Amazing stuff! When artificial becomes better than natural!
"When surgeons replace part of a blood vessel — something they do in 450,000 patients per year in the United States to treat blood clots, coronary disease, stroke damage and more — the grafted vessel is monitored by CT scans, ultrasounds and other expensive imaging techniques. Despite all that effort, between 40% and 50% of those grafts fail."
That is a shockingly high failure rate!
"The implantable vessel, made of a flexible composite and capable of real-time monitoring, is described in a new study published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials ... The team combined sodium potassium niobite piezoceramic nanoparticles with a polyvinylidene fluoride polymer which is ferroelectric, or able to flip polarity when an electric field is applied. They then printed a tubular artery using the material and an off-the-shelf 3D printer. ... The self-powered material was able to correctly detect changes in force and pressure within the artery. ... Additionally, they hope to use the new material to print artificial heart valves."
New 3D-printed artery can monitor blockages from the inside
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