A novel fumigation moxibustion device has been designed to enable adjustable and controllable moxa smoke temperature, maintaining a relatively stable fumigation temperature while improving the utilization efficiency of moxa smoke. The device consists of five main components: a temperature control chamber, fumigation outlet, temperature measurement module, moxa smoke filtration chamber, and elastic band. It is compact, refined, and easy to operate. The device allows users to set the desired fumigation temperature according to therapeutic needs and simultaneously filters and eliminates residual moxa smoke after treatment. This design addresses the challenges of traditional fumigation moxibustion therapy, including unstable moxa smoke temperature, difficulty in regulation, low utilization efficiency, and high dependence on manual operation. It contributes to the promotion and application of fumigation moxibustion therapy and supports the establishment of a standardized moxibustion system.
Moxibustion/methods* ; Humans ; Equipment Design ; Fumigation ; Temperature

To address the common clinical problems associated with warm needling moxibustion, such as burns, bending of needle handles, and the inability to perform moxibustion during oblique needling, an adjustable warm needling moxibustion device is designed and has been granted a national patent. This device consists of five components: a moxa cylinder, an adjustable arm, a supporting tube, a temperature alarm, and a fixing strap. It allows infrared heat radiation from the moxa to pass through while blocking falling ash, thereby ensuring therapeutic efficacy and preventing burns. The device accommodates both perpendicular and oblique needling angles and adapts to various body positions, effectively avoiding deformation of the needle handle. It is easy to operate and offers high safety.
Moxibustion/methods* ; Humans ; Equipment Design ; Needles

The sterile electrode acupuncture needle for single use is an innovative product that combines traditional acupuncture with modern electronic technology, and it has obtained Class Ⅱ medical device registration certificate. This acupuncture device consists of a needle body and a handle. The diameter of the needle body ranges from 0.16 mm to 0.55 mm, and the length from 7 mm to 150 mm. The spiral spray technology is adopted to modify the micron-level insulating coat on stainless steel needle body. The needle holder is connected to the electroacupuncture device (conductive), the micro-film insulated needle body (non-conductive) and the membrane-free needle tip (conductive) can provide a precise electrical stimulation for different tissue layers of acupoints (such as deep nerves and fascia). The intradermal stimulation test, cytotoxicity test and hypersensitivity reaction test have showed a favorable biocompatibility, laying a solid and reliable safety for clinical application. This acupuncture device is suitable for the in-depth invasive stimulation at the sites of human body surface in combination with electroacupuncture equipment in medical institutions.
Humans ; Needles ; Acupuncture Therapy/instrumentation* ; Electrodes ; Equipment Design ; Electroacupuncture/instrumentation* ; Acupuncture Points ; Animals

During the operation of warm needling, the needle may be tilted and bent to a large degree, which will cause high temperature of moxibustion on the skin surface around, and even burns in patients. To solve this problem, the team developed a balance fixator for acupuncture needle that can be used at acupoints in various parts of the body, such as on the abdomen, waist, limbs and face. The device is composed of 3 parts, including three (or more)-bifurcated sleeve, cushion pad, and circular fixed base-plate, forming an integrated structure. The three (or more)-bifurcated sleeve increases the contact area with the filiform needle body, which can quickly and easily reduce the curvature of the needle body and fix the filiform needle. According to the different locations of acupoints in clinical practice, the cushion pad is designed as three types, i.e. rectangle, large circle, and small circle. It can not only balance needle body, but also prevent skin burns to a certain extent. This device is simple to manufacture, lightweight in material, and environmental friendly; and is applicable to a simple and safe operation in clinical practice.
Humans ; Acupuncture Therapy/methods* ; Acupuncture Points ; Needles ; Equipment Design

Traditional manual testing of ventilator performance is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and prone to errors in data recording, making it difficult to meet the current demands for testing efficiency in the development and manufacturing of ventilators. Therefore, in this study we designed an automated testing system for essential performance parameters of ventilators. The system mainly comprises a ventilator airflow analyzer, an automated switch module for simulated lungs, and a test control platform. Under the control of testing software, this system can perform automated tests of critical performance parameters of ventilators and generate a final test report. To validate the effectiveness of the designed system, tests were conducted on two different brands of ventilators under four different operating conditions, comparing tidal volume, oxygen concentration, and positive end expiratory pressure accuracy using both the automated testing system and traditional manual methods. Bland-Altman statistical analysis indicated good consistency between the accuracy of automated tests and manual tests for all respiratory parameters. In terms of testing efficiency, the automated testing system required approximately one-third of the time needed for manual testing. These results demonstrate that the designed automated testing system provides a novel approach and means for quality inspection and measurement calibration of ventilators, showing broad application prospects.
Ventilators, Mechanical/standards* ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Automation

As a relatively novel technique for drug delivery, the needle-free injection technique is characterized by transporting the drug liquid to the designated subcutaneous position through a high-speed micro-jet. Although this technique has been applied in many fields, the research on its drug dispersion mechanism and injection performance is insufficient. The presented study aims to identify critical parameters during the injection process and describe their influence on the injection effect. The injection completion rate and performance of a needle-free injector under various operating conditions were compared based on mouse experiments. The results show that the nozzle diameter imposes a more significant influence on jet characteristics than other injection parameters. Moreover, the injection completion rate increases with the nozzle diameter. The nozzle diameters of 0.14 mm and 0.25 mm correspond to injection completion rates of 89.7% and 95.8%, respectively. Furthermore, by analyzing the rate of blood glucose change in the tested mice, it is found that insulin administration through the needle-free injection can achieve a drug effect duration longer than 120 min, which is better than that obtained using conventional needle-syringe technique. In summary, the obtained conclusions can provide an important reference for the optimal design and extending application of the air-powered needle-free injector.
Animals ; Mice ; Insulin/administration & dosage* ; Needles ; Injections, Subcutaneous/methods* ; Injections, Jet/instrumentation* ; Drug Delivery Systems/instrumentation* ; Blood Glucose/analysis* ; Equipment Design

