NANOROBOTS-
SUBSTITUTES FOR
PRESENT HEART SURGERIES
In today’s fast world, man is in a
situation where he has
compete against machines. Due
to this stress of a mechanical life,
the human body is subjected to
various levels of trauma. The
organ most affected is the heart.
Heart attacks are becoming so
common now a days.
percentage of people affected is
increasing by the day. This heart
attack is mainly caused due to
improper diet with excessive
cholesterols and lack of proper
exercise to burn calories, which
leads to blocks in the arteries.
The present method of treatment-
the bypass surgery or
angioplasty, though effective,
may be considered outdated in
today’s technological age.
Nanorobots are tiny nanoscale
devices that may be used to
perform a variety of tasks very
accurately and in lesser time.
ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology is the cutting
to edge of future technology and is
vastly directed towards medical
applications. This paper throws
light on one possible application
of these nanorobots in the human
body, where they may be
employed to remove heart blocks
The more effectively and accurately,
in lesser time causing no pain
what so ever. This
nanotechnology will be the driver
for the future technologies of
today’s “shrinking world”.
INTRODUCTION
the
Heart blocks are becoming one
of the major diseases among the
people of today’s world. With a
variety of reasons for occurrence,
ranging from lack of exercise to
smoking and drinking, this has
emerged as the most wide spread
disease ever. These heart blocks
are caused due to a variety of
reasons. Current diagnostic
measures include a lot of painful
processes like the Angiogram.
The treatment for the block is
also extremely dangerous, time
consuming and painful.
Angioplasty, though having a
high success rate, is still old
fashioned. Today’s technology
promises a lot more than the
insertion of a thin tube into your
blood vessels. Nanorobots can be
effectively used in this process of
curing heart blocks. This paper
discusses the causes of heart
blocks, the current process of
diagnosis and therapy. Later this
paper throws light on the novel
idea of curing these heart blocks
using nanorobots- a technology
just a few years away from
implementation. This paper
views the problem on a purely
theoretical and imaginative
approach.
CHOLESTEROLS
Our body fluids, mainly
blood have a biochemical
compound known as cholesterol.
These cholesterols are chemical
compounds of glycerol and
unsaturated acid. The
cholesterols found in the human
body can be classified into two
types. They are,
Low density lipids (LDL)
High density lipids(HDL)
These cholesterols flow
through the blood and are
essential for the normal
functioning of the body to a
certain extent. Cholesterol is a
fat-like substance (lipid). It is
both produced in the liver and
consumed by eating animal
products such as meat, eggs or
dairy products. The body needs
cholesterol, and manufactures all
the cholesterol needed by various
organ systems. In fact, the body
naturally produces up to four
times more cholesterol than what
normally would be taken in
through diet. The body uses
cholesterol to:
Assist in the manufacture of
hormones or vitamin D
Break down carbohydrates and
proteins
Help form a protective coating
around nerves
Build cell walls and to produce
bile (the word cholesterol is
Greek for “bile solids”)
 It is natural that the blood
Cholesterol is carried through the vessels continually contract and
bloodstream by lipoproteins. expand in order to accommodate
Lipoproteins are proteins that the variations in the blood
wrap around both cholesterol and pressure, arising due to various
other fatty materials and reasons. But when the LDL’s
transport them through the flow through the blood, they get
bloodstream. accumulated on the walls of the
The HDL’s are blood vessels. These LDL’s on
basically harmless as they highly accumulation make the blood
stable and are disposed off by the vessels loose their elastic
body effectively. These HDL’s property. As a result the blood
are basically stable and hence do vessels will no longer be able to
not stick to the walls of the blood keep up with the pressure
vessels. Actually , these HDL’s variations of the blood. Hence
help to carry the bad cholesterols the pressure fluctuations in the
from the blood stream to the liver blood are carried over to the
from where it gets disposed. heart and hence the heart is
These contain more of protein , subjected to constantly varying
and less fat. On the other hand, stress which weakens it.
the LDL’s contain more fat and
less protein.
The LDL’s are a bit
difficult to get rid of.These
LDL’s or ‘bad cholesterols’ as
they are commonly known, get
accumulated on the walls of the
blood vessels. This happens
because these LDL’s are highly
unstable. So they get
disintegrated and rather than
being disposed off by the liver,
they get accumulated along the
walls of the arteries.
 catheter at the end is used. This is
introduced into the veins at the
thigh and upto the pericardium.
This catheter injects a radioactive
fluid into the blood stream, the
flow of which is monitored by a
continuous X-ray. When this
fluid flows through the block,
there will be a contraction in the
thickness of the fluid line
monitored through the X-ray.
This contraction indicates the
location of the block. Once the
block has been located, it is
removed by a method known as
Angioplasty.

ANGIOPLASTY
In this method
ANGIOGRAM the end of the catheter has a
deflated balloon. This balloon is
The LDL’s on further positioned under the block and it
deposition form a lump and close is inflated, so that the block
in on the diameter of the blood bursts, and is carried away
vessel. So as the concentration through the blood stream. In
increases the diameter of the order to prevent the recursion of
blood vessel decreases. Hence the block, the blocked area is
blood transportation to or from covered with a one-way
the heart is hindered. inflatable metal cylinder, that is
The intensity of this attached on the outside of the
problem is measured by a balloon. As the balloon is
method known as Angiogram.. inflated, the cylinder attains
Here a small tube of diameter of shape, and gets locked on
about a few micrometer with a attaining maximum expansibility.
This method is known as 3. chemo sensors
‘balloon angioplasty’ 4. smart sensors
nanorobots equipped with
NANOROBOTS nanolasers to severe the block

Nanorobots are after confirmation.

nanodevices that may be of about Nanorobots that have the ability

3 to 5 micrometres in size. The to fill the burnt gaps with fresh

individual parts used to make flawless cells synthesized by the

these nanorobots may be of 1 to robots themselves in order to

100 nm in size. These nanorobots prevent the recurrence of the

are mainly made up of carbon, block. This process is known as

and may be given a coating of ‘molecular synthesis’.

diamond. The diamond coat is

given because diamond is the
most inert and tough material THE ACTUAL PROCESS
ever known. These nanorobots
can be used for a variety of The three types of
purposes. In this paper, to treat nanorobots needed for the
heart blocks we use three kinds process, are suspended in a liquid
of nanorobots. matrix and injected into blood
. vessels of the patient.
Immediately the acoustic sensors
in the sensor robots get activated
and begin navigating the army of
robots through the blood stream
to the pericardium.
Simultaneously, the smart
sensors present in the sensor
Nanorobots with nanosensors to robots, get activated and form a
locate the block. These robots closed ad-hoc network
will need four kinds of connecting all the robots. This is
nanosensors. very essential in order to guide
1. pressure sensors all the nanorobots to the desired
2. acoustic sensors location.
 The sensor robots
perform the most sophisticated
type of diagnosis known, i.e.
diagnosis from the inside of the
human body. These sensors , on
reaching the periphery of the
Sensor robots that navigate the
heart, scan the pericardial other robots through the blood
vessels, for blocks and locate the stream.

spot exactly.
The second

The pressure sensors mounted on confirmation, comes from the

the sensor robots, scan the blood chemo sensors. These sensors

vessels for variations in the blood scan the region they traverse, for

pressure. This will act as the first the chemical composition of the

confirmation. This scanning for cholesterols. That is, these

pressure variations is necessary, sensors differentiate the

as in the region of the block, cholesterol compounds

there will be a constriction of the accumulated on the walls of the

blood vessel and hence a rise in blood vessels, from the actual

the blood pressure compared to composition of the tissues of the

that existing in the nearby areas. blood vessels. In this way, the

These sensors will generate a block can be identified

report of the potential areas of accurately. All these information

heart block, based on the are transmitted through the ad-

pressure mapping of the blood hoc network formed by all the

vessels. smart sensors and can be

constantly viewed by the doctors
monitoring the entire process.
After successful
location of the block, the second
Size of nanorobots
when compared to that
type of nanorobots , those
of the red blood cells. equipped with nanolasers, come
into picture. These lasers , like
the robots themselves, can be
powered by the body itself, by
means of the kinetic energy of
the flowing blood, pressure of the
blood flow , etc. thus, these
lasers can be powered by the
most ingenious ways imaginable.
These laser robots on activation
based on the information flow
through the network, effectively
burn down the block. Since the
operation is held on a nanoscale,
the outcome is highly accurate.
Moreover , there is literally zero
damage to the surrounding
healthy tissues.
The final leg of the
operation is the responsibility of
he molecular synthesizers. These
nanorobots, take the required
biochemical substances from the
blood or the surrounding tissues,
and synthesise the cells of the
blood vessels in order to seal the
area of the block. These cells are
placed in the affected region and
as a result , we have a whole new
region of the blood vessel that is
completely free from the threat
of another block.
ADVANTAGES
1. The process is very fast.
2. Since the scale of opeartion is
very small, the results are very
accurate.
3. The process is less painful
unlike angioplasty, where the
patient takes months to recover
from the physical trauma of the
operation.
4. The process is technologically
very advanced and reliable.
5. The patient is not subjected to
harmful rays unlike angioplasty
where he is placed below a
continuous X-ray during
diagnosis.
6. The chance of any aftereffects
or recurrences are completely
eliminated.
DISADVANTAGES
1. Nanorobots, the technology as
such, may be very costly.
2 The technology may take
several years to be implemented
practically.
3. The technology may lead to
further technological problems
like the introduction of
artificial reconstruction and
artificial intelligence which will
result in the robots going out of
control of humans.
 visualized. Hence these
nanorobots are still out of
production although having
CONCLUSION
passed the drawing board stage
long back. The human mind will
Nanotechnology
one day make this extremely
is truly a vast field of research
interesting vision, a reality. This
and study, bound only by the
field however at present, in its
limits of human imagination.
infancy stages, just like aviation
Eventhough this may seem to
was, during the early 1900’s.
most of them like a fairy tale, the
Let us hope that this technology
days of implementation of these
also will one day, become as
devices are not far off. The
successful and dominating like
machines needed to fabricate
aviation today.
these nanorobots are yet to be

REFERENCES

Electronics for you – November 2004.

www.google.com\cholesterols
Dr.Saravana Boopathi M.B.B.S., M.S, Madurai.
www.howstuffworks.com