We review the potential of plasma medical applications, the connections to
nanotechnologies and the results obtained by our group. A special issue in
plasma medicine is the development of the plasma sources that would achieve
non-equilibrium at atmospheric pressure in atmospheric gas mixture with no or
only marginal heating of the gas, and with desired properties and mechanisms
that may be controlled. Our studies have shown that control of radicals or
chemically active products of the discharge such as ROS (reactive oxygen
species) and/or NO may be used to control the growth of the seeds. At the
same time specially designed plasma needle and other sources were shown to be
efficient to sterilize not only colonies of bacteria but also planctonic
samples (microorganisms protected by water) or bio films. Finally we have
shown that plasma may induce differentiation of stem cells. Non-equilibrium
plasmas may be used in detection of different specific markers in medicine.
For example proton transfer mass spectroscopy may be employed in detection of
volatile organic compounds without their dissociation and thus as a technique
for instantaneous measurement of the presence of markers for numerous
diseases.
Application of non-equilibrium plasmas in medicine