Tesla blood pumps demonstrate a reduced propensity for hemolysis and thrombosis compared with vane blood pumps. Considering the restricted driving force within the secondary flow channel of vane blood pumps, along with the low hydraulic efficiency of conventional Tesla blood pumps and their internal flow characteristics that significantly contribute to hemolysis and thrombosis, this study introduces a set of vanes atop the rotor of the Tesla blood pump. This forms a dual-fluid domain rotor, and an axial dual-outlet volute shell structure is adopted to realize the separation of the fluid domains. Through numerical simulations of the new structure, a comparative analysis was conducted in this study on the internal flow characteristics of double-outlet and single-outlet volute shells, and symmetric and asymmetric cross-sections of the same rotor. The results indicate that the flow field distribution is more uniform under the double-outlet volute shell structure, and overall energy dissipation is decreased. After implementing the double-outlet design, in the asymmetric cross-section, compared with the symmetric cross-section, the fluid velocity gradient and turbulent kinetic energy at the tongue of the septum are reduced, and the fluid velocity gradient at the convergence of the diffuser tube outlets are also decreased. The maximum scalar stress is lower, and the decline in head and efficiency is mitigated. Moreover, compared with the single-outlet volute shell, the hemolysis index in the asymmetric cross-section is reduced. In summary, this paper proposes a novel dual-outlet centrifugal disk blood pumps, which can provide a reference for the structural design and performance optimization of magnetically levitated centrifugal blood pumps.
Heart-Assist Devices ; Humans ; Equipment Design ; Hemolysis ; Computer Simulation

Drug administration via hollow microneedles (HMN) have the advantages of painlessness, avoidance of first-pass effect, capability of sustained infusion, and no need for professional personnel operation. In addition, HMN can also be applied in the fields of body fluid extraction and biosensors, showing broad application prospects. However, traditional manufacturing technologies cannot meet the demand for low-cost mass production of HMN, limiting its widespread application. This paper reviews the main manufacturing technologies used for HMN in recent years, which include photolithography and etching, laser etching, sputtering and electroplating, micro-molding, three-dimensional (3D) printing and drawing lithography. It further analyzes the characteristics and limitations of existing manufacturing technologies and points out that the combination of various manufacturing technologies can improve production efficiency to a certain extent. In addition, this paper looks forward to the future trends of HMN manufacturing technology and proposes possible directions for its development. In conclusion, it is expected that this review can provide new ideas and references for follow-up research.
Printing, Three-Dimensional ; Needles ; Humans ; Drug Delivery Systems/methods* ; Equipment Design ; Microinjections/methods*

To address the challenges of capturing micro-strains in detecting esophageal motility disorders and the limitations of existing high-resolution manometry and functional intraluminal imaging probes in directly measuring esophageal tissue electrical impedance, this study proposes a novel flexible balloon sensor structure that integrates a piezoelectric film assembly with a distributed impedance electrode array. Using the electrical analysis module in the finite element analysis (FEA) software, simulations of the forward problem for esophageal impedance detection were conducted to optimize the excitation source parameters, and a physical prototype was fabricated. Under a relative excitation mode with a voltage sensitivity of 2.059%, the voltage output characteristics of the impedance electrode array were analyzed during linear changes in the balloon filling volume. Based on the performance variation of the piezoelectric film assembly, 80% was selected as the optimal filling volume. Force-electric coupling tests were conducted on the balloon sensor using a pressure testing platform, revealing that both the piezoelectric film assembly inside the balloon and the impedance electrodes outside the balloon exhibited significant load differentiation characteristics as the force application point shifted. In summary, this balloon sensor facilitates the localization of force application while simultaneously analyzing esophageal tissue properties, offering a novel diagnostic approach and objective tool for esophageal disease detection.
Esophagus/physiology* ; Electric Impedance ; Humans ; Finite Element Analysis ; Manometry/methods* ; Electrodes ; Esophageal Motility Disorders/physiopathology* ; Equipment Design

The therapeutic effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are closely related to the structure of the stimulation coil. Based on this, this study designed an A-word coil and proposed a multi-strategy fusion multi-objective slime mould algorithm (MSSMA) aimed at optimizing the stimulation depth, focality, and intensity of the coil. MSSMA significantly improved the convergence and distribution of the algorithm by integrating a dual-elite guiding mechanism, a hyperbolic tangent control strategy, and a hybrid polynomial mutation strategy. Furthermore, compared with other stimulation coils, the novel coil optimized by the MSSMA demonstrates superior performance in terms of stimulation depth. To verify the optimization effects, a magnetic field measurement system was established, and a comparison of the measurement data with simulation data confirmed that the proposed algorithm could effectively optimize coil performance. In summary, this study provides a new approach for deep TMS, and the proposed algorithm holds significant reference value for multi-objective engineering optimization problems.
Algorithms ; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/instrumentation* ; Equipment Design ; Humans