Stitches are getting a lot smarter

In the future if you get a bad cut, you could be sewn up with smart stitches.

That’s because scientists at Tufts University have developed a way to put “nano-scale sensors, electronics and microfluidics” into threads that they were then able to stitch into tissue to collect and wirelessly transmit information on their subject’s health.

That means you could someday get stitches for a gash that would be able to gather data and send it to your doctor in real time.

The scientists tested the threads using rats and were able to collect information such as temperature of tissue and strain, stress and glucose levels.

To create the threads, researchers dipped them in physical and chemical sensing compounds and connected them to wireless circuits; they then sutured them into rat tissue.

In addition to some wicked-cool smart stitches, the thread could also be used for surgical implants and smart bandages, the scientists said.

Via: Tufts Now

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