Assessment of Brain-injury using Radio-Frequency Induction and Microwave Spectroscopy (ABRIMS)

脑损伤是现代医疗保健中最严重和最重要的发病和死亡原因之一。其后果可能造成沉重的代价；给幸存者留下了终生的创伤，如人格改变、精神疾病、癫痫、言语和语言问题、认知和执行功能障碍、行动能力和身体损伤以及瘫痪。统计数据很明显：2014年，英国医院收治了大约35万名脑损伤患者，他们的病情从出血到中风不等。保守估计，每年至少有2000名成年人因受伤而严重受损，这是青年人和儿童致残和死亡的主要原因。最令人担忧的是，这些数字还在上升。据慈善机构“珩渥”称，自2006年以来，脑损伤增加了10%。如果能在正确的时间，由掌握病人神经系统状态最佳信息的临床医生提供正确的治疗，脑损伤后恢复的机会就会大大提高。该建议利用了最近在射频感应（RFI）和微波（MW）光谱系统诊断神经损伤方面的工作。我们的创新是在各部分之和大于整体的前提下，在单个系统中结合射频和毫瓦频谱测量。我们可以利用这两个区域颅内组织电特性的不同对比比率，以新的方式结合数据，从根本上提高选择性——也就是说，能够选择一种效应（脑损伤），而不是其他可能影响测量的混杂生理和环境因素。我们对颅内组织色散区域的频率特别感兴趣-特别是β和γ色散。随着电荷流动或电场传输的机制从一种形式转变为另一种形式，光谱上的这些区域的电学性质会发生更突然的变化。这两个信息丰富的光谱区域在不同的颅骨组织之间具有明显不同的对比度。这些不同的对比比率可用于阐明某些类型脑损伤的状态、状况和进展的特性，如中风、出血和血肿（出血和血凝块）、脑水肿（肿胀），主要特征是颅骨内液体和组织的体积变化。我们的愿望是，这项技术，在一个紧凑和便携的形式，将有助于改善患者的结果，从脑损伤。我们设想了一个系统；(1)部署在患者护理的最早期阶段，提供时间关键的诊断，以加快治疗交付；(2)一种本质上安全的、持续的监测工具，用于动态评估脑损伤的进展，补充现有的神经影像学，并在仍有时间进行手术干预的情况下，对患者的快速和潜在灾难性恶化提供早期预警。

Brain-injury is one of the most severe and significant causes of morbidity and death in modern healthcare. Its consequences can exact a heavy toll; leaving survivors with the life-long scars of debilitating personality change, mental illness, epilepsy, speech and language problems, cognitive and executive dysfunction, and mobility and physical impairment and paralysis.The statistics are stark: Around 350,000 people with brain-injury were admitted to UK hospitals in 2014 with conditions ranging from haemorrhage to stroke. Conservatively, at least 2000 adults a year suffer serious impairments from their injury, and it is the primary cause of disability and death in young people and children. Most concerning of all, these numbers are rising. According to the charity 'Headway', brain-injuries have increased by 10% since 2006.The chances of recovering after a brain injury are vastly improved if the right therapy can be delivered at the right time, by a clinician equipped with the very-best information on the patient's neurological state.This proposal takes advantage of recent work on radio-frequency induction (RFI) and microwave (MW) spectroscopy systems for diagnosis of neurological injury. Our innovation is to combine RF and MW measurement of the spectrum in a single system, on the premise that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. We can exploit the differing contrast ratios in the electrical properties of intracranial tissues over the two regions, combining the data in new ways to radically improve selectivity - that is, the ability to select one effect (a brain-injury) over other confounding physiological and environmental factors that may also affect the measurement. We are particularly interested in frequencies over the dispersion regions of intracranial tissues - specifically the beta and gamma dispersions. These are regions on the spectrum where the electrical properties change more suddenly as the mechanism for charge flow, or transmission of electric fields, changes from one form to another. These two information-rich regions of the spectra are notable for the markedly different contrast ratios between the different cranial tissues. These different contrast ratios may be used to elucidate properties about the state, condition and progress of certain types of brain injuries, such stroke, haemorrhage and haematoma (bleeding and blood clots), cerebral oedema (swellling), chiefly characterised by volumetric changes of fluids and tissue set within the cranium.Our aspiration is that this technology, in a compact and portable form, will serve to improve patient outcomes resulting from brain-injury. We envisage a system that could; (1) be deployed at the very earliest stages of patient care, providing time critical diagnosis to speed up treatment delivery; and (2) an intrinsically safe, continuous monitoring tool for dynamic assessment of a brain injury's progression, supplemental to existing neuro-imaging, and give an early warning of rapid and potentially catastrophic patient deterioration while there is still time for surgical intervention.