Russia (bbabo.net), - Nizhny Novgorod scientists and doctors have invented a device that increases the efficiency of diagnosing exudative otitis by an order of magnitude. This disease occurs in every third preschooler and, in the absence of well-chosen treatment, can lead to hearing loss.
Head of the Otorhinolaryngology Department of Clinical Hospital No. 3 and the Center for Outpatient Otorhinolaryngology and Audiology of the Volga District Medical Center (POMC) of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA) of Russia Alexey Novozhilov - one of the authors of the device - said that work on the device itself and on the methodology for its use was in progress for several years. The doctor admits that the most difficult thing was to introduce the method already used in other medical specialties into otorhinolaryngology.
- Exudative otitis is not so difficult to diagnose when it is a classic case. That is, the patient is relatively healthy, he has no concomitant pathologies, and the disease arose for the first time. If this is not the first exacerbation in the patient, if there are cicatricial changes in the eardrum, or if he has previously undergone ear surgery, then the contents behind the eardrum are not visible. And additional examinations provide only indirect information about what is behind the membrane. With one of the most effective methods for detecting exudate, we diagnose a simple restriction of the mobility of the eardrum. But it can be caused by various reasons: it is a tumor, and a liquid, and a focus of inflammation. And if the transparency of the tympanic membrane is reduced, then we cannot say for sure what is there. This device allows you to look behind it and visualize the contents, - says Alexey Novozhilov.
The device is an optical coherence tomograph developed at the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, equipped with a sensor with a special microprobe. The technique is non-invasive and, unlike various types of tomography, does not give radiation exposure. There are no restrictions on the use, everything is absolutely safe and can be used on an outpatient basis.
If we talk about the principle of operation in the simplest possible words, then the device uses infrared light, which shines through the eardrum and then is reflected. Reflected beams allow visualization of the contents behind the eardrum. The same technique is already used, for example, in ophthalmology for the diagnosis of eye diseases. But for the diagnosis of ENT diseases, the developers say, the principle was used for the first time in Russia.
Meanwhile
At present, an experimental model of the device is used in the institutions of the FMBA of Russia. Doctors admit that they use it in their practice almost daily. For more than a year, developers have been interacting with one of the domestic manufacturers of medical equipment: they are working together on software, ergonomics and design of the device. The authors hope that a device designed for widespread use in medical practice will appearly as 2022.
bbabo.Net