UCalgary researchers develop innovative test for biocompatibility of medical devices and implants

Medical devices and implants, like catheters, heart valves and stents, are important tools for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular conditions. However, they can also be associated with blood clots, which may form when the device comes into contact with body fluids like blood and plasma.

These blood clots can be serious, causing a myriad of symptoms and putting patients at risk of heart attacks, strokes, organ damage and even death. 

According to Dr. Maryam Badv, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering and a member of the Cumming School of Medicine’s Libin Cardiovascular Institute, medical device-related clotting is a “billion-dollar kind of a problem” for the health-care sector.

Despite the importance of accurate testing, Badv says, in the past, the techniques used to assess and monitor materials have been limited and don’t accurately depict what will happen once the device is in the body. 

“When devices are used in the clinic, they come into contact with blood and other biological fluids and, historically, there hasn’t been an accurate test for that,” she says. 

To try to solve the problem, Badv and members in the Translational Biomedical Engineering Lab have teamed up with Dr. Zahra Abbasi, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Software Engineering at Schulich, who heads the Calgary Sensor Lab that focuses on applying radio frequency and microwave circuits and systems for real-time sensing and detection. 

The goal of the unique collaboration is developing a bio-sensor with more realistic and sensitive ways to detect, measure and assess clot formation on biomaterials using electromagnetic radiation. 

To support their project, Badv and Abassi recently received a 2023 New Frontiers in Research Fund grant, which requires unique, cross-discipline collaborations between researchers who don’t typically work together.

They are excited about the collaboration and the potential of the bio-sensor, which will be able to detect clot formation regardless of the sample size and type and the fluid used to test in. 

“This unique approach relies on the interaction between the sensor’s engineered electromagnetic waves and the surface we are testing,” says Abbasi. “We see this monitoring device as a necessary step in biomaterial development and testing, which also contributes to the future policy development around the safety assessment of the medical implants.”

Badv says the sensor will become an important tool in her lab, and she hopes others will be able to take advantage of it. 

“Moving forward, if my lab develops a surface coating or polymer, we will have a tool that will be able to assess its biocompatibility,” she says. “The goal is to be able to more precisely say that this polymer or surface coating is suitable for use in the body so we can improve outcomes for patients.”