MIT
Technology Review: A new and cheap helmet-shaped device can
detect the accumulation of fluids that accompanies certain
forms of brain damage. Designed by Cesar Gonzalez of Mexico's
National Polytechnic Institute and his colleagues, the helmet
works by inducing a magnetic field in a patient's brain with a
set of coils. Another set of coils measures changes in the
magnetic field's phase that depend on the amount of fluid
present. Although the helmet can't locate where fluid levels
are anomalously high, it's cheap enough and compact enough to
identify patients for follow-up tests. A
pilot
study succeeded in identifying cases of brain edema and
hematoma.
