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 2009
Medical safety of TASER conducted energy weapon in a hybrid 3-point deployment mode.
TASER conducted energy weapons (CEW) deliver electrical pulses that can temporarily incapacitate subjects. The goal of this paper is to analyze the distribution of TASER CEW currents in the heart and surrounding organs and to understand theoretical chances of triggering cardiac arrhythmias, of capturing the vagus and phrenic nerves and producing electroporation of skeletal muscle structures. The CEW operates in either probe mode or drive-stun (direct contact) mode. There is also a hybrid mode in which current is passed from a single probe to either or both of 2 drive-stun electrodes on the weapon, presumed to be in direct contact with the skin. ⋯ Numerical modeling estimated that TASER CEWs were expected to be safe when deployed in 3-point mode. In drive-stun, probe-mode or 3-point deployments, the CEWs had high theoretically approximated safety margins for cardiac capture, VF, phrenic or vagus nerve capture and skeletal muscle damage by electroporation.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Relation between index finger width and hand width anthropometric measures.
Measures of hand and finger anthropometry are very important for designing many hand held devices as well as understanding anthropometric effects on the operation of such devices. Many historical datasets have measured and recorded gross hand dimensions but do not often record the finer dimensions of the hand such as finger anthropometry. ⋯ In this paper we compare two empirical linear models that predicts index finger width at the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint (a finger anthropometric measure) based on hand-width (hand anthropometric measure). This will be especially useful for deriving population measures of finger anthropometry from large historical data sets where only gross hand dimensions are available.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
ReviewSpinal cord stimulation for complex regional pain syndrome.
The therapy of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is based on producing an electrical field on the dorsal surface of the spinal cord that blocks only neuropathic pain (ie, pain from damage to the nervous system). Most SCS devices deliver a biphasic pulse consisting of a pair of equal amplitude pulses with opposite polarity. SCS therapy is based on the gate control theory of pain and has been used for the treatment of diverse conditions of neuropathic pain, including complex regional pain syndromes (CRPS). ⋯ When used in the right patient, SCS provides significant pain relief in a majority of patients with CRPS. This review focuses on the effects of SCS on CRPS. In addition, an overview of the state of the art technologies used for implantable SCS medical devices is also provided.
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Pain assessment in patients who are unable to verbally communicate with medical staff is a challenging problem in patient critical care. The fundamental limitations in sedation and pain assessment in the intensive care unit (ICU) stem from subjective assessment criteria, rather than quantifiable, measurable data for ICU sedation and analgesia. ⋯ Recent advancements in pattern recognition techniques using a relevance vector machine algorithm can assist medical staff in assessing sedation and pain by constantly monitoring the patient and providing the clinician with quantifiable data for ICU sedation. In this paper, we show that the pain intensity assessment given by a computer classifier has a strong correlation with the pain intensity assessed by expert and non-expert human examiners.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Scaling exponents of EEG are related to the temporal process of the therapeutic hypothermia following ischemic brain injury.
Several markers based on quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) analysis have been associated with the neuroprotective effects of therapeutic hypothermia on hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) after cardiac arrest (CA). Nevertheless, the makers by far have not been linked to the temporal process of the ischemic neuronal death. ⋯ While the short-term scaling exponent in theta band (i.e. gamma(1)(theta)) and the long-term scaling exponent in alpha band (i.e. gamma(2)(alpha)) were correlated with the delayed neuronal death after CA. Our preliminary results showed that the long-range correlations in theta and alpha bands could be related the detail temporal process of therapeutic hypothermia.