Radio Emissions Helmet Rapidly Detects Stroke

A novel cerebral scanner detects asymmetry of intracranial fluids in patients undergoing a neurological assessment.

The Cerebrotech Medical (Pleasanton, CA, USA) Visor consists of a headband device with multiple integrated antennas that rapidly detect changes and distribution of cerebral fluids by broadcasting and receiving each other’s signals. The technology, which is based on volumetric impedance phase-shift spectroscopy (VIPS), measures the ratio of bioimpedance between the brain's right and left hemispheres, and especially changes in that ratio. During severe stroke, a fluid asymmetry between hemispheres is formed; the greater the asymmetry, the more severe the stroke.

The small changes in intracranial fluids are reflected in the electrical properties of tissue, which can be calculated using several proprietary machine learning algorithms that can differentiate between the bioimpedance profiles of distinct brain pathologies, such as stroke, trauma, swelling, and others. In a study of 248 subjects across three cohorts, the Visor device differentiated between severe stroke and minor strokes with a sensitivity of 93%. The study was published on March 6, 2018, in the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery.

“The thing that I like about this technology and this device is that it’s really easy to use. Instead of going through a checklist of stroke diagnosis and trying to analyze symptoms in the field, first responders can pop the visor on a patient’s head and secure a reading after 10 to 15 seconds,” said study co-author Raymond Turner, MD, a neurosurgeon at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC; Charleston, USA). “This is really taking the guessing game out of it. This is going to completely change how we triage stroke patients in the field.”

“We understand the challenges facing medical professionals who need to quickly assess patients with neurologic symptoms. The Cerebrotech Visor is designed to be portable, fast and accurate,” said Mitch Levinson, CEO of Cerebrotech Medical. “Utilizing the vast amount of data captured by our proprietary Cerebrotech Visor, our mission is to develop unique algorithms that can help physicians to better detect and diagnose a wide range of neurological conditions, improving outcomes for patients while reducing overall healthcare costs.”

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