Now even monitor muscular diseases with your smartphone

A smartphone-based technology can effectively monitor the treatment progress of muscular dystrophy, a condition which causes the muscles of the body to weaken.

 According to Michael S. Hughes from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington, DC, an ultrasound technique can be incorporated into smartphones and other hand held devices to allow patients to determine how they are responding to medication.

By using ultrasound, doctors can effectively distinguish between healthy, damaged and treated muscles. Steroids are often prescribed for the condition to slow muscle degeneration but they have serious side effects.

The researchers found that by collecting large amounts of data from ultrasound images of the mice, they were able to effectively distinguish between healthy, damaged and treated muscles.

In September this year, researchers were able to trigger muscle repair in mice with muscular dystrophy. The findings were shared at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Indiana.

A while back, scientists had also developed a new smartphone app that could detect changes in patients’ behavioral patterns and then sends the data to doctors in real time. By facilitating patient observation through smartphones, the technology also affords patients much-needed independence from hospitals, clinicians – and even family members. Psychiatrists in the trials reported that the system has already positively affected their interaction with patients, offering a useful objective “window” into the patient’s daily routine.

With inputs from IANS