Medical Design Briefs - March 2022 - 30

other studies have also shown pulse wave
velocity has a strong correlation with
blood pressure.
An early test of the device with 26 study
participants has provided an accuracy rate
of about 90 percent for systolic blood pressure,
and a 63 percent accuracy rate for
diastolic blood pressure. Byfield says the
accuracy rate differs between systolic and
diastolic because diastolic, which is a person's
minimum blood pressure, can
change significantly depending on a person's
age and can also be controlled by various
factors, including age, artery stiffness,
overall health, and body weight.
Byfield and his colleagues also acknowledge
that there are some issues with
making PPG sensors work to obtain
these measurements.
" Typically, there are a few problems with
PPG sensors, " Byfield says. " One is called
artifact motion - if you move a PPG sensor
while it's reading, it can affect the waves
that are being recorded. On top of that,
we found that differences in pressure can
alter the waves, but with a finger clip
design, a spring provides constant pressure.
Another reason this method hasn't
been explored much before is that typically
these finger clips only have one sensor,
but we have two sensors in our device. "
A provisional patent has been filed for
the device. Researchers are currently
working on developing the device for athome
use, and their long-term goal
includes potential clinical and commercial
applications. Byfield says a clinical application
could help relieve some burdens for
nurses who deal with multiple devices to
monitor a patient's vital signs.
Researchers are also working to incorporate
the device in data collection for
future studies by developing predictive
computational models to help identify
vital signs that could serve as indicators for
multiple human diseases, including
COVID-19 and the flu, says Jian Lin, the
William R. Kimel Faculty Fellow and associate
professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering.
" Our goal is to develop a broader
impact for our device beyond a new way to
measure vital signs, " says Lin, who is the
corresponding author on the study.
" Toward Robust Blood Pressure
Estimation from Pulse Wave Velocity
Measured by Photoplethysmography
Sensors, " was published in the IEEE Sensors
Journal. Co-authors include Morgan Miller,
Jonathan Miles, and Giovanna Guidoboni
at MU.
For more information, visit https://
showme.missouri.edu.
Researchers Pilot 'Itty Bitty' Device for Earlier Ovarian
Cancer Detection
The endoscope fits inside
a fallopian tube and sees
below the surface with
high resolution.
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ
Due to a lack of effective screening and
diagnostic tools, more than three-fourths
of ovarian cancer cases are not found until
the cancer is in an advanced stage. As a
result, fewer than half of all women with
ovarian cancer survive more than five
years after diagnosis.
Jennifer
Barton,
director
of
the
University of Arizona BIO5 Institute,
and Thomas R. Brown, Distinguished
Chair in Biomedical Engineering, have
spent years developing a device small
enough to image the fallopian tubes -
narrow ducts connecting the uterus to
the ovaries - and search for signs of
early-stage cancer. Dr. John Heusinkveld
has now used the new imaging device in
study participants for the first time, as
part of a pilot human trial.
For the trial, Heusinkveld is using the
falloposcope device to image the fallopian
tubes of volunteers who are already having
their tubes removed for reasons other
than cancer. This will allow researchers
not only to test the effectiveness of the
30
Cov
Researchers pilot an " itty bitty " device for earlier cancer detection. (Credit: University of Arizona)
device, but also to start establishing a baseline
range of what normal fallopian tubes
should look like. Since September 2021,
Heusinkveld has successfully used the falloposcope
in four volunteers.
The FDA has labeled the study as having
" nonsignificant risk, " but testing the
device on an organ that is about to be
removed reduces the risk even more.
" This is the first endoscope that can fit
inside a fallopian tube and actually see
anything below the surface with high resolution, "
says Heusinkveld, an assistant professor
of obstetrics and gynecology at the
College of Medicine - Tucson and a
board-certified specialist in female pelvic
www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
ToC
medicine and reconstructive surgery in
Banner - University Medical Center
Tucson's department of obstetrics and
gynecology. " We were very pleased with
the images the device was able to capture
in its first inpatient uses, and we look forward
to gathering more data. "
At 0.8 mm in diameter, the falloposcope's
small size and high resolution are
unprecedented.
" It's itty bitty, " says Barton, who also
holds appointments in optical sciences
and medical imaging and is a member of
the UArizona Cancer Center. " You just
couldn't have fabricated something like
this, even six, seven years ago. "
Medical Design Briefs, March 2022

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Medical Design Briefs - March 2022

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