A camera inside a brain blood vessel has been filmed for the first time

“It’s like discovering a new planet.” Robert Fahed, neurorheologist Interventionist and Neurologist at The Ottawa HospitalIn Canada, on November 14, 2023, a patient suffering from repeated strokes was able to be diagnosed by inserting a camera into the blood vessels of his brain. “No one has ever seen the inside of the arteries of the brain”, underscores the Doctor. According to the World Health Organization, the first promising world, while stroke is the second cause of death in the world in 2019.

The Canadian patient, aged around fifty, suffered from a rare defect in the carotid artery, one of the arteries that bring blood to the brain. This led to the formation of small clots that caused these strokes. This discovery is attributed to the introduction of these cameras into the patient’s blood network. “That allowed us to realize he needed a stent (a tube-shaped metal device used to keep open a narrowed or blocked artery). We were able to place the stent, and the patient was discharged the same day. He is doing very well”, Robert Fahed delights Franceinfo. The intervention was conducted with patient consent and approval from Canadian health authorities.

Cameras are already used in medicine to examine the inside of the lungs, colon or stomach. “These are much larger organs, much stronger and much less delicate than the brain. The brain has very small, tortuous and fragile arteries,” Underlines Robert Fahad. The Canadian camera was designed specifically for cerebral arteries. “It’s extremely strong and flexible enough that when it hits the artery, it bends. It doesn’t damage it,” A neuroradiologist notes. For a century, doctors used only angiography, an invasive technique that requires the injection of a contrast product into the arteries during X-ray imaging to model the brain’s arteries.

A camera designed to guide operations

Barely thinner than a hair – about a third of a millimeter in diameter – soft and flexible, the microangioscope Uses fiber optic technology. It can navigate the arteries of a living patient’s brain and make it possible “See the interior of the ships live, either to observe what’s going on there, or to observe the interactions with the tools we use, such as the use of nets to catch clots.”, Robert Fahad explains. The doctor also shot this sequence.

Neuroradiologists plan to use the camera not only as a diagnostic tool, but also as a visual guide during operations to remove clots blocking the arteries of stroke patients. Robert Fahad hopes this new tool will help reduce stroke-related mortality. In France, Inserm counts more than 140,000 new cases of stroke each year, or one every four minutes. Two out of 10 stroke victims die within a year of their accident and four out of 10 have significant after-effects.

Besides strokes, other uses have been envisioned

Robert Fahad also envisions other applications for this technology. “We will be able to observe aneurysms, hemorrhages, infections, malformations, autoimmune and auto-inflammatory diseases of the vessels”, it lists. Aneurysms alone, pockets of blood caused by abnormal expansion of the artery wall that can rupture, are responsible for about 10% of strokes. “Now, we may be able to directly observe what produces these aneurysms and optimize our ability to permanently and permanently close them.”

Expecting a doctor.

“In Canada, a number of patients have already started taking advantage of this technology, says Franceinfo Michael Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Canadian start-up Vena Medical, who designed the camera. “We We are working to obtain additional regulatory authorizations that will allow us to process more cases worldwide, including in France.” In Paris, the Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital plans to test this new medical device in 2024.