Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference
-
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Emerging technology for advancing the treatment of epilepsy using a dynamic control framework.
We briefly describe a dynamic control system framework for neuromodulation for epilepsy, with an emphasis on its practical challenges and the preliminary validation of key prototype technologies in a chronic animal model. The current state of neuromodulation can be viewed as a classical dynamic control framework such that the nervous system is the classical "plant", the neural stimulator is the controller/actuator, clinical observation, patient diaries and/or measured bio-markers are the sensor, and clinical judgment applied to these sensor inputs forms the state estimator. Technology can potentially address two main factors contributing to the performance limitations of existing systems: "observability," the ability to observe the state of the system from output measurements, and "controllability," the ability to drive the system to a desired state. ⋯ We describe our preliminary validation of key "observability" and "controllability" technology blocks using an implanted research tool in an epilepsy disease model. This model allows for testing the key emerging technologies in a representative neural network of therapeutic importance. In the future, we believe these technologies might enable both first principles understanding of neural network behavior for optimizing therapy design, and provide a practical pathway towards clinical translation.
-
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Biometric and mobile gait analysis for early diagnosis and therapy monitoring in Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative movement disorder. Early diagnosis and effective therapy monitoring is an important prerequisite to treat patients and reduce health care costs. Objective and non-invasive assessment strategies are an urgent need in order to achieve this goal. ⋯ The presented system is able to classify patients and controls (for early diagnosis) with a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 86%. In addition it is possible to distinguish mild from severe gait impairment (for therapy monitoring) with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. This system may be able to objectively classify PD gait patterns providing important and complementary information for patients, caregivers and therapists.
-
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Instrumentation to record evoked potentials for closed-loop control of deep brain stimulation.
Closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems offer promise in relieving the clinical burden of stimulus parameter selection and improving treatment outcomes. In such a system, a feedback signal is used to adjust automatically stimulation parameters and optimize the efficacy of stimulation. We explored the feasibility of recording electrically evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) during DBS for use as a feedback control signal. ⋯ Subsequently, the instrumentation was used to make in vivo recordings of ECAPs during thalamic DBS in cats, without contamination by the stimulus artifact. The signal characteristics were similar across three experiments, suggesting common neural activation patterns. The ECAP recordings enabled with this novel instrumentation may provide insight into the type and spatial extent of neural elements activated during DBS, and could serve as feedback control signals for closed-loop systems.
-
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
Scalable patients tracking framework for mass casualty incidents.
We introduce a system that tracks patients in a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) using active RFID triage tags and mobile anchor points (DM-tracks) carried by the paramedics. The system does not involve any fixed deployment of the localization devices while maintaining a low cost triage tag. The localization accuracy is comparable to GPS systems without incurring the cost of providing a GPS based device to every patient in the disaster scene.
-
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2011
The frequency of saccades correlates to peak velocity in symmetrical disparity vergence.
A pure vergence stimulus requires the two eyes to turn equally inward or outward theoretically resulting in a pure symmetrical vergence response. However, saccades, a rapid conjugate eye movement, are frequently observed in vergence responses. This investigation sought to systematically quantify whether the occurrence of saccades within symmetrical vergence responses is correlated to vergence peak velocity. ⋯ The occurrence of saccades is negatively correlated to vergence peak velocity. When the velocity is slower, the number of saccades increases. This study suggests that the brain may initiate a saccade to facilitate a slow vergence movement, potentially to allow object recognition before binocular fusion.