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
Comparative StudyAn ultra-sensitive wearable accelerometer for continuous heart and lung sound monitoring.
This paper presents a chest-worn accelerometer with high sensitivity for continuous cardio-respiratory sound monitoring. The accelerometer is based on an asymmetrical gapped cantilever which is composed of a bottom mechanical layer and a top piezoelectric layer separated by a gap. This novel structure helps to increase the sensitivity by orders of magnitude compared with conventional cantilever based accelerometers. ⋯ A built-in charge amplifier is used to amplify the output voltage of the sensor. A sensitivity of 86V/g and a noise floor of 40ng/√Hz are obtained. Preliminary tests for recording both cardiac and respiratory signals are carried out on human body and the new sensor exhibits better performance compared with a high-end electronic stethoscope.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Validation of heart rate extraction using video imaging on a built-in camera system of a smartphone.
As a smartphone is becoming very popular and its performance is being improved fast, a smartphone shows its potential as a low-cost physiological measurement solution which is accurate and can be used beyond the clinical environment. Because cardiac pulse leads the subtle color change of a skin, a pulsatile signal which can be described as photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal can be measured through recording facial video using a digital camera. In this paper, we explore the potential that the reliable heart rate can be measured remotely by the facial video recorded using smartphone camera. ⋯ The heart rate was extracted using frequency analysis of the raw trace signal and the analyzed signal from ICA. The accuracy of the estimated heart rate was evaluated by comparing with the heart rate from reference electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. Finally, we developed FaceBEAT, an iPhone application for remote heart rate measurement, based on this study.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Evaluating the usability of a virtual reality-based Android application in managing the pain experience of wheelchair users.
Pain constitutes an important medical concern that can have severe implications to a wheelchair user's quality of life. Results from studies indicate that pain is a common problem in this group of individuals, having a reported frequency of always (12%) and everyday (33%). ⋯ As a result, in this paper we present an Android application (PainDroid) that has been enhanced with Virtual Reality (VR) technology for the purpose of improving the management of pain. Our evaluation with a group of wheelchair users revealed that PainDroid demonstrated high usability among this population, and is foreseen that it can make an important contribution in research on the assessment and management of pain.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Examining intrinsic thalamic resting state networks using graph theory analysis: implications for mTBI detection.
A major challenge associated with understanding mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the absence of biomarkers in standard clinical imaging modalities. Furthermore, the inhomogeneity of mTBI location and intensity, combined with latent symptoms further complicates identification and treatment. A growing body of evidence suggests that the thalamus may be injured or susceptible to change as the result of mTBI. ⋯ Our results suggest the presence of distinct unilateral thalamic differences in mTBI subjects. We also observe correlations of the thalamic changes with clinical assessments. The findings from this study have implications for functional networks in the thalamus and its projections for application as a potential biomarker for mTBI detection.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2012
Discovering shared dynamics in physiological signals: application to patient monitoring in ICU.
Modern clinical databases include time series of vital signs, which are often recorded continuously during a hospital stay. Over several days, these recordings may yield many thousands of samples. In this work, we explore the feasibility of characterizing the "state of health" of a patient using the physiological dynamics inferred from these time series. ⋯ Each such "dynamic" captures a distinct pattern of evolution of BP and is possibly recurrent within the same time series and shared across multiple patients. Next, we examine the utility of this low-dimensional representation of BP time series for predicting mortality in patients. Our results are based on an intensive care unit (ICU) cohort of 480 patients (with 16% mortality) and indicate that the dynamics of time series of vital signs can be an independent useful predictor of outcome in ICU.