Novel Nanoelectromechanical System Pressure Biosensing Method for Early Detection of Cholesterol Accumulation in Blood Vessels

Abstract

High cholesterol could be dangerous, along with the deposits of other substances, such as fat, on the walls of the arteries. These plaques can reduce blood flow through the arteries, which in turn can cause complications such as chest pain, blood clots, and heart attack. Hence, there is a need for an efficient way to measure the concentration of cholesterol in blood vessels with great accuracy to predict its risk on health. The present study aims to measure the concentration of cholesterol and track it accurately in the blood vessels using an ultrasound pressure sensor, which detects the concentration of cholesterol and produces a pressure field around its surface that is directly proportional to the concentration. This field can be tracked by ultrasound. In this study, the experiments conducted involved the insertion of aluminum nanoparticles, which represent a pressure sensor coated with a massless piezoelectric aluminum nitride nanoplate, into simulated blood vessels containing different concentrations that mimic human blood. The sensitivity of the blood vessels was monitored at different time periods. Moreover, an experimental setup was constructed to validate the possibility of using existing ultrasound medical imaging technologies in tracking the proposed nano biosensors. The setup involves prototyping a medical phantom with a specific acoustic characteristic for simulating human tissues. Various clinical scenarios have been imitated and the possibility of tracking these novel micro electromechanical pressure biosensors has been discussed.