Implantable miniaturized and soft wireless sensing device to monitor tissue and bone deformation
AssigneeArizona Board of Regents on Behalf of the University of Arizona
InventorsJohn Szivek, Philipp Gutruf, David Stephen Margolis
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Abstract
The present invention features a sensor implant that can adhere to bone. The sensing device is capable of sensing bone strains and reporting them as well as loads passing through bone for extended periods of time. The sensor implant can also be used to monitor bone growth for bone segmental repair of long bones or to monitor changes in bone characteristics of patients with osteoporosis. The present technology has the potential to give physicians the ability to predict when a patient with osteoporosis has an impending fracture and thus be able to intervene and prevent further damage.
Claims9
An implantable sensor device (100) for monitoring of the musculoskeletal system, said implantable sensor device (100) comprising:
- a) a strain gauge (110);
- b) an analog front end (120) operatively coupled to the strain gauge (110), wherein the analog front end (120) amplifies information from the sensor;
- c) a processor (130) operatively coupled to the analog front end (120), wherein the processor (130) digitalizes the information from the analog front end;
- d) a radiofrequency (RF) transmitter (140) operatively coupled to the processor (130), wherein the RF transmitter sends information to an external reader (150);
- and
- e) an energy harvesting system (160) operatively coupled to the RF transmitter (140), wherein the energy harvesting system (160) harvests energy from the external reader (150);
- wherein the implantable sensor device (100) is configured to be permanently attached to a bone surface via calcium ceramic particle coating, and wherein the strain gauge (110) is configured to interface with the bone surface and measures changes in bone strain.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.