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 2012
Exercise training plus calorie restriction causes synergistic protection against cognitive decline via up-regulation of BDNF in hippocampus of stroke-prone hypertensive rats.
One of the important organ damage of hypertension is cognitive decline. Cognitive function is determined by the function of hippocampus, and previous studies have suggested that the decrease in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus causes cognitive decline. Protection against cognitive decline is reported not only in pharmacological therapy but also in exercise training or calorie restriction. ⋯ Exercise training for 28 days improved cognitive decline determined by Morris water maze test via up-regulation of BDNF in the hippocampus of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats, whereas calorie restriction for 28 days did not. However, exercise training plus calorie restriction causes the protection against cognitive decline to a greater extent than exercise training alone. In conclusion, exercise training plus calorie restriction causes synergistic protection against cognitive decline via up-regulation of BDNF in the hippocampus of stroke-prone hypertensive rats.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Respiratory rate estimation using respiratory sinus arrhythmia from photoplethysmography.
Respiratory rate (RR) is an important measurement for ambulatory care and there is high interest in its detection using unobtrusive mobile devices. For this study, we investigated the estimation of RR from a photoplethysmography (PPG) signal that originated from a pulse oximeter sensor and had a sub-optimal sampling rate. We explored the possibility of estimating RR by extracting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) from the PPG-derived heart rate variability (HRV) measurement using real-time algorithms. ⋯ Both PPG and ECG RR estimation techniques were more powerful and reliable in cases of spontaneous ventilation than when pressure controlled ventilation was used. The analysis of cases containing artifacts in the PPG revealed a significant increase in RR error, a trend that was less pronounced for controlled ventilation. These results indicate that the estimation of RR from the sub-optimally sampled PPG signal is possible and more reliable than from the ECG.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Wavelet-based features for characterizing ventricular arrhythmias in optimizing treatment options.
Ventricular arrhythmias arise from abnormal electrical activity of the lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart. Ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) are the two major subclasses of ventricular arrhythmias. While VT has treatment options that can be performed in catheterization labs, VF is a lethal cardiac arrhythmia, often when detected the patient receives an implantable defibrillator which restores the normal heart rhythm by the application of electric shocks whenever VF is detected. ⋯ This might eventually lead to an objective way of analyzing arrhythmias in the overlap zone and computing their degree of affinity towards VT or VF. A database of 24 human ventricular arrhythmia tracings obtained from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database was analyzed and wavelet-based features that demonstrated discrimination between the VT, VF, and VT-VF groups were extracted. An overall accuracy of 75% in classifying the ventricular arrhythmias into 3 groups was achieved.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Visuomotor discordance in virtual reality: effects on online motor control.
Virtual reality (VR) applications are rapidly permeating fields such as medicine, rehabilitation, research, and military training. However, VR-induced effects on human performance remain poorly understood, particularly in relation to fine-grained motor control of the hand and fingers. We designed a novel virtual reality environment suitable for hand-finger interactions and examined the ability to use visual feedback manipulations in VR to affect online motor performance. ⋯ The latency of these modifications was similar across conditions. These findings demonstrate that a VR-based platform may be a robust medium for presenting visuomotor discordances to engender a sense of ownership and drive sensorimotor adaptation for (retraining motor skills. This may prove to be particularly important for retraining motor skills in patients with neurologically-based movement disorders.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Open-access MIMIC-II database for intensive care research.
The critical state of intensive care unit (ICU) patients demands close monitoring, and as a result a large volume of multi-parameter data is collected continuously. This represents a unique opportunity for researchers interested in clinical data mining. We sought to foster a more transparent and efficient intensive care research community by building a publicly available ICU database, namely Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II (MIMIC-II). ⋯ Any interested researcher can gain access to MIMIC-II free of charge after signing a data use agreement and completing human subjects training. MIMIC-II can support a wide variety of research studies, ranging from the development of clinical decision support algorithms to retrospective clinical studies. We anticipate that MIMIC-II will be an invaluable resource for intensive care research by stimulating fair comparisons among different studies.