Honors Program
Date of this Version
Spring 3-18-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Citation
Dolph, Erica. Novel Application for Mobile Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Data Collection. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. May 2019.
Abstract
An estimated 40,000 infants are born with Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) in the United States each year. Of these infants, approximately one fourth will undergo surgery within their first year of life due to the severity of the defects. These children typically encounter lasting effects such as developmental delays, specialized health needs, and learning disabilities. It has been proposed that perioperative embolization as well as hypoxia could be a partial cause of these abnormalities later in life. To aid in the detection of these conditions, transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound could be utilized to monitor the blood flow profile to the brain in pediatric heart surgeries. The current system in place for TCD monitