Dr. Andreas Seifert
Department of Microsystems Engineering - IMTEK, University of Freiburg
September 2, 2014 | 12:30 to 01:30 | 540 Cory Hall
Host: Dorian Liepmann
Nearly a third of the world population dies from cardiovascular disease with a 40% death rate in countries with high income levels. New diagnostic methods are being explored to extend and complement today's practice of measuring systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The idea, realized in our research, focuses on a novel photonic method to measure the small arterial distensions in vivo which encode the stiffness of the arterial wall. The measurement principle is based on transmission photoplethysmography and transfers this technique to a new field of application - large arteries. To understand photon propagation through arteries, we solved the Radiative Transfer Equation by Monte Carlo methods for the first time on multilayered cylinders and we demonstrated that our simulations are in excellent compliance with ex vivo, as well as in vivo, experiments. To match the mechanical properties of biological tissue, our implantable sensor is constructed through integration of chip-level optoelectronics into polymeric substrates. The achieved precision of 5 µm and sub-micron resolution outperforms all state-of-the-art techniques in sensing arterial distension. In the near-term, this new approach offers a tool for clinical research and a 24/7 monitoring system that makes key vital parameters such as heart rate, arterial stiffness and, more generally, the dynamics of the arterial system, continuously accessible.
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