HIV/AIDS is one of the most destructive epidemics in
ever recorded history claims an estimated 2.4 –3.3 million lives every
year. Even though there is no treatment for this pandemic Elisa and
Western Blot tests are the only tests currently available for detecting
HIV/AIDS. This article proposes a new method of detecting HIV/AIDS
based on the measurement of the dielectric properties of blood at the
microwave frequencies. The measurements were made at the S-band of
microwave frequency using rectangular cavity perturbation technique
with the samples of blood from healthy donors as well as from HIV/AIDS patients. An appreciable change is observed in the dielectric properties
of patient samples than with the normal healthy samples and these
measurements were in good agreement with clinical results. This measurement
is an alternative in vitro method of diagnosing HIV/AIDS using microwaves.
Sunny, M C; Dr.George, K E(Cochin University of Science & Technology, July , 2006)
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Abstract:
Plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (pPVC), although a major player in the medical field, is at present facing lot of criticism due to some of its limitations like the leaching out of the toxic plasticizer, di ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) to the medium and the emission of an environmental pollutant,dioxin gas,at the time of the post use disposal of PVC Products by incineration. Due to these reasons, efforts are on to reduce the use of pPVC considerably in the medical field and to find viable alternative materials. The present study has been undertaken in this context to find a suitable material for the manufacture of medical aids in place of pPVC. The main focus of this study has been to find out a non-DEHP material as plasticizer for pPVC and another suitable material for the complete repalcement of pPVC for blood/ blood component storage applications.Two approaches have been undertaken for this purpose-(1)the controversial plasticizer, DEHP has been partially replaced by polymeric plasticizers(2) an alternative material, namely, metallocene polyolefin (mPO) has been used and suitably modified to match the properties of flexible PVC used for blood and blood component storage applications.
Description:
Department of Polymer Science and
Rubber Technology, Cochin University of Science and Technology