STTR Phase I: Design of a Handheld Multi-sensor Passive Pulmonary Function Testing Device

这个小型企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业影响是开发一种用于检测和诊断肺部疾病的肺功能测试设备。今天，全球超过6.5亿人患有哮喘和慢性阻塞性肺疾病等肺部疾病，占世界人口的近10%--S。目前，肺功能测试最成熟的方法是肺活量测定法，它要求患者进行非自然的呼吸动作。此外，肺活量测定法不能检测某些患者群体的肺部状况。该技术无需特殊的呼吸动作即可使用，并且可以区分比肺活量计更多的肺部疾病。由于拟议的仪器可以在病人正常呼吸的情况下使用，它还将迎合目前服务不足的患者群体，例如幼儿和老年人，用于检测和诊断肺部疾病。通过将目标对准便携式外形因素，这项技术将使目前不可行的护理点肺部测试成为可能。拟议的项目将开发成为第一个手持实施充分研究的强迫振荡技术(FOT)的原理，通过口腔向患者发送声波压力波？S的肺和反射被用来测量肺功能。因此，患者不需要特殊的呼吸动作。为了实现手持设备的外形，该团队提出了两项互补的创新。首先，该团队将开发一种新的相干多扬声器发射机，这将缩小目前FOT实施中最大组件(即扬声器)的尺寸。为了取代能够在极低频率下产生足够大的压力波的大型扬声器，该团队建议使用许多具有特殊设计的输入信号的小型扬声器，以便它们在目的地连贯地相加。其次，该团队将开发相干多传感器接收器来测量S患者肺部的压力波，这些压力波的幅度通常很小，并与S患者呼吸产生的波交织在一起。该团队建议使用多个传感器来测量反射波的流量和压力，以便通过对多个接收波形进行相干处理来提高接收信噪比。

The broader impact/commercial impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is development of a pulmonary function testing device for detection and diagnosis of pulmonary conditions. Today more than 650 million globally, nearly 10% of the world?s population, suffers from lung conditions like Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Currently, the most well-established method for lung function testing is spirometry, which requires the patient to conduct an unnatural breathing maneuver. In addition, spirometry cannot detect lung conditions for certain patient population. The proposed technology can be used without special breathing maneuver, and can differentiate more lung conditions than spirometer. Since the proposed device can be used while the patient is breathing normally, it will also cater to currently under-served patient segments, e.g. young children and senior citizens, for detection and diagnosis of pulmonary conditions. By targeting a portable form-factor, this technology will empower point-of-care pulmonary testing where it is currently infeasible.The proposed project will develop be the first handheld implementation of the well-studied principle of forced oscillation technique (FOT), where an acoustic pressure wave is sent via the mouth to a patient?s lungs and reflections are used to measure lung function. Thus, no special breathing maneuver is required from the patient. To achieve the handheld form-factor, the team proposes two complementary innovations. First, the team will develop a new coherent multi-speaker transmitter, which will reduce the size of the biggest component, i.e., speaker, in current implementations of FOT. To replace the huge speaker capable of generating sufficient magnitude pressure waves at very low frequencies, the team proposes to employ many small speakers with specially designed input signals such that they coherently add at the destination. Second, the team will develop coherent multi-sensor receiver to measure pressures waves from patient?s lungs which are often very small in amplitude, and interlaced with waves due to patient?s breathing. The team proposes to employ multiple sensors to measure flow and pressure of the reflected waves, such that the received signal to noise ratio can be increased by coherently processing the multiple received waveforms.