A team of researchers in Duke University have invented a 3-D ultrasound probe to monitor the brain in real-time. Currently brain surgeons use MRI and CT but it is not in real time - the scanning is done before the surgery. But during the surgery the brain may realign slightly due to cutting of the tissue and hence the previously taken scan may provide a wrong information. The new method avoids this problem by imaging the brain while the surgery is actually taking place.

According to the inventor of the method, Stephen Smith, the 2-D ultrasound scans may miss some vital information of the patient’s brain which is actually 3-D. Also the existing method requires a large hole (one to two cm) on the patient’s skull whereas the new 3-D probe needs only a hole that is less than a centimeter in diameter.

The 3-D endoscope was tested in imaging the blood vessels in a dog’s brain (see figure). A needle was inserted into a region of its brain and some cerebro spinal fluid was drained, also dye was injected into the blood vessels to make it clearer.

The newly developed device is a smaller version of a previous probe developed by Smith for imaging the heart from outside the body. If this new method proves to be successful in human beings, it could very well replace MRI and CT as a much cheaper and more effective option for brain surgeries.

Via: technologyreview.com