Expert review of medical devices
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Expert Rev Med Devices · Mar 2005
ReviewRecent advances in sonographic imaging of fetal thoracic structures.
Recent ultrasonographic methods applied in the evaluation of fetal thoracic structures and anomalies are presented. Fetal lung volumetric assessment by 3D ultrasonography, analysis of the thoracic wall by 3D-rendered image and 3D skeletal-mode imaging, intrathoracic vessel evaluation by 3D power Doppler ultrasonography, analysis of heart anatomy and abnormalities by 4D spatiotemporal image correlation, identification of normal and abnormal intrathoracic almost isoechogenic structures by volume contrast imaging and evaluation of the heart and great vessels by 3 and 4D inverse mode will be reviewed.
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Expert Rev Med Devices · Jan 2005
ReviewA new machine for continuous renal replacement therapy: from development to clinical testing.
A new continuous renal replacement therapy machine has been designed to fulfill the expectations of nephrologists and intensivists operating in the common ground of critical care nephrology. The new equipment is called Prismaflex and it is the natural evolution of the PRISMA machine that has been utilized worldwide for continuous renal replacement therapy in the last 10 years. ⋯ Accuracy was also tested by recording various operational parameters during different intermittent and continuous renal replacement modalities during 62 treatments. This article will describe our first experience with this new device and touch upon the historic and technologic background leading to its development.
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Expert Rev Med Devices · Jan 2005
ReviewBone reconstruction: from bioceramics to tissue engineering.
Over the past 30 years, an enormous array of biomaterials proposed as ideal scaffolds for cell growth have emerged, yet few have demonstrated clinical efficacy. Biomaterials, regardless of whether they are permanent or biodegradable, naturally occurring or synthetic, need to be biocompatible, ideally osteoinductive, osteoconductive, integrative, porous and mechanically compatible with native bone to fulfill their desired role in bone tissue engineering. These materials provide cell anchorage sites, mechanical stability and structural guidance and in vivo, provide the interface to respond to physiologic and biologic changes as well as to remodel the extracellular matrix in order to integrate with the surrounding native tissue. ⋯ Yet issues that must be considered for the effective application of bioceramics in the field of tissue engineering are the degree of bioresorption and the poor mechanical strength. The synthesis of a new generation of biomaterials that can specifically serve as tissue engineering scaffolds for drug and cell delivery is needed. Nanotechnology can provide an alternative way of processing porous bioceramics with high mechanical strength and enhanced bioactivity and resorbability.