IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering
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Radio-frequency (RF) coils are a necessary component of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. When used in transmit operation, they act to generate a homogeneous RF magnetic field within a volume of interest and when in receive operation, they act to receive the nuclear magnetic resonance signal from the RF-excited specimen. This paper outlines a procedure for the design of open RF coils using the time-harmonic inverse method. ⋯ Because of the averaging effect of the regularization technique in the matrix solution, the specified magnetic field is shaped within an iterative procedure until the generated magnetic field matches the desired magnetic field. The stream-function technique is used to ascertain conductor positions and a method of moments package is then used to finalize the design. An open head/neck coil was designed to operate in a clinical 2T MRI system and the presented results prove the efficacy of this design methodology.
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Sep 2002
Signal strength versus cuff length in nerve cuff electrode recordings.
When a nerve cuff electrode is used for the recording of signals from peripheral nerves, cuff dimensions have to be chosen. Traditionally, the peak-to-peak amplitude of the single-fiber action potential (SFAP) is optimized through the choice of cuff diameter and cuff length. ⋯ The results were obtained from modeled SFAPs and from the electroneurogram (ENG) created by superimposed SFAPs, obtained from an inhomogeneous volume conductor model. The results show that the RMS value of the nerve signal is considerably more sensitive to the cuff length than the SFAP peak-to-peak amplitude, and that the RMS of the ENG is a linear function of the fiber diameter.
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Jul 2002
Comparative StudyWavelet-based ECG compression using dynamic vector quantization with tree codevectors in single codebook.
In this paper, we propose a novel vector quantizer (VQ) in the wavelet domain for the compression of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. A vector called tree vector (TV) is formed first in a novel structure, where wavelet transformed (WT) coefficients in the vector are arranged in the order of a hierarchical tree. Then, the TVs extracted from various WT subbands are collected in one single codebook. ⋯ With the proposed approach both visual quality and the objective quality in terms of the percent of root-mean-square difference (PRD) are excellent even in a very low bit rate. For the entire 48 records of Lead II ECG data in the MIT/BIH database, an average PRD of 7.3% at 146 b/s is obtained. For the same test data under consideration, the proposed method outperforms many recently published ones, including the best one known as the set partitioning in hierarchical trees.
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Jun 2002
Comparative StudyEffects of stochastic sodium channels on extracellular excitation of myelinated nerve fibers.
The effects of the stochastic gating properties of sodium channels on the extracellular excitation properties of mammalian nerve fibers was determined by computer simulation. To reduce computation time, a hybrid multicompartment cable model including five central nodes of Ranvier containing stochastic sodium channels and 16 flanking nodes containing detenninistic membrane dynamics was developed. The excitation properties of the hybrid cable model were comparable with those of a full stochastic cable model including 21 nodes of Ranvier containing stochastic sodium channels, indicating the validity of the hybrid cable model. ⋯ The stochastic properties of the sodium channels in the hybrid cable model had the greatest impact when considering the temporal dynamics of nerve fibers, i.e., a large variability in latencies, while they did not influence the SD, IX, or recruitment properties as compared with those of the conventional deterministic cable model. These findings suggest that inclusion of stochastic nodes is not important for model-based design of stimulus waveforms for activation of motor nerve fibers. However, in cases where temporal fine structure is important, for example in sensory neural prostheses in the auditory and visual systems, the stochastic properties of the sodium channels may play a key role in the design of stimulus waveforms.
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Jun 2002
Comparative StudyMiniature acoustic guidance system for endotracheal tubes.
Ensuring that the distal end of an endotracheal tube (ETT) is properly located within the trachea, and that the tube is not obstructed by mucus deposition, is a major clinical concern in patients that require mechanical ventilation. A novel acoustic system was developed to allow for the continuous monitoring of ETT position and patency. A miniature sound source and two sensing microphones are placed in-line between the ventilator hose and the proximal end of the ETT. ⋯ The system noninvasively estimated tube position in vivo to within roughly 4.5 mm, and differentiated between proper tracheal, and erroneous bronchial or esophageal intubation in all cases. In addition, the system estimated the area and location of lumen obstructions in vitro to within 14% and 3.5 mm, respectively. These findings indicate that this miniature technology could improve the quality of care provided to the ventilated adult and infant.