VASCULAR SENSOR FOR WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RESEARCH

描述(由申请者提供)：据估计，大约有4500万至6000万美国女性在她们一生中的某个时候患有性障碍。相比之下，约有3000万男性患有类似的疾病。在男性和女性中，性障碍都可能与许多临床疾病有关，包括糖尿病、心脏病、高血压、多发性硬化症和抑郁症。性反应生理学的评估对性功能和性功能障碍的研究具有重要意义。最广泛使用的测量性反应的方法涉及评估生殖器组织中的血管活动。在女性中，研究主要集中在阴道血流--主要不是因为它在女性性反应中的核心作用，而是因为仪器容易获得和易于使用，不像目前测量阴蒂血流的仪器。然而，对阴道血流的研究发现，患有性功能障碍的女性和没有性功能障碍的女性之间没有一致的差异。相比之下，最近的证据表明，患有性功能障碍的女性阴蒂血管反应减弱。这些结果表明，需要对女性和S的性健康进行新的临床评估方法，尽管目前的测量方法对于一般的临床和研究用途是不可靠的、有限的或不实用的。拟议的项目将开发第一种稳定放置传感器的实用方法，以实现对阴蒂血流的可靠和实用测量。该项目还将包括一项评估研究，以同时测量和比较阴道和阴蒂的反应。该仪器有望对女性性功能障碍的诊断、治疗和研究具有重要意义，包括性功能和性障碍生理学的基础研究，性功能障碍治疗的临床调查，以及抗抑郁药等药物对性健康的副作用调查。由于其易用性，该剪辑还具有在患者和S家中的隐私中进行治疗应用的巨大潜力，例如用于生物反馈、感觉聚焦、药物治疗或其他医疗和行为干预。 与公共卫生相关：大约4500万至6000万美国妇女在她们一生中的某个阶段患有性障碍，但诊断和治疗方面的进展在一定程度上受到缺乏衡量相关生理过程的有效方法的阻碍。拟议的项目将开发一种新的仪器，使对这种过程的重要研究成为可能，并有可能成为新的诊断和治疗程序的选择方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is estimated that around 45-60 million American women suffer from sexual disorders at some point in their lives. In comparison, about 30 million men are afflicted with comparable conditions. In both men and women, sexual disorders can be associated with a number of clinical conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, and depression. The assessment of the physiology of sexual response is of fundamental importance to research on sexual function and dysfunction. The most widely used approach to the measurement of sexual response involves the assessment of vascular activity in genital tissue. In women, research has largely focused on vaginal blood flow-not primarily because of its central role in female sexual response, but because instruments are readily available and easy to use, unlike current instruments for measurement of clitoral blood flow. However, studies of vaginal blood flow have found no consistent difference between women with and women without sexual disorders. In contrast, recent evidence suggests that clitoral vascular responses are reduced in women with sexual disorders. These results point at the need for new clinical assessment methods for women<s sexual health, though current measurement methods are unreliable, limited, or impractical for general clinical and research use. The proposed project will develop the first practical means of stable sensor placement to enable reliable and practical measurement of clitoral blood flow. The project will also include an evaluation study to simultaneously measure and compare vaginal and clitoral responses. The instrument can be expected to be of fundamental importance to diagnosis, treatment, and research of sexual disorders in women, including basic research on the physiology of sexual function and disorders, clinical investigations of treatments for sexual disorders, and investigations on the side effects of drugs such as antidepressants on sexual health. Due to its ease of use, the clip also has significant potential for therapeutic application in the privacy of a patient<s home, such as for biofeedback, sensate focus, drug treatment, or other medical and behavioral interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Approximately 45-60 million American women suffer from sexual disorders at some point in their lives, but progress in diagnosis and treatment is hindered in part by a lack of valid approaches to the measurement of relevant physiological processes. The proposed project will develop a new instrument that will enable important research on such processes and has the potential to become the method of choice for novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.