IIT-Madras develops new portable device to check vascular health

Chennai: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have developed a portable device, as compact as a digital blood pressure monitor, to assess the condition of blood vessels for early screening for cardiovascular diseases.

The device, called Artsens, comprises pressure cuffs to be affixed to the upper arm and thighs and a probe to be applied to the surface of the neck to detect the carotid artery.

It measures carotid arterial stiffness, aortic pulse wave velocity and central blood pressure.

The device can be used even by non-experts, said the researchers who developed it at the Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC) at IIT-M.

"It has been assessed on more than 5,000 human subjects and is ready for technology transfer," Dr Jayaraj Joseph, assistant professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, and the research lead of Artsens, told TOI.

Artsens is already being used by researchers in the Netherlands, and multiple hospitals in India.