Christina Pahl

Design of automatic transabdominal ultrasound imaging system

The quality of ultrasound images highly depends on sonographer skills. This paper describes a platform for the reduction of operator dependency during transabdominal ultrasound examinations. The design includes a linear system to enable automatic transabdominal ultrasonography of the cervix. The system was integrated within APLIO MX SSA-780A TOSHIBA ultrasound machine. Results show operator independent ultrasonography within an area of 70 cm2. Our results enable panoramic ultrasound imaging up to 575 mm times 375 mm in the abdominal area.

Guide to fuzzy logic based transesophageal echocardiography motorized probe control

There exists growing demand for the improvement of Transesophageal Echocardiography probe control. In order to provide remote control, a Fuzzy Logic based approach is presented. Preliminary results based on MATLAB2014a enclose the simulation of desired motor behavior of 2 Dynamixel MX-28 which actuate ultrasound probe movements. We conclude that the Fuzzy Logic toolbox is highly applicable for simulating Transesophageal Echocardiography motor control and provide a detailed documentation on this procedure.

Review and design of a midwife prenatal kit for examinations in developing regions

Maternal mortality plays a major role as one negative factor in the context of improvements in developing countries. In the perspective of Wawasan 2020 this paper provides a solution towards the decrease of maternal mortality by presenting an entire prenatal care kit consisting of soft- and hardware. Several published approaches in prenatal care are discussed herein. The difference of our approach is a holistic concept meeting the aims of the target group. This kit is especially designed to the support of midwives in rural areas with professional guidance during their daily work. One main part plays the electronic medicine record and the communication on the basis of telemedicine. Results show a novel design being user friendly by improving the ergonomics in comparison to other prenatal devices.

Infrared based clinical landmark determination for ultrasound image acquisition

A system that determines the correct position of the umbilicus enables the automatic ultrasound diagnosis of the human abdomen. The customization of the diagnosis procedure using personalized scanning is important when it comes to more precise and predictable medical treatment. The setup used here is based on a combination of three linear motors controlled by an ATmega328 microcontroller using real-time data of an IR sensor as feedback information. For testing purposes 1527 ultrasound image data resulting from 10 subjects and approximately 2,000,000 voltage values for every scan sequence with duration of 30 seconds were analyzed. Results show that with a motor resolution of 8000 pulses per rotation and a frequency of 50,000 Hz all ultrasound examination sequences starting from the initial motor constellation point X0, Y0 and Z0 lead to an accuracy of umbilicus localization being 95.9% for the X-plane and 98.4% for the Y-plane.

Design of virtual instrument for automatic temperature visualization in magnetic fields using LabVIEW in combination with fiber-optical temperature measurement

Temperature measurement in magnetic fields is indispensable for Magnetic Resonance safety studies and for temperature calibrations during Magnetic Resonance applications. A selection of these procedures is subject to the application of MR-compatible robotic systems. The existing problem for the software version NI LabVIEW 2013 is the lack of an instrument to automatically process data from a fiber-optical temperature measurement device. In this work a virtual instrument for this specific software version is designed in order to automatically visualize temperature in magnetic fields. The setup consists of a magnetic field tolerant fiber-optical temperature measurement device being connected to temperature samples and a Microsoft based Computer System. Results show a functional software instrument for automatic temperature measurement with a maximum delay of 0.14 s. We conclude that the developed instrument is highly suitable for automated biomedical applications and can be adapted to future versions of LabVIEW software.

Evaluation of UML modeling tools for clinical pathways used in health information systems

For the development of clinical care pathways for the Brazilian hospital information system Pajé, a modeling tool is required. For the selection of this tool, some modeling standards were reviewed, applied and subsequently evaluated. Four modeling tools, zOOml, gmodeler, dia and UMLet were tested and validated for the process of modeling UML diagrams based on predefined requirements. Results show that all chosen modeling tools can be used for the representation of clinical pathways. However, only two of them being Dia and UMLet full filled the requirements of this study. It can be concluded that these tools can be used for E-health applications and cross platform modeling projects. Our results are of value for health information system developers and further e-health related projects.

Analysis on the electroretinography response for flickering and current stimulations

In this paper, an analysis of the Electroretinography response for both flickering and current stimulations is presented. To perform the analysis, data from 6 subjects was collected. The subjects underwent two types of stimulation: (1) flickering, and (2) current. Electrodes with two different inner diameters (0.4 cm) and (0.7 cm) were used to record retina responses. The configuration of electrode connection followed ISCEV standard protocol for ERG responses. The electrodes were placed on the forehead and inner and outer canthus of the eye. Data analysis using MATLAB produced a graphical illustration of flicker and current stimulation in both, time and frequency domain. Results show amplitudes at 12.56 Hz and 50.26 Hz. We conclude that these frequencies correlate with retinal functions and may serve as a physiological indicator. Future works may use these results to improve the evaluation of retina function.

Fuzzy system based face tracking for head movement control in progressive health care

There exists an increasing demand of human development support systems in progressive health care. Early Intervention Support System For Special Children (Elissa) is used. It shows limited functionality for activity tracking. In order to counteract this, continuous face tracking based head movement control is developed. The major contribution of this paper lies in the implementation of face tracking algorithms and camshift algorithm. A performance evaluation has been carried out. The system tracks faces with some limitations, which are addressed in this paper.

Image based Transesophageal Echocardiography probe tip localization

Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE) is used to visualize ultrasound heart images for diagnosis or surgery monitoring. The existing TEE is operator dependent and does not provide sufficient safety features to localize the TEE probe tip inside the human body. In order to improve safety in the usage of TEE, a novel technique for TEE probe tip localization has been developed. This technique is based on feature comparison between online TEE images retrieved from the TEE machine and an additional image database. The here presented technique includes image enhancement, segmentation, feature extraction and finally cross correlation. TEE images in a database were used as the reference for cross correlation. Test results show that the technique is able to localize the probe tip position from depth of 20 cm to 50 cm, with an accuracy of 93.2 %. This result is an approach towards the improvement of TEE safety without using additional sensors.