Brainwave Reading Technology Maintains Optimal Dosage During General Anesthesia
- Why do peanut allergies cause death in Europe and North America but rarely occur in East Asia?
- Influence of Combined ART Drugs on Dolutegravir Trough Levels in AIDS Treatment
- H5N1 avian influenza virus detected in pigs for the first time in US
- Higher Rates of Depression Among People Living with HIV
- Why does Switzerland allow assisted suicide but prohibit euthanasia?
- Doctor Warning: The Danger of Gulping Down Sports Drinks After Exercise
Newly Developed Brainwave Reading Technology Maintains Optimal Dosage During General Anesthesia
- Can Gene Therapy Provide a Cure for HIV?
- Sanofi Japan Data Breach: 730000 Healthcare Professionals’ Information Exposed
- CT Radiation Exposure Linked to Blood Cancer in Children and Adolescents
- FDA has mandated a top-level black box warning for all marketed CAR-T therapies
- Can people with high blood pressure eat peanuts?
- What is the difference between dopamine and dobutamine?
- How long can the patient live after heart stent surgery?
Newly Developed Brainwave Reading Technology Maintains Optimal Dosage During General Anesthesia
Administering general anesthesia is a delicate matter, as it requires achieving the right balance between not under-anesthetizing and avoiding over-anesthetization.
Typically, this demands the extensive experience and undivided attention of an anesthesiologist.
Recognizing this challenge, scientists have now developed an automated system that continuously adjusts the dosage based on a patient’s brainwave activity.
If a patient receives too little anesthesia during surgery, there is a risk of them waking up during the procedure. Conversely, if the anesthesia dosage is excessive, patients may experience cognitive issues like memory loss or even cardiac failure upon awakening. To minimize these risks, closed-loop anesthesia delivery systems (CLAD) are sometimes employed. These devices continually monitor a patient’s vital signs and automatically adjust the rate at which anesthesia is administered to keep these vital signs within the desired range.
According to Professor Emery N. Brown from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), previous CLAD systems did not truly monitor a patient’s consciousness state using brainwave data. Through collaboration with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, he developed a system that can accomplish this.
The experimental setup monitors fluctuations in local field potential (LFP) power, which is an electrical signal generated by neurons. LFP power is, in turn, determined by the spikes in neural activity, and these spikes can be predicted depending on whether a person is awake or asleep. Therefore, by continuously monitoring fluctuations in LFP power related to neural spike activity, it is possible to determine if a person is conscious or unconscious.
Brown’s system also utilizes computer models to determine the appropriate drug dosage needed to maintain the desired LFP range based on an individual’s physiological characteristics.
In a series of nine experiments, each lasting 125 minutes, the system successfully transitioned two rhesus monkeys between two different levels of required sedation. This was achieved by adjusting the dosage of the anesthetic propofol every 20 seconds.
Before this technology can be applied to humans, further research is necessary. The hope is that the system can eventually use straightforward brainwave readings obtained through an EEG cap to genuinely induce and reverse a conscious state in patients.
A paper on this research was recently published in the “PNAS Nexus” journal.
Newly Developed Brainwave Reading Technology Maintains Optimal Dosage During General Anesthesia
(source:internet, reference only)
Disclaimer of medicaltrend.org
Important Note: The information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice.