Recently, the team of Prof. Fan Yubo from the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering published a research article titled “Transcatheter Self-powered Ultrasensitive Endocardial Pressure Sensor” in Advanced Functional Materials online, providing a new way to evaluate cardiac function and monitor cardiovascular diseases. The first co-authors are Liu Zhuo and Shi Bojing, doctoral students of the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Ouyang Han, a doctoral student of Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Ma Ye from Changhai Hospital of Second Military Medical University. The corresponding authors are Prof. Fan Yubo, Prof. Zhang Hao, Prof. Li Zhou and Academician Wang Zhonglin.
The research responds to the clinical need for aminimally invasive, highly sensitive and low-cost sensor to monitor endocardial pressure (EP), a crucial indicator of a heart's ability to pump blood. Once this function is impaired, one can suffer from heart failure (HF), which has become a global public health problem. The symptoms of HF include dyspnea, weakness, fatigue, inability to work and so on, leading to poor quality of life and heavy economic burden. The traditional method to monitor EP is invasive, expensive and not feasible for long-term and continuous data collection, and what the team of Prof. Fan has done is to offer a replacement to it.
Based on triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), they developed the first self-powered endocardial pressure sensor (SEPS) that can be implanted into the heart by minimally invasive surgery to monitor EP. Liu Zhuo and Ouyang Han employed a method of corona discharge to modify the triboelectric layers of the miniature SEPS (1 cm × 0.5 cm × 0.1 cm), whose output voltage could reach 6.2V, six times higher than that of the control group. Under the assistance of Dr. Ma Ye and Shi Bojing, the SEPS, integrated with a surgical catheter, was implanted into the heart of male adult Yorkshiren pigs to imitatively evaluate its function. According to the results, it features high sensitivity (1.195 mV/mmHg) and excellent linearity (R2=0.997), showing a good response both in low- and high-pressure environments. Cardiac arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation and ventricular premature contraction can also be detected by the SEPS in real time. Furthermore, its biosafety was proved by tests of blood compatibility and long-term stability, which means that it can be implanted into human hearts and work for a long time.
The SEPS developed by the team of Prof. Fan
This first TENG-based implantable device to monitor EP has the potential to be developed into a kind of medical instrument, and it points out a new direction for research into self-powered miniature implantable medical sensors.
The research article:
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201807560
Reported by Hou Dandan
Reviewed by Han Huiyu
Edited by Jia Aiping
Translated by Li Mingzhu
