Fetal Magnetocardiography Using Non-cryogenic Magnetic Field Sensors

描述（申请人提供）：该项目的目标是开发一种低成本、无创的系统，用于诊断胎儿严重的心率和节律异常。出生后，心电图（ECG）是心律评估的金标准。然而，在胎儿中，由于胎儿皮肤和皮脂的导电性较低，限制了胎儿心脏活动产生的电流到达母体表面，因此心电图的质量太差，无法用于临床。近年来，胎儿心脏磁图（fMCG）作为一种有前途的新工具，通过检测胎儿心脏活动产生的磁场而不是电位来克服胎儿心电图的弱点。尽管快消品效率很高，但由于其依赖超导体技术，价格昂贵且笨重，因此尚未被广泛采用。我们建议开发的系统将使用最新的室温光磁强计，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。该技术可以将快速消费品系统的价格降低到10万美元。

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.