Fetal Magnetocardiography Using Non-cryogenic Magnetic Field Sensors

描述(由申请者提供)：该项目的目标是开发一种低成本、非侵入性的系统，用于诊断胎儿严重的心率和节律异常。生后，心电图学是评估节律的金标准。然而，在胎儿中，由于胎儿皮肤和的低传导性，限制了胎儿心脏活动产生的电流到达母体表面，因此心电质量太差，不适合临床使用。近年来，胎儿心磁图(FMCG)通过检测磁场而不是胎儿心脏活动产生的电势来克服胎儿心电的缺点，成为一种很有前途的新工具。尽管快速消费品效率很高，但由于依赖于超导体技术，其成本高得令人望而却步，而且程序繁琐，因此没有被广泛采用。我们建议开发的系统将使用最新的室温光学磁强计，以大幅降低快速消费品的成本。目前，一个功能齐全的快速消费品系统的成本约为100万美元。这项拟议的技术可以将快速消费品系统的价格降低到10万美元。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究的目标是开发一种新的用于胎儿心磁图的磁性传感器技术，这是一种非常有希望的评估严重胎儿心率和节律紊乱的方法。这项基于原子物理原理的新传感器技术比目前基于超导物理的技术更实用、更具成本效益。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop a low cost, non-invasive system for diagnosis of serious heart rate and rhythm abnormalities in fetus. Postnatally, electrocardiography (ECG) is the gold standard for rhythm assessment. In the fetus, however, the quality of the ECG is too poor for clinical use due to low conductivity of the fetal skin and vernix, which restricts the electrical currents generated by fetal cardiac activity from reaching the maternal surface. In recent years, fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) has emerged as a promising new tool that overcomes the weaknesses of fetal ECG by detecting magnetic fields instead of electric potentials generated by fetal cardiac activity. Despite its high efficac, fMCG has not been widely adopted due to its reliance on superconductor technology, which is prohibitively expensive and cumbersome. The system that we propose to develop will use latest room-temperate optical magnetometers to drastically reduce the cost of fMCG. Currently, the cost of a fully functional fMCG system is approximately one million dollars. The proposed technology can reduce the price of an fMCG system to $100,000. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goal of the research is to develop a new magnetic sensor technology for fetal magnetocardiography, a highly promising method of assessing serious fetal heart rate and rhythm disorders. The new sensor technology, which is based on principles of atomic physics, is far more practical and cost-effective than the current technology, which is based on superconductor physics.