Biomedical Devices and Instrumentation Commons^™

Improving The Monitoring Of Post-Operative Patient Mobility, Owen T. Lacey, Alexandria Magyar-Averin, Elena Ewing, Samuel Elliott, Cameron Lazor

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Patient post-operative care is essential in attaining positive patient outcomes. To ensure proper blood circulation for recovery and healing is achieved, a patient's mobility is monitored. However, medical professionals aren't always available to continuously monitor patient progress. The clinical need for a medical device to monitor and quantify patient movement automatically is derived and addressed here. By designing a novel device and associated code, an engineering solution to this clinical need can be developed to monitor and improve patient post-operative outcomes in the absence of a medical professional. After completing research on the clinical need and gathering information from stakeholders …

Nebulizer-Based Systems To Improve Pharmaceutical Aerosol Delivery To The Lungs, Benjamin M. Spence

Theses and Dissertations

Combining vibrating mesh nebulizers with additional new technologies leads to substantial improvements in pharmaceutical aerosol delivery to the lungs across therapeutic administration methods. In this dissertation, streamlined components, aerosol administration synchronization, and/or Excipient Enhanced Growth (EEG) technologies were utilized to develop and test several novel devices and aerosol delivery systems. The first focus of this work was to improve the poor delivery efficiency, e.g., 3.6% of nominal dose (Dugernier et al. 2017), of aerosolized medication administration to adult human subjects concurrent with high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy, a form of continuous-flow non-invasive ventilation (NIV). The developed Low-Volume Mixer-Heater (LVMH) …

“Gobabygo!” Rehab Engineering To Make Children Mobile, Connor Albin, Chase M. Pfeifer

UCARE: Research Products

GoBabyGo! is a project to give children with movement difficulties a chance to move on their own. GoBabyGo! conducts community builds of modified ride-on-cars for these children and grants them mobility. Once issue is that once children have cars, there is no feedback to improve future builds. This project "“GoBabyGo!” – Rehab Engineering to Make Children Mobile," wishes to collect quantifiable data on how these cars are being used and how they can be improved. This project aims to do this by collecting surveys from caretakers and through a programmed module to be installed in cars. The installed car module …

Integrity Testing Of Gas Permeable Silicone Filters, Maggie M. Baker, Thomas P. Humann, Kevin J. Yerina

Biomedical Engineering

This report investigates the most reasonable, cost efficient, and reliable ways to integrity test a filter made from a permeable silicone membrane for future biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. The goal of the project was to create a fixture that a pharmaceutical company can use to quickly and reliably test the integrity of the filter. A variety of methods are outlined to test the integrity of the filter, after a series of quantitative tests, a single method was established that meet the requirements most thoroughly. The method that was determined to be most effective involves a series of components including a …

Investigation Of Dielectric Properties Of Urine For Pregnancy And Bladder Cancer Detection, Chao Zhe Zhu

Student Works (2020-2029)

Detection and monitoring of pregnancy and bladder cancer are important for medical treatment and nursing. Urine has diagnostic and prognostic values for pregnancy and bladder cancer due to the presence of biomarkers. This study investigated the dielectric properties of human urine and compared them between two groups: 1) non-pregnant healthy female volunteers and pregnant healthy female volunteers, and; 2) healthy subjects and patients with bladder cancer. An open-ended probe network analyzer was used to measure the urine dielectric constant (Ɛ’) and dielectric loss (Ɛ’’) at microwave frequency ranging from 0.2GHz to 50GHz at 25˚C (room temperature), 30˚C and 37˚C (body …

Noncontact Multiscale Diffuse Optical Imaging Of Deep Tissue Hemodynamics In Animals And Humans, Siavash Mazdeyasna

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Blood flow (BF) impacts the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to tissues and the removal of metabolic byproducts from tissues. Imaging of BF distributions helps characterize many diseases associated with tissue hypoxia/ischemia. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a novel, noninvasive, noncontact, high-density camera-based speckle contrast diffuse correlation tomography (scDCT) device for use in both animal and human studies. The scDCT uses a galvo-mirror to remotely deliver the focused point near-infrared light to source positions and a sensitive 2D camera to quantify spatial diffuse speckle fluctuations, resulting from the movement of red blood cells in deep …

