Doctors Map Stroke Clots in Real Time with Sensor-Guided Wire

Paris: Doctors have for the first time developed a slender sensor-equipped wire capable of characterizing stroke clots and mapping their composition in real-time as they are removed. According to Oman News Agency, the medical technology company Sensome developed the wire, named "Clotild," which is introduced into blood vessels via a catheter. Tiny sensors mounted at its tip measure the electrical properties of the surrounding tissue as it passes through the clot. The electrical properties of red blood cells, platelets, and the artery wall differ, enabling the device to distinguish between them during the procedure. This provides immediate information on the nature, location, and size of the clot, rather than waiting for it to be extracted and examined in the laboratory. The procedure involved 41 patients who had suffered a stroke caused by the blockage of a large blood vessel, at hospitals in Australia and France, to assess the device's safety and accuracy. There were no cases of vessel perforation or di ssection recorded, while the device achieved an accuracy of 0.97 in identifying red-blood-cell-rich clots and 0.94 in identifying platelet-rich clots, on a scale where perfect accuracy stands at 1.0. The device was also capable of identifying the artery wall and the distal end of the clot, which could help doctors estimate its length without the need to inject a special substance. Researchers were able to map the clot's composition based on the readings recorded by the device, and the results were consistent with microscopic analysis of the clot fragments after extraction. The technology is significant because the approaches to treating red-blood-cell-rich clots differ from those for platelet-rich clots, while doctors are ordinarily unable to determine a clot's composition before treatment begins.