I-Corps: Microwave Stethoscope for Monitoring Vital Signs and Changes in Lung Water Content

这项工作的目标是开发一种低成本的无线“微波听诊器”系统，该系统可以通过单次反射系数测量连续监测人体生命体征。这些生命体征包括心率、呼吸频率、中风量，更重要的是肺含水量的变化，这是我们的传感器所独有的。该系统是基于使用放置在患者胸部的单个微型微波传感器来测量反射系数。这种宽带微波传感器以类似于心电图引线的方式附着在身体上。测量到的反射系数（特别是相位）由于呼吸、心跳和肺含水量的变化而发生变化。这些生命体征是通过一种新的数字信号处理算法提取的，通过一次测量提供多个生命体征，如心率、呼吸频率、心电图样心脏波形和肺含水量的变化。医疗保健是，并且仍然是我们国家在21世纪面临的一项紧迫挑战。初级保健医生在人口中的比例不断下降，人口老龄化的需求不断增加，这是推动以家庭和患者为中心的医疗保健方法提供的动力。该项目的成功完成可以提供一种低成本、无创的传感器，可以持续监测多种生命体征，从而改善偏远和贫困社区的医疗保健，并支持各种现场和紧急军事应用。开发的硬件平台可作为进一步疾病诊断的调查工具。该项目可以使用毫米波集成电路对人体健康进行高精度监测，并为包括流行病学家、儿科医生和家庭医生在内的众多医生提供一种新的诊断工具。对这项技术感兴趣的典型医学博士包括那些在肺部和呼吸、烧伤和ICU病房工作的人。它有可能帮助改善美国乃至其他地区偏远和弱势社区的医疗保健。

The objective of the proposed work is to develop a low-cost and wireless enabled 'Microwave Stethoscope' system that can continuously monitor human vital signs from a single reflection coefficient measurement. These vital signs include the heart rate, breathing rate, stroke volume, and more importantly the changes in lung water content which is unique to our sensor. The system is based on the use of a single miniaturized microwave sensor placed on the patient chest for reflection coefficient measurements. This broadband microwave sensor is attached to the body in a similar fashion to an EKG lead. The measured reflection coefficient (specifically the phase) exhibits changes due to respiration, hearbeat, and the changes in the lung water content. These vital signs are extracted by a novel digital signal processing algorithm providing multiple vital signs through a single measurement such as heart rate, respiration rate, EKG like heart waveform, and changes in the lung water content. Healthcare is, and remains, a pressing challenge facing our nation in the 21st century. The diminishing ratio of the primary care physicians to the population, and the increasing requirements of the aging population are the driving forces for the home and patient centered delivery of healthcare approach. Successful completion of this project could provide a single low-cost and non-invasive sensor that can continuously monitor multiple vital signs, hence, enable improving healthcare in remote and under privileged communities, and in supporting a variety of in-field and emergency military applications. The developed hardware platform can be an investigative tool for further illness diagnosis. This project could enable use of millimeter wave integrated circuits for high accuracy monitoring of human health, and provides a new diagnosis tool to a wide array of medical doctors including epidemiologists, pediatricians, and family physicians. Typical MDs who would be interested in this technology include those who work in pulmonary and respiratory, burn and ICU units. It has the potential to help improve healthcare in remote and under privileged communities in the US and perhaps beyond.