New Brain Helmet Could Detect Strokes Earlier
From: NASA Tech Briefs Insider - 03/18/2009

Duke University bioengineers have developed a prototype "brain helmet" that
provides real-time images of major blood vessels to enable emergency
personnel to perform quick scans of potential stroke victims' brains. For
patients suspected of having a stroke, the speed of diagnosis and subsequent
treatment can make the difference between survival and death or disability. 

Using 3D ultrasound technology the team built a device that positions
ultrasound "wands" or transducers against the temples on either side of the
head. The system allows a computer to assemble both streams of ultrasound
images into a 3D color movie of the vessels and blood flow within the brain. 

The team can foresee when the brain helmet could transmit its images from a
remote hospital, or from an ambulance, through cellular networks or the
Internet to the neurological team at a stroke center. Speed is important
because the only approved medical treatment for stroke must be given within
three hours of the first symptoms.  

Tests of the system showed that the team could see, in color, real-time
images of the blood vessels, as well as the direction of blood flow. The team
is now designing the next-generation prototype with an eye toward reducing
the size of its components and improving the efficiency of the signal from
the transducers. 

Read the entire article at:
http://news.duke.edu/2009/02/brainhelmet.html
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2009/02/brainhelmet._print.ht