Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Selective co-stimulation of pudendal afferents enhances reflex bladder activation.
The loss of normal bladder function is common in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) and negatively impacts their quality of life. Electrical stimulation of pudendal nerve afferents is a promising approach to restore control of bladder function. Pudendal afferent stimulation can generate reflex contraction of the bladder, but the resulting bladder voiding efficiency remains low. ⋯ In preclinical studies in anesthetized adult cats, co-stimulation of CSN and DNP evoked larger bladder contractions than individual stimulation of either CSN or DNP. In a parallel clinical experiment involving a participant with chronic SCI, co-stimulation of the proximal and distal urethra also produced synergistic augmentation of reflex bladder activity, and thus improved voiding efficiency when compared to reflex distension-evoked voiding. Selective co-stimulation of pudendal afferents is efficacious and should be considered in the development of neural prosthetics for restoration of bladder function in persons with SCI.
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We want to objectivize the level of activity of elderly persons living independently at home. Most existing monitoring systems are intrusive and/or require a large number of sensors. ⋯ We built a unique "activity indicator" which integrates all the activities of the person. This was assessed during 6 months within 12 flats occupied by single elderly persons.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
A wearable system for the seismocardiogram assessment in daily life conditions.
Seismocardiogram (SCG) is the recording of the minute body accelerations induced by the heart activity, and reflects mechanical aspects of heart contraction and blood ejection. So far, most of the available systems for the SCG assessment are designed to be used in a laboratory or in controlled behavioral and environmental conditions. In this paper we propose a modified version of a textile-based wearable device for the unobtrusive recording of ECG, respiration and accelerometric data (the MagIC system), to assess the 3d sternal SCG in daily life. ⋯ We observed that about 30 seconds of motionless behavior are sufficient for a stable estimate of the average SCG waveform, independently from the subject's posture. Since it is likely that during spontaneous behavior the subject may stay still for at least 30 seconds several times in a day, it is expected that the SCG could be repeatedly estimated and tracked over time through a prolonged data recording. These observations represent the first testing of the system in the assessment of SCG out of a laboratory environment, and open the possibility to perform SCG studies in a wide range of everyday conditions without interfering with the subject's activity tasks.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Nerve block using a navigation system and ultrasound imaging for regional anesthesia.
During the last few years, regional anesthesia using ultrasound imaging has increased dramatically in both clinical and research areas. This method provides a direct noninvasive imaging of the targeted nerve and the tissue around it in real time. Furthermore, it allows anesthetists to observe the injected anesthetics for optimal distribution. ⋯ Each test person was asked to repeat the test five times with and without navigation assistance, respectively. Thereafter, a two-sample one-tailed paired t-test with a significance level of 1% was applied to statistically analyze the difference. The results show that navigation assistance significantly improves effectiveness, safety, precision and handling of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Classification of multi-modal data in a self-paced binary BCI in freely moving animals.
The goal of the present article is to compare different classifiers using multi-modal data analysis in a binary self-paced BCI. Individual classifiers were applied to multi-modal neuronal data which was projected to a low dimensional space of latent variables using the Iterative N-way Partial Least Squares algorithm. ⋯ To compare the classifiers BCI experiments were simulated. For this purpose we used 9 recordings from behavioral experiments previously recorded in rats free to move in a nature like environment.