Seeing Eye To Eye: A Machine Learning Approach To Automated Saccade Analysis, Maigh Attre

Honors Scholar Theses

Abnormal ocular motility is a common manifestation of many underlying pathologies particularly those that are neurological. Dynamics of saccades, when the eye rapidly changes its point of fixation, have been characterized for many neurological disorders including concussions, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and Parkinson’s disease. However, widespread saccade analysis for diagnostic and research purposes requires the recognition of certain eye movement parameters. Key information such as velocity and duration must be determined from data based on a wide set of patients’ characteristics that may range in eye shapes and iris, hair and skin pigmentation [36]. Previous work on saccade analysis has …

Using Peripheral Venous Pressure Waveforms To Predict Key Hemodynamic Parameters, Ali Zohair A Alalawi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Analysis of peripheral venous pressure (PVP) waveforms is a novel method of monitoring intravascular volume. Two cohorts were used to study the hemodynamics change of the body state and its influence on the PVP using (1) dehydration setting with infants suffering from pyloric stenosis and (2) hemorrhage setting during a craniosynostosis elective surgery. The goal of this research is to develop a minimally invasive method of analyzing the PVP waveforms and find correlations with volume loss.

Twenty-three pyloric stenosis patients PVP were acquired at five stages and were divided into euvolemic, normal fluid volume, and hypovolemic, significant fluid loss. Seven …

Pressure Cylinder Controlled Release Valve, Alexa Dominique Balbuena

Biomedical Engineering

This project aims to integrate an automatic gas release system in a pre-existing scaffold fabrication process for tissue engineering applications.

To form the proper scaffold structure, the fabrication process is heavily influenced by the change in its surrounding pressure. The current production involves a pressure transducer and electric valve that is managed manually to create a suitable pressure environment for the scaffold. This method, although functional, proves to be ineffective when creating several batches; the user needs to constantly monitor the developing pressure profile and alter voltage parameters accordingly to create a linear gas release under a predetermined slope.

To …

Pressure Acquisition System For In Vitro Mitral Valve Analysis, Laura Peck

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In vitro testing of the mitral valve chordae tendineae is utilized to aid in the understanding of the stresses that occur in vivo and improve upon surgical solutions that exist for mitral valve repair. This project aimed to design the water control system for a left heart simulation chamber, as well as the pressure acquisition inside the chamber. A solenoid valve was utilized to control the water supply to the tank and was powered utilizing National Instruments software. National Instruments hardware and software was also used with the pressure transducer in order to obtain pressure readings from the chamber. The …

Design And Analysis Of A 3d-Printed, Thermoplastic Elastomer (Tpe) Spring Element For Use In Corrective Hand Orthotics, Kevin Thomas Richardson

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

This thesis proposes an algorithm that determine the geometry of 3D-printed, custom-designed spring element bands made of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) for use in a wearable orthotic device to aid in the physical therapy of a human hand exhibiting spasticity after stroke. Each finger of the hand is modeled as a mechanical system consisting of a triple-rod pendulum with nonlinear stiffness at each joint and forces applied at the attachment point of each flexor muscle. The system is assumed quasi-static, which leads to a torque balance between the flexor tendons in the hand, joint stiffness and the design force applied to …

Wearable Hearing Accessory Technology, Tyler Cindea, Jaime Alcorn, Brooke Draper, Kyle Glascott, Ben Hanna, Robert Thoerner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

We set out in August 2017 to develop an active noise suppressing device that would be usable both in military and civilian activities. Due to constraints in knowledge and time, we decided our best course of action was to divide the project into two equal projects with the hope to be able to combine them into a single project at the end of the allotted time. This consisted of an active noise suppression device and a passive noise suppression device. The passive device would have no electronic components and the active device would be pure circuitry with no housing. This …

Power Mobility Sensor Data Collection Verified Through Standardized Pediatric Assessments, Ayshka Elise Rodriguez-Velez

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The collaboration between the School of Engineering and the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of North Florida has introduced the possibility of creating a new environment for pediatric physical therapy assessments. There are currently no methods for remotely monitoring children with impairments. However, with embedded sensor technology in the form of power mobility and accepted therapy assessment tools, remote monitoring can become a possibility. As a part of this work, a ride-on toy car was developed as a remote monitoring device and a case study with a child with a mobility impairment was used as a proof of …

