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 2013
Wireless patch sensor for remote monitoring of heart rate, respiration, activity, and falls.
Unobtrusive continuous monitoring of important vital signs and activity metrics has the potential to provide remote health monitoring, at-home screening, and rapid notification of critical events such as heart attacks, falls, or respiratory distress. This paper contains validation results of a wireless Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) patch sensor consisting of two electrocardiography (ECG) electrodes, a microcontroller, a tri-axial accelerometer, and a BLE transceiver. The sensor measures heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate, posture, steps, and falls and was evaluated on a total of 25 adult participants who performed breathing exercises, activities of daily living (ADLs), various stretches, stationary cycling, walking/running, and simulated falls. Compared to reference devices, the heart rate measurement had a mean absolute error (MAE) of less than 2 bpm, time-domain HRV measurements had an RMS error of less than 15 ms, respiratory rate had an MAE of 1.1 breaths per minute during metronome breathing, posture detection had an accuracy of over 95% in two of the three patch locations, steps were counted with an absolute error of less than 5%, and falls were detected with a sensitivity of 95.2% and specificity of 100%.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2013
A flexible algorithm framework for closed-loop neuromodulation research systems.
Modulation of neural activity through electrical stimulation of tissue is an effective therapy for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. Researchers are exploring improving therapy through adjustment of stimulation parameters based upon sensed data. ⋯ The latter, known as the control policy algorithm, is the focus of this work. Because the optimal control policy algorithms for the nervous system are not fully characterized at this time, we have implemented a generic control policy framework to facilitate exploratory research and rapid prototyping of new neuromodulation strategies.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2013
Effect of respiratory-induced intensity variations on finger SpO2 measurements in volunteers.
Photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals were recorded from the fingers of 16 healthy volunteers with periods of timed and forced respiration. The aim of this pilot study was to compare estimations of arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) recorded using a dedicated pulse oximetry system while subjects were breathing regularly with and without a mouthpiece containing a flow resistor. ⋯ SpO2 values were calculated from the pre-recorded PPG signals. Mean SpO2 values were 95.4% with the flow resistor compared with 97.3% with no artificial resistance, with statistical significance demonstrated using a Student's t-test (P = 0.006).
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2013
A simple and effective semi-invasive method for inducing local hypothermia in rat spinal cord.
Hypothermia has been shown to be an effective treatment for spinal cord injury. Local hypothermia is advantageous because it avoids inducing systemic side effects of general hypothermia while providing the opportunity for greater temperature reduction at the site of injury, which may contribute to increased neuroprotection. We report a new semi-invasive method for inducing local hypothermia in rats' spinal cords. ⋯ We also validated our method in control rats that received only a laminectomy. Furthermore, this method was able to reliably cool and rewarm the cord at a steady rate (Δ5.5°C in 30 min, or 0.2°C/min). Future work will include validating long-term functional improvements of injured rats after treatment and to apply local cooling to other spinal cord injury models, such as compression injuries.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2013
Hemodynamics at the ostium of cerebral aneurysms with relation to post-treatment changes by a virtual flow diverter: a computational fluid dynamics study.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques have been refined for modeling the hemodynamics in cerebral aneurysms. Recent interest has focused on understanding hemodynamic changes by treatment with a flow diverter (FD), i.e. a stent with a dense metal mesh which is placed across the ostium to divert the majority of flow away from the aneurysm. Potential complications include remnant inflow jets but, more seriously, aneurysm hemorrhage. ⋯ Velocities and WSS were reduced in all cases post FD treatment, pressure increased in one case. Heterogeneous distributions of the velocity magnitude were found at the ostium with focal maxima indicating potential risk zones for remnant inflow jets into the aneurysms. Pressures at the ostium correlated with pressure changes inside the aneurysm which could become a pre-treatment indicator for the evaluation of the suitability of a particular aneurysm for FD treatment.