Miniature technology developed for use in outer space could make life easier for sufferers of Raynaud?s disease, a blood-vessel disorder characterized by numbness and cold in the extremities.
Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center doctors and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory researchers have created a tiny apparatus they hope will shed light on the disease. Raynaud?s disease often causes numbness of the fingers and toes sparked by cold temperatures or stress, according to the Mayo Clinic. The lackof technology to monitor attacks has limited research on the disease, said inventor Binh Le, who helped create the Ambulatory Raynaud?s Monitor at APL.
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The new device attaches to the patient?s finger under a Band-Aid and measures skin and ambient air temperatures to determine the level of blood flow.
“Skin temperature is a surrogate of the symptoms caused by Raynaud?s,” Le said. In the device?s initial test, patients could indicate when an attack happened by pressing an “event button” on top of the device, he said.
“From the data, they actually can see the correlation between the temperature and the events, which is really exciting. It?s a pretty powerful little device,” APL Office of Technology Transfer technology manager Teresa Colella said. The APL emphasizes miniaturization in its designs because reducing heft is essential to launching spacecraft, Le said. That technology allowed the APL to create a model small and wearable enough for patients to use at home.
“I think the grand idea is that if the device works, it will open up a new approach for treating not only Raynaud?s patients, but for treating many other patients,” Le said.
