While conventional imaging methods provide seemingly credible diagnostics, conclusions are subjective and vary with specialist interpretation. Ultimately, physical properties are required. For example, what feeds and nourishes a tumor? Is it spreading, growing, and at what rates? What flow paths do oxygen and nourishment take?

The iSyringe provides quantitative, local information related to permeability, anisotropy, compressibility, compressibility and background pressure by interrogating transient pressures recorded during injections and blood withdrawals. It is minimally invasive, convenient, inexpensive, and importantly, suitable for repeated use in diagnostic monitoring.

Our table-top experimental setup, shown above, is simple. A pressure transducer instrumented syringe, connected to an "autoinjector" that controls flow rate, plus a computer hosting Darcy physics-based fluid flow models that process measured data. Predictions are almost immediate. Numbers are provided to physicians for unambiguous results, and easily communicated clearly to others on the medical team.

Initial experiments were performed on meats, fruits, vegetables and pastry products with success. This work followed equally successful software interpretation of pressure data obtained from live animal and human subjects. Multiple commercial markets have been identified. In early 2025, we were successful in a preliminary round of Venture Capital funding in Hong Kong enabling us to continue our highly motivating work.

Collected data takes "obvious form." As medicine is injected into tissue, pressures increase with time. When syringe plunger motion ceases, pressures fall. The shape of the transient curve contains dynamic information that is easily extracted using "formation testing" models developed by the Developers for petroleum industry applications.

Results for sample supermarket meats are shown above. For more results and sample calculations, refer to "Real-time Tissue Properties from Intelligent iSyringe Pressure Transient Analysis," J. Radiology and Clinical Imaging, June 2025, or request a complimentary copy from the Developer.