Micro-sample Viscometer Advances Cranial Aneurism Treatment
Posted on Thu, Nov 03, 2011
I
n developing an important new treatment for cranial aneurisms, a leading southern 
California biotech company faced a key challenge: How to precisely control the viscosity of their medicine for injection. To find a solution, the company turned to Cambridge Viscosity.
The company manufactures a biological liquid paste that surgeons inject into the blood stream of the affected area of the cranium when an aneurism occurs. The paste is produced in very small quantities and is quite expensive. To achieve the proper consistency, the paste’s viscosity must be very precise. If it is too thin, it will not achieve the proper blocking; if it is too thick, it cannot be safely injected. The biotech company needed an easy-to-use viscometer in order to accurately measure the smallest amount of medicine sample possible.
The company was already using Cambridge viscometers in their development lab and had firsthand experience with the sensors’ accuracy and reliability. They faced a special challenge, however, when it came to measuring the biological paste’s viscosity, as it required them to work with micro-samples of the valuable material. The company selected Cambridge’s VISCOlab 5000 micro-sample viscometer because it requires only 75 micro-liters of sample for research and manufacturing applications.
“Cambridge micro-sample viscometers are widely used in the pharmaceutical and biotechnical markets where very small amounts of fluid are available for testing, but the value of accurate information is high,” says Cambridge Viscosity President Robert Kasameyer. “It is gratifying to know that our sensors are helping to advance this exciting new method for treating cranial aneurisms.”