Mechanical Reliability Of Implantable Polyimide-Based Magnetic Microactuators For Biofouling Removal, Christian G. Figueroa-Espada, Qi Yang, Hyowon Lee

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Hydrocephalus is a neurological disorder that typically requires a long-term implantation of a shunt system to manage its symptoms. These shunt systems are notorious for their extremely high failure rate. More than 40% of all implanted shunt systems fail within the first year of implantation. On average, 85% of all hydrocephalus patients with shunt systems undergo at least two shunt-revision surgeries within 10 years of implantation. A large portion of this high failure rate can be attributed to biofouling-related obstructions and infections. Previously, we developed flexible polyimide-based magnetic microactuators to remove obstructions formed on hydrocephalus shunts. To test the long-term …

A Software Application For Cardiac-Gated Computerized Tomography Scanning, Stephen Caldwell, Trevor Engelsman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Computerized tomography (CT) scans are a common clinical imaging procedure used worldwide. Operating in the X-Ray spectrum, these machines rotate scanners around a stationary body in order to compile two-dimensional images into a unified three-dimensional image. With adjustment to scan frequency and intensity, internal features such as muscles, organs, and tendons can easily be viewed. However, the heart has long evaded CT use due to its near-constant motion. Recently, cardiac-gated scans have entered the market as a technique to image the heart at a specific moment in time when it is nearly still - the quiescent period. Occurring during rapid …

An Implantable Device To Regulate Urination Through Deep Brain Stimulation, Jesse E. Bucksot, Muhammad A. Arafat, Pedro Irazoqui

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Urinary Incontinence (UI) is a disease in which patients lose control of their bladder. It is particularly common in elderly women having a prevalence of as much as 30% to 50% [1]. Many of these patients are left without successful treatment. A recent study has shown a new option for treatment that consists of deep brain stimulation (DBS) at a site known as the periaqueductal gray (PAG) [2, 3]. To test the effectiveness of this treatment, chronic stimulation of the PAG should be used in animals to see if it can reliably prevent micturition in the long term. A device …

Design And Development Of Two Component Hydrogel Ejector For Three-Dimensional Cell Growth, Thomas Dunkle, Jessica Deschamps, Connie Dam

Honors Scholar Theses

Hydrogels are useful in wound healing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering applications, but the available methods of injecting them quickly and noninvasively are limited. The medical industry does not yet have access to an all-purpose device that can quickly synthesize hydrogels of different shapes and sizes. Many synthesis procedures that have been developed result in the formation of amorphous hydrogels. While generally useful, amorphous hydrogels exhibit limited capability in tissue engineering applications, especially due to their viscous properties. This endeavor aims to modulate the appropriate gelation parameters, optimize the injection process, and create a prototype that allows for the extrusion …

Design, Characterization And Application Of A Multiple Input Stethoscope Apparatus, Spencer Geng Wong

Master's Theses

For this project, the design, implementation, characterization, calibration and possible applications of a multiple transducer stethoscope apparatus were investigated. The multi-transducer sensor array design consists of five standard stethoscope diaphragms mounted to a rigid frame for a-priori knowledge of their relative spatial locations in the x-y plane, with compliant z-direction positioning to ensure good contact and pressure against the subject’s skin for reliable acoustic coupling. When this apparatus is properly placed on the body, it can digitally capture the same important body sounds investigated with standard acoustic stethoscopes; especially heart sounds. Acoustic signal inputs from each diaphragm are converted to …

An Inexpensive Method For Creating Paste To Be Used In Paper-Based Microfluidic Devices, Kirra Marie Sankey

Biomedical Engineering

Microfluidic devices are diagnostic tools that are small, portable, and inexpensive. This makes them ideally suited for resource-limited settings. To construct a 3D device, each layer of patterned paper is stacked using double-sided tape with holes corresponding to the pattern. It is necessary to have a paste to fill the holes in the tape and provide a medium for the fluid to wick through. The powder used to make the paste is very expensive and must be bought in bulk (an estimated $1121 - $1231), so it is not convenient for the Biomedical (BMED) department to use. This project was …