Acoustic Modeling of the Upper Airway using Breathing Sounds Analysis and Novel Medical Devices Development

该提案要求消声室沿着电子设备和声学呼吸测量设备，以记录呼吸声，这对于上气道建模以及从实验室实验到原型和用户端设备的研究进展至关重要。申请的设备将支持呼吸音分析研究和新型医疗设备的开发，用于呼吸系统疾病，特别是阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停的现场诊断、治疗和监测。阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停是最常见的呼吸障碍之一，伴有主要的合并症，如记忆丧失、事故风险增加和心血管疾病。目前评估OSA的技术不仅昂贵，而且由于连接超过15个传感器和电线而对患者来说耗时且不方便。与我的学生和合作者团队一起，我们将开发一个上气道的声学模型，该模型可以被校准以代表每个患者的上气道特征。我提出的诊断系统只使用3个传感器。这沿着我的团队的呼吸音分析算法将为OSA的护理点诊断和监测提供替代的非侵入性、快速和准确的评估工具。 拟议研究的结果将大大降低加拿大医疗保健系统的成本，因为OSA的诊断和管理成本很高。此外，这些结果将导致家庭护理自我诊断和监测设备的开发，这将为OSA患者提供一个准确可靠的工具来监测他们的病情。此外，通过拟议的研究，将培训9名高素质的研究生和本科生，他们将有可能成为加拿大未来的生物医学研究人员或成功的研发企业家，他们将设计和实施新的设备，以改善人类的生活质量。

This proposal requests an anechoic chamber along with electronic equipment and acoustic rhinometry equipment to record respiratory sounds that are critical for modeling the upper airway and progressing research from lab experiments to prototypes and user-end devices. The requested equipment is to support both research on breathing sounds analysis and the development of novel medical devices for point of care diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of respiratory disorders, in particular obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA is one of the most common breathing disorders with major comorbidities, such as memory loss, increased risk of accidents, and cardiovascular disease. Current techniques to assess OSA are not only expensive but also time consuming and inconvenient for the patients due to attachment of more than 15 sensors and wires. With my team of students and collaborators, we will develop an acoustic model of the upper airway which can be calibrated to represent each patient’s upper airway characteristics. My proposed diagnostic system uses only 3 sensors. That along with my team’s algorithms on breathing sounds analysis will provide alternative non-invasive, fast and accurate assessment tools for point of care diagnosis and monitoring of OSA. The outcome of the proposed research will reduce Canada’s health care system cost significantly for there is a massive cost associated with OSA diagnosis and management. In addition, the outcomes will lead to development of devices for home care self-diagnostic and monitoring, which will provide individuals with OSA an accurate and reliable tool for monitoring their condition. Moreover, through the proposed research, 9 highly qualified personnel at graduate and undergraduate levels will be trained; they will likely become Canada’s future biomedical researchers or successful research and development entrepreneurs, who then would design and implement novel devices to improve human’s quality of life.