EAGER: Non-invasive monitoring of arterial parameters via model-based analysis of arterial pulse signals measured by a microfluidic-based tactile sensor

随着心血管疾病成为世界范围内死亡的主要原因，对心血管健康和生理的非侵入性监测的需求日益增加。为了有效和广泛使用，监测方法必须相对简单、负担得起和准确。这个探索性研究（EAGER）项目旨在开发一种新的方法，使用基于微流体的触觉传感器和相关的基于模型的分析来进行心血管系统的非侵入性监测。该项目还将揭示传感器-动脉相互作用物理，这对于实现精确和可重复的测量至关重要。如果成功，这种方法将彻底改变心血管健康评估和跟踪：1)允许心血管疾病的早期发现和及时干预和治疗评估，从而降低发病率/死亡率并降低医疗保健费用；2)为医学领域提供可靠、负担得起和方便的工具，以进行广泛的临床研究和大型流行病学调查，以了解心血管生理学和病理学。该项目还将培养学生的基础科学知识和实验技能，并为当地高中生开展一些外展活动，包括研究开放日和夏令营。在这个项目中，基于微流体的触觉传感器具有位置不敏感的配置，用于测量皮肤表面动脉的脉冲信号。通过将测量到的脉冲信号作为振动信号处理，将动脉壁建模为一个二阶动态系统。因此，相关的基于模型的分析允许仅从一个测量的脉冲信号中估计三个动脉参数（弹性，粘度和动脉壁半径）。该项目的总体目标是获得对不同受试者特异性（体重指数和年龄）下传感器设计对动脉参数及其伴随变化的基本理解，并建立与其他心血管系统参数的估计值的相关性。该项目的技术目标是：1)实验研究不同学科特异性下动脉参数及其变化对传感器设计的依赖性；2)通过相关医学读数评估测量的准确性和可重复性；3)基于实验结果和相关工程原理，建立不同学科特异性下动脉参数估计值与传感器设计定量关系的理论框架；4)检验估计动脉参数及其变化与其他CV参数的相关性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With cardiovascular diseases being the leading cause of death worldwide, there is an ever-increasing need for non-invasive monitoring of cardiovascular health and physiology. To be effective and widely used, monitoring methods must be relatively simple, affordable, and accurate. This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project seeks to develop a novel method for non-invasive monitoring of the cardiovascular system using a microfluidic-based tactile sensor and associated model-based analysis. This project will also reveal sensor-artery interaction physics that is critical for achieving accurate and repeatable measurements. If successful, this method will revolutionize cardiovascular health assessment and tracking by 1) allowing early detection and timely intervention and treatment assessment of cardiovascular diseases, thus reducing morbidity/mortality rates and lowering healthcare costs; and 2) offering a reliable, affordable, and convenient tool to the medical field to conduct extensive clinical studies and large epidemiological surveys to understand cardiovascular physiology and pathology. This project will also train students with fundamental scientific knowledge and experimental skills, and implement several outreach activities, including research open houses and summer-camps for local high school students.In this project, a microfluidic-based tactile sensor with location-insensitive configuration is used to measure the pulse signal in an artery at the skin surface. By treating the measured pulse signal as a vibration signal, the arterial wall is modeled as a second-order dynamic system. Consequently, the associated model-based analysis allows estimation of three arterial parameters (elasticity, viscosity and radius of the arterial wall) from only one measured pulse signal. The overall goal of this project is to gain fundamental understanding on how estimated arterial parameters and their concomitant changes depend on the sensor design under different subject-specificity (Body Mass Index and age) and to establish correlations of the estimated values with other CV system parameters. The technical objectives of the project are to: 1) experimentally investigate the dependence of estimated arterial parameters and their changes on the sensor design under different subject-specificity; 2) assess the measurement accuracy and repeatability by relevant medical readings; 3) based on the experimental results and relevant engineering principles, establish a theoretical framework on quantitative relations of the estimated values of arterial parameters to the sensor design under different subject-specificity; and 4) examine correlations of estimated arterial parameters and their changes with other CV parameters.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.