2023-07-17 ワシントン大学セントルイス校
A collaboration of researchers at Washington University St. Louis have created a more accessible route to prenatal care: a portable uterine-contraction tracker, a cheap-to-make, flexible electrode patch. (iStock photo)
◆既存の大型装置と比べて手軽な使用が可能であり、医療格差のある地域において負担を軽減できる可能性があります。この装置は、電気信号を使用して子宮収縮を監視し、異常な収縮パターンを検出する非侵襲的な電気筋肉子宮イメージング(EMMI)法をベースにしています。今後の研究では、さらに多くのデータを収集し、この技術の応用範囲を拡大する予定です。
<関連情報>
- https://engineering.wustl.edu/news/2023/Portable-low-cost-tech-tracks-uterine-contractions.html
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10129921
筋電位計測のためのポータブルでスケーラブルなマルチチャンネルワイヤレス記録システム A Portable and a Scalable Multi-Channel Wireless Recording System for Wearable Electromyometrial Imaging
Weilun Li,Zhili Xiao,Junyi Zhao,Kenji Aono,Stephanie Pizzella,Zichao Wen,Yong Wang,Chuan Wang,Shantanu Chakrabartty
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems Published:19 May 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TBCAS.2023.3278104
Abstract
Electromyometrial imaging (EMMI) technology has emerged as one of the promising technology that can be used for non-invasive pregnancy risk stratification and for preventing complications due to pre-term birth. Current EMMI systems are bulky and require a tethered connection to desktop instrumentation, as a result, the system cannot be used in non-clinical and ambulatory settings. In this paper, we propose an approach for designing a scalable, portable wireless EMMI recording system that can be used for in-home and remote monitoring. The wearable system uses a non-equilibrium differential electrode multiplexing approach to enhance signal acquisition bandwidth and to reduce the artifacts due to electrode drifts, amplifier 1/f noise, and bio-potential amplifier saturation. A combination of active shielding, a passive filter network, and a high-end instrumentation amplifier ensures sufficient input dynamic range ( >100 dB ) such that the system can simultaneously acquire different bio-potential signals like maternal electrocardiogram (ECG) in addition to the EMMI electromyogram (EMG) signals. We show that the switching artifacts and the channel cross-talk introduced due to non-equilibrium sampling can be reduced using a compensation technique. This enables the system to be potentially scaled to a large number of channels without significantly increasing the system power dissipation. We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach in a clinical setting using an 8-channel battery-powered prototype which dissipates less than 8 μ W per channel for a signal bandwidth of 1KHz.
