© 2003 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume IIA: Biocompatibility, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2003

15.5.6 Electrocompatibility

Medical nanorobots must be electrically biocompatible with living cells and tissues [5844]. Various issues in electrocompatibility have already been raised and deserve further study, including electrical field and neuroelectric sensing (Sections 4.7, 4.8.6, 4.8.7, 4.9.3.1, 4.9.3.3, and 4.9.5), biological effects of radiofrequency power (Section 6.4.2), macrophage-stimulative electrical fields (Section 6.4.3.6), circumvascular current-carrying wire coils (Section 6.4.4), stray-field bioelectric interactions (Section 6.5.5), environmental electromagnetic and electrical biofeedback signals (Section 7.2.3), electrical adhesive forces (Section 9.2.3), and various electrical-related risks of in vivo nanorobots (Chapter 17). The discussion here is necessarily brief and considers only a few of the many possible electrical interactions with cells (Section 15.5.6.1), along with the important issue of surface electrical thrombogenicity (Section 15.5.6.2). Tangential important issues such as possible changes in whole-body electrical conductivity due to massive diamondoid materials implants should be studied but are beyond the scope of this book.

Last updated on 30 April 2004