A realistic pelvic phantom for electrical impedance measurement

Dunne, Eoghan; McGinley, Brian; O’Halloran, Martin; Porter, Emily

doi:10.1088/1361-6579/aaa3c0

Cited by 14 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The concentration of saline in the solution is designed to mimic a urine conductivity of around 2 S/m. The 2 S/m conductivity is within the urine conductivity range of 0.5-3.25 S/m of the current literature [23], [24]. The EIT device was used to capture voltage data between all electrode pairs both before and after the infusion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Detection of Vesicoureteral Reflux Using Electrical Impedance Tomography

Dunne

O’Halloran

Craven

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.

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The purpose of this study is to detect vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) non-invasively using electrical impedance tomography (EIT). VUR is characterized by the backflow of urine from the bladder to the kidneys. Methods: Using porcine models, small quantities of a solution mimicking the electrical properties of urine were infused into each ureter. EIT measurements were taken before, during and after the infusion using electrodes positioned around the abdomen. The collected data from 116 experiments were then processed and time-difference images reconstructed. Objective VUR detection was determined through statistical analysis of the mean change in the voltage signals and EIT image pixel intensities. Results: Unilateral VUR was successfully detected in 94.83% of all mean voltage signals and in over 98.28% of the reconstructed images. The images showed strong visual contrast between the region of interest and the background. Conclusion: In animal models, EIT has the capability to detect reflux in the kidneys with high accuracy. The results show promise for EIT to be used for screening of VUR in children. Significance: VUR is the most common congenital urinary tract abnormality in children. The condition predisposes children to urinary tract infections (UTIs) and kidney damage. The current gold standard diagnostic test, a voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG), is invasive and uses ionizing radiation; therefore, there is a need for new tools for identifying VUR in children. This study presents a non-invasive method to detect VUR in animal models, illustrating the potential for EIT as a screening tool in clinical scenarios.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Detection of Vesicoureteral Reflux Using Electrical Impedance Tomography

Dunne

O’Halloran

Craven

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.

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“…The fabrication of a functional bladder replica was found to be the most difficult. Indeed, the developed test bench was designed to realize dynamical measurements, i.e., with a continuous filling of the bladder compared to the phantom developed by Dunne et al [ 38 ]. To this purpose, the bladder mimicking material must be not only electrically conductive, but also has very specific mechanical properties.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only one adult pelvic phantom for impedance measurements can be found in the literature [ 38 ]. It was only designed to assess predetermined bladder volumes of 40, 60, 100, 160, 240, and 400 mL by inserting conductive polyurethane spheres in the phantom background.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The present study aims at going a step further by fabricating a phantom, enabling real-time monitoring of the effective bladder filling as it takes place inside the human body. Furthermore, the structure of the phantom proposed by Dunne et al [ 38 ] is not adapted to wear textile underwear, as its shape does not have legs. Moreover, its material may not be strong enough to withstand the mechanical constraints exerted by the elastane knitted in the underwear; hence, the need to fabricate another pelvic phantom.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Proposal of a Lab Bench for the Unobtrusive Monitoring of the Bladder Fullness with Bioimpedance Measurements

Gaubert

Gidik

Končar

2020

Sensors

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(1) Background: millions of people, from children to the elderly, suffer from bladder dysfunctions all over the world. Monitoring bladder fullness with appropriate miniaturized textile devices can improve, significantly, their daily life quality, or even cure them. Amongst the existing bladder sensing technologies, bioimpedance spectroscopy seems to be the most appropriate one to be integrated into textiles. (2) Methods: to assess the feasibility of monitoring the bladder fullness with textile-based bioimpedance spectroscopy; an innovative lab-bench has been designed and fabricated. As a step towards obtaining a more realistic pelvic phantom, ex vivo pig’s bladder and skin were used. The electrical properties of the fabricated pelvic phantom have been compared to those of two individuals with tetrapolar impedance measurements. The measurements’ reproducibility on the lab bench has been evaluated and discussed. Moreover, its suitability for the continuous monitoring of the bladder filling has been investigated. (3) Results: although the pelvic phantom failed in reproducing the frequency-dependent electrical properties of human tissues, it was found to be suitable at 5 kHz to record bladder volume change. The resistance variations recorded are proportional to the conductivity of the liquid filling the bladder. A 350 mL filling with artificial urine corresponds to a decrease in resistance of 7.2%, which was found to be in the same range as in humans. (4) Conclusions: based on that resistance variation; the instantaneous bladder fullness can be extrapolated. The presented lab-bench will be used to evaluate the ability of textiles electrodes to unobtrusively monitor the bladder volume.

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“…As the adopted PLA is non conductive, they also needed to place 33 electrodes against the tank walls. Dunne et al [12] employed a conductive material for generating the first anatomically accurate pelvic phantom for EIT. The chosen TMM was obtained by mixing the composition of 30% w/w graphite powder, 5.7% w/w carbon black (CB) powder and the remainder from equal parts of polyurethane precursors [1,13].…”

Section: Anatomically Realistic Phantomsmentioning

confidence: 99%