A self-capacitance driven wearable electromyometrial imaging system for maternal and fetal monitoring during pregnancy and labor

项目总结 在美国和世界各地，大约10%的孕妇早产，这不仅是因为 结果导致高胎儿死亡率，但也使儿童终身处于负面健康后果的风险中 例如脑瘫、智力低下以及视觉和听力障碍。尽管进行了多年的研究，但 导致早产和分娩的子宫收缩的启动和传播机制仍然存在 未知。这在很大程度上是因为我们监测人类子宫收缩的能力有限。 足够的空间和时间分辨率。这导致对病理因素缺乏批判性知识，这些因素 改变正常的子宫成熟，引发早产，导致早产。为了解决这个问题 尚未满足的临床和研究需求，我们的团队最近开发了一种新型的高分辨率和非侵入性 子宫肌电成像(EMMI)系统，使用多达256个单极电极来测量子宫 病人腹部表面的电信号，然后结合病人特定的身体-子宫几何形状 通过磁共振成像(MRI)获得，以生成准确和强大的三维地图 宫缩期间的子宫电活动。因为这样一个强大的实验工具可以更近距离地和 更精确地研究与出生相关的风险并改善母婴结局，我们认为 开发低成本、无线和可穿戴的版本对我们产生重大的临床影响 更便于门诊或家庭监护设置使用成像技术。 我们计划开发并验证一种独特的可穿戴EMMI系统的功能，该系统具有打印 用于持续监测子宫的一次性电极、无线供电和遥测 门诊患者的收缩活动。拟议的研究活动将涉及开发超薄 带有印刷可伸缩电极的软测量贴片，用于记录患者的高质量心电 腹部和生成准确和健壮的子宫表面3D地图；调查和设计 一种新型的基于自电容的无线电能传输仪器，用于为所有传感器和 全分布式高密度成像系统中每个记录位置的遥测电路；验证无线 和可穿戴的EMMI系统在人体中的应用，并将其性能与WIND的“黄金标准”进行对比 EMMI系统。在成功完成这项研究后，全新的可穿戴、无线和无电池 项目中开发的成像系统将方便Emmi的临床翻译，允许其在外部使用 用于门诊设置或家庭监护应用的产房，最终使我们能够利用 电测图数据用于评估妊娠期子宫电成熟和收缩模式 和分娩，并利用结果更好地理解和治疗早产。

PROJECT SUMMARY Approximately 10% of pregnant women give birth preterm In the United States and worldwide, which not only results in a high rate of fetal mortality but also puts the children at a lifelong risk of negative health consequences such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and visual and hearing impairments. Despite years of research, the mechanisms of initiation and propagation of uterine contractions resulting in preterm labor and birth remain unknown. In large part, this is because of our limited ability to monitor the human uterine contractions with sufficient spatial and temporal resolutions. This leads to a lack of critical knowledge of the pathologic factors that alter the normal uterine maturation, initiate preterm labor, and result in preterm birth. In order to address this unmet clinical and research need, our team has recently developed a novel high-resolution and noninvasive electromyometrial imaging (EMMI) system, which uses up to 256 unipolar electrodes to measure uterine electrograms from the patient's abdomen surface and then combines the patient-specific body-uterus geometry obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to generate accurate and robust three-dimensional maps of uterine electrical activity during contractions. Because such a powerful experimental tool could permit closer and more precise study of birth-related risks and improve maternal and child outcomes, we believe there could be a significant clinical impact for us to develop a low-cost, wireless, and wearable version in order to make this imaging technology more accessible for outpatient or in-home monitoring settings. We propose to develop and validate the functionality of a unique wearable EMMI system with printed disposable electrodes, wireless power delivery, and telemetry for continuously monitoring of the uterine contraction activities in ambulatory patients. The proposed research activity will involve developing of ultrathin soft sensor patches with printed stretchable electrodes for recording high quality electrograms from the patient’s abdomen and generating accurate and robust 3D maps of the uterine surface; investigating and designing a novel self-capacitance based wireless power transfer instrumentation for wirelessly powering all the sensing and telemetry circuits at each recording site in a fully distributed high-density imaging system; validating the wireless and wearable EMMI system in human subjects and benchmarking its performance against “gold standard” wired EMMI system. Upon successful completion of this study, the entirely new wearable, wireless, and batteryless imaging system developed in the project will facilitate EMMI's clinical translations, allow it to be used outside the delivery room for outpatient setting or in-home monitoring applications, and ultimately enable us to leverage the electrical mapping data for evaluating uterine electrical maturation and contraction patterns during pregnancy and labor and use the results to better understand and treat preterm birth.