Seattle-based Mirador Biomedical company has developed a low-cost pressure sensor designed to be incorporated into a syringe and guide wire used to insert the catheter. This tool provides doctors with a digital readout on the pressure of the blood flow in the vessel it has reached, which provides an obvious readout that can show the difference between a high-pressure artery and a low-pressure vein. This sort of tool could be incorporated into central venous procedures that are performed 6 million times a year in the U.S., and could have potential to prevent thousands of mistakes that can cause severe complications, or even death.
