Non-Invasive Electromagnetic Skin Patch Sensor to Measure Intracranial Fluid–Volume Shifts

Elevated intracranial fluid volume can drive intracranial pressure increases, which can potentially result in numerous neurological complications or death. This study’s focus was to develop a passive skin patch sensor for the head that would non-invasively measure cranial fluid volume shifts. The se...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jacob Griffith, Kim Cluff, Brandon Eckerman, Jessica Aldrich, Ryan Becker, Peer Moore-Jansen, Jeremy Patterson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-03-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/4/1022
Description
Summary:Elevated intracranial fluid volume can drive intracranial pressure increases, which can potentially result in numerous neurological complications or death. This study’s focus was to develop a passive skin patch sensor for the head that would non-invasively measure cranial fluid volume shifts. The sensor consists of a single baseline component configured into a rectangular planar spiral with a self-resonant frequency response when impinged upon by external radio frequency sweeps. Fluid volume changes (10 mL increments) were detected through cranial bone using the sensor on a dry human skull model. Preliminary human tests utilized two sensors to determine feasibility of detecting fluid volume shifts in the complex environment of the human body. The correlation between fluid volume changes and shifts in the first resonance frequency using the dry human skull was classified as a second order polynomial with R2 = 0.97. During preliminary and secondary human tests, a ≈24 MHz and an average of ≈45.07 MHz shifts in the principal resonant frequency were measured respectively, corresponding to the induced cephalad bio-fluid shifts. This electromagnetic resonant sensor may provide a non-invasive method to monitor shifts in fluid volume and assist with medical scenarios including stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, concussion, or monitoring intracranial pressure.
ISSN:1424-8220