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
Electrode design for high frequency block: effect of bipolar separation on block thresholds and the onset response.
The delivery of high frequency alternating currents (HFAC) to peripheral nerves has been shown to produce a rapid and reversible nerve conduction block at the site of the electrode, and holds therapeutic promise for diseases associated with undesired or pathological neural activity. It has been known since 1939 that the configuration of an electrode used for nerve block can impact the quality of the block, but to date no formal study of the impact of electrode design on high frequency nerve block has been performed. Using a mammalian small animal model, it is demonstrated that the contact separation distance for a bipolar nerve cuff electrode can impact two important factors related to high frequency nerve block: the amplitude of HFAC required to block the nerve (block threshold), and the degree to which the transient "onset response" which always occurs when HFAC is first applied to peripheral nerves, is present. This study suggests that a bipolar electrode with a separation distance of 1.0 mm minimizes current delivery while producing high frequency block with a minimal onset response in the rat sciatic nerve.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Using A-weighting for psychoacoustic active noise control.
Conventional adaptive active noise control (ANC) methods aim to attenuate the acoustic noise over the frequency band of interest indiscriminately using the sound pressure level (SPL) measurement (or the measurement of the residual error variance). However, SPL does not correctly reflect the human perception of attenuated noise due to the frequency selective sensitivity of human hearing system. A-weighting is a commonly used weighting filter for measuring the noise. ⋯ In this paper, we aim to improve the performance of adaptive noise cancellation method from the psychoacoustic point of view by incorporating the A-weighting into the ANC system design. Loudness is used as the psychoacoustic criterion for evaluating the ANC system performance. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Revisiting the video stethoscope: an application of digital signal processing software (Goldwave) to monitoring ventilation in intubated patients.
Problems with tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation are potentially important causes of perioperative morbidity and mortality. We have developed a method of monitoring the ventilation of both lungs during general anesthesia that is an advanced digital version of a more primitive analog technique developed over two decades ago. We used two miniature electret microphones connected to regular chest pieces, placing the assemblies on the anterior chest wall about 4 inches below the clavicle in the midclavicular line. ⋯ We also hypothesized that as a result of noise and anatomical variations that under conditions of bilateral mechanical ventilation the obtained plot would be very different from a simple 45 degree line. The data obtained supports these hypotheses. This preliminary study suggests that our technique may help provide a practical real-time warning system for detecting endotracheal tube malpositions, and may help build on the work of other investigators.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Macroscopic two-pump two-vasculature cardiovascular model to support treatment of acute heart failure.
Comprehensive understanding of hemodynamics remains a challenge even for expert cardiologists, partially due to a lack of an appropriate macroscopic model. We attempted to amend three major problems of Guyton's conceptual model (unknown left atrial pressure, unilateral heart damage, blood redistribution) and developed a comprehensive macroscopic model of hemodynamics that provides quantitative information. ⋯ Pump functions of left and right heart are expressed by an integrated cardiac output curve, and the capacitive function of total vasculature by a venous return surface. The equations for both the cardiac output curve and venous return surface would facilitate precise diagnosis (especially evaluation of blood volume) and choice of appropriate treatments, including application to autopilot systems.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Estimation of the aortic pressure waveform from a radial artery pressure waveform via an adaptive transfer function: Feasibility demonstration in swine.
We previously proposed a new technique to estimate the physiologically and clinically more relevant central aortic pressure (AP) waveform from a conveniently and safely measured peripheral artery pressure (PAP) waveform distorted by wave reflections. In contrast to conventional generalized transfer function (GTF) techniques, the technique is able to adapt the transfer function relating PAP to AP to the inter-patient and temporal variability of the arterial tree by defining it through a tube model and invoking the fact that aortic flow is negligible during diastole to estimate the unknown model parameters. We conducted feasibility testing of this adaptive transfer function technique here with respect to radial artery pressure (RAP) waveforms, for the first time, as well as femoral artery pressure (FAP) waveforms from four swine instrumented with AP catheters during several hemodynamic conditions. Our results showed that the AP waveforms estimated by the technique from the RAP and FAP waveforms were in superior agreement to the measured AP waveforms (overall respective errors of 4.1 and 4.8 mmHg) than the two unprocessed PAP waveforms (9.1 and 8.1 mmHg) and a previous GTF technique trained on a subset of the same data (5.0 and 5.8 mmHg).