Ultrasound from the inside out

Scientists in New Mexico and Taiwan are testing an ultrasound probe about the size of a grain of rice that could offer panoramic views from inside the human body.

The silicon-based device could ultimately be sent through blood vessels in the brain or swallowed like a pill for localised diagnosis.

See NewScientist.

Imaging the Lungs using Vibration Response Imaging (VRI)

A technological replacement for the stethoscope draws a 3D picture by gauging lung vibrations.

The process, which uses no radiation, works by analyzing acoustic vibrations given off by the lungs. As a patient breathes normally for several seconds, sensors placed on the back—in effect, electronic stethoscopes—pick up these lung vibrations and feed them to a computer, where they're processed and turned into vivid images. Conditions such as asthma, emphysema, and pneumonia each produce distinct and definable images.

See Business Week.

iPod sized device to monitor fetal heartbeat

Discerning the heartbeat of a baby still in the womb is a bit like making out a murmur in a crowded room. However, researchers at the University of Nottingham have designed a fetal heart monitor that can accurately distinguish a fetus's heart rate from its mother's and from surrounding noises. What's more, they've made the device noninvasive, small, and easy to use in the home.

See Technology Review.

Resuscitating the recently dead?

Conventional wisdom has been that loss of circulation after a heart attack means cells have died. After just four or five minutes, the patient can't be revived because the tissues of the brain and heart have suffered irreversible damage from lack of oxygen. But new evidence shows that cells cut off from their blood supply only eventualy die hours later - leaving open the fascinating possibility that resuscitation of the apparently dead may be possible.

See Newsweek.

White Matter Matters in Schizophrenia

Scientists have suspected for more than two decades that schizophrenia is linked to defects in the brain's white matter. They could not tell, however, whether changes in the information-transmitting region of the brain detected by brain scans or autopsies were the cause or the symptoms of the illness. "[The report] provides evidence that alterations in myelin [the lipid layers that sheath and insulate nerve fibers and are the main constituent of white matter] can cause defects in neurons and the central nervous system in general that are related to neuropsychiatric disease," says the study's senior author Gabriel Corfas, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School's Children's Hospital Boston. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, could help physicians detect schizophrenia earlier and lead to new treatments for sufferers.

See PNAS

Blood-brain barrier bypassed

Using a combination of gene therapy and receptor targeting, scientists have successfully enabled a protein to cross the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system, a crucial step in delivering drugs to diseased brains, according to a study in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

See The Scientist