Description
WHAT’S THE STUDY: University of Michigan researchers are developing a technology that will incorporate a nitric oxide (NO) generating system in catheters. Nitric oxide is naturally produced in our arteries and used by our bodies to suppress blood clotting and fight infections.
WHY IT MATTERS: The use of catheters can lead to both infections and blood clots, and nearly 20,000 patients die each year in the United States because of IV catheter infections. The team aims to greatly reduce the number of fatalities related to blood clots and infection using the NO generating system in catheters.
The new catheter system is based on a low-cost method of producing very pure nitric oxide gas via an electrochemical reaction. The method was pioneered by U-M chemists Mark Meyerhoff and Nicolai Lehnert in previous work, called “E_NOgen.” This approach uses a copper-containing compound as the catalyst to make NO gas from nitrite.
Learn more:
https://news.umich.edu/u-m-researchers-make-it-easier-to-say-no-to-catheter-infections/