for the detection of OP at an early stage is required to be developed. In the present chapter, a new technique, based on Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) technology, will be discussed to overcome the limitations of earlier techniques. In the present chapter, main emphasis is placed on the early detection of OP. New types of OP detection techniques, based on the biomechanical, optical and electrochemical principles, will be explained and compared to achieve an improved detection methodology for OP. A new amperometric immunosensor using gold nanoparticles and a novel microfluidics BioMEMS chip as a point of care testing (POCT) technique will be introduced for design, fabrication and characterization. The chapter covers the study which has been mainly divided into three parts: basic measurements on physical, biomechanical, optical and chemical properties of normal and OP bones and serum; and design and development of amperometric immunosensor and BioMEMS chip. (Ahn C.H et al., 2004, Arnaud C.D at al., 1996 Atkinson, P.J. 1964, Auroux, P.A et al., 2002, Bakker, E., 2006, Berthonnaud L, F., 2002, Bianchi, 2005, Ban C, 2004, Bal S.K, 2002) An overview of OP research trends with the objectives of the research, and scope and significance of the study, is also presented. Causes and diagnostic techniques for OP will be reviewed in the beginning of the chapter.

Investigating New BioMEMS Techniques for Early Detection of Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a bone disease which requires early detection. The biomarkers provide a promising challenge of clinical proteomics for early disease detection. Different techniques like BMD testing, optical and electrochemical testing have been studied comparatively. New peaks have been identified in UV-visible spectroscopy at 420 nm and high sensitivity is achieved by electrochemical technique with ng/ml to pico/ml level detection of bonemarkers. An electrochemical technique is found to be the best suitable for developing a new bioMEMS chip.

Multi-prong approaches to monitor the biomechanical aspects of abnormal bones

New multi-prong approaches of non-invasive OP diagnosis are given here by a comparative study of biomechanical parameters of normal and abnormal bone samples in vitro. The normal bone samples used are in vitro and OP bones are developed chemically in the laboratory. Tensile and compressive testing of these samples was carried out and it is found that the data can be marked as an indicator of the presence of OP. The elastic modulus of the yield portion was found to be higher than those of the linear portion in both the groups. The ultimate strain of OP bone is higher than that of the control samples over decalcified bones.

New piezoelectric sensors with Gall Bladder stone material

Gall Bladder (GB) stones are studied as new sensor materials for biomedical and other applications. The GB material samples are analysed for knowing their chemical composition by using an X-Ray diffractometry and other techniques. α-Quartz is found to be present prominently in these stones to exhibit their piezoelectric (PZT) property, which is utilised to develop new PZT sensors for biomedical and other applications. This is an expanded version of a paper presented at the 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Medical Measurements and Applications, 9 10 May 2008, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Design of a new type of CSC micromixer

Micromixer has been studied for several years. In this paper we have attempted to design and develop a new type of combinatorial chaotic and serpentine micromixer (CSC) that is compatible with the microfabrication process of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). We visualize the mixing of the fabricated CSC micromixer. A mixing experiment was performed using the Rhodamine B with Micro-LIF. Such a new and novel micro-mixer is simple to fabricate and easy to use. The micromixer is characterized and visualized with the help of the Micro-LIF technique. The new micromixer will e further applied to lab-on-chip device. The mixing capability of this mixer is about 30-33%.