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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 7 January 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office. It is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program. The report reviews biomaterials used in medicine, including silicones, Teflon, biodegradable polymers, hydrogels, titanium, ceramics and tissue constructs, and applications such as stents, joints, contact lenses, drug delivery and dialysis. It concludes that most innovation lies in new ways to apply existing materials.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 1/7/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD is a broad survey of biomaterials, including metals, polymers, ceramics, glasses, and composites designed to interact with living tissue, and argues that their value depends mainly on biocompatibility, reliability, and careful matching of material properties to specific medical uses. The report reviews major application areas including biosensors, implants, cardiovascular devices, contact lenses, drug delivery systems, tissue constructs, titanium devices, and dialysis membranes, emphasizing that no single biomaterial works best in every setting. Its overall conclusion is that biomaterials are already foundational to a large medical-device industry and save or improve millions of lives, but that progress tends to be slow because safety testing is stringent; as a result, most advances come from improved ways of applying established materials such as silicone, Teflon, biodegradable polymers, ceramics, and titanium in new devices and clinical settings rather than from radically new substances.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /5i0A 05i5ilQIAk Ulilii QNkY Medical Devices Used in the Bloodstream Blood contact time Catheters Min-days Guidewires Min-hrs Sensors Min-months Pacemaker 10 yrs Vascular Graft lifetime Heart Valve lifetime Stent lifetime Extracorporeal Oxygenation hrs Artificial Kidney (hemodialyzer) hrs Total Artificial Heart 10 yrs Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) Days-yrs Figure 21. Some of the More Popular Biomedical Devices and Duration of Their Blood Contact Biomaterials are used as vascular grafts fo r artery replacements in which they are connected (g rafted) ont o natural blood vessels at bot h ends. When arteries, particularly the coronary arteries and t he vessels of the lower limbs, become blocked by fatty deposits (atherosclerosis), segments in some cases ca n be replaced wit h grafts . Figure 22 shows commercial vascula r grafts made by Gore Medical (Flagstaff, Ari zona, USA) . Figure 22. Gore Medical Teflon Foam Used in Vascular Grafts. These are artificial blood vessels used to replace blood vessels in the human body damaged by accident, atherothrosclerosis, or diabetic vascular disease. UNCLASSIFIED/;'FOR OFFI@IAk YSE 8rtt'f 16
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 32 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.