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

STTR第一阶段：手持式多传感器被动肺功能测试装置的设计

• 批准号: 1417256
• 负责人: Gaurav Patel
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Cognita Labs, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1417256&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Design; Handheld; Multi

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.

该小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业影响是开发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，占世界的近10%？美国人口中，患有肺部疾病，如哮喘和慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）。目前，肺功能测试的最完善的方法是肺活量测定法，其需要患者进行不自然的呼吸动作。此外，肺活量测定法不能检测某些患者群体的肺部状况。所提出的技术可以在没有特殊的呼吸动作的情况下使用，并且可以比肺活量计区分更多的肺部状况。由于所提出的设备可以在患者正常呼吸时使用，因此它还将满足目前服务不足的患者群体，例如幼儿和老年人，用于肺部状况的检测和诊断。通过瞄准便携式的外形因素，这项技术将使现场护理肺部测试，它是目前不可行的。拟议的项目将开发是第一个手持实施的充分研究的原则，强迫振荡技术（FOT），其中一个声压波是通过嘴发送给病人？的肺和反射用于测量肺功能。因此，不需要患者进行特殊的呼吸操作。为了实现手持外形，该团队提出了两个互补的创新。首先，该团队将开发一种新的相干多扬声器发射器，这将减少最大组件的尺寸，即，扬声器，在FOT的当前实现中。为了取代能够在非常低的频率下产生足够大的压力波的巨大扬声器，该团队建议使用许多具有专门设计的输入信号的小型扬声器，以便它们在目的地连贯地添加。其次，该团队将开发相干多传感器接收器来测量来自患者的压力波。的肺部，往往是非常小的振幅，并与波交错，由于病人？s呼吸。该团队建议使用多个传感器来测量反射波的流量和压力，以便通过相干处理多个接收到的波形来提高接收到的信噪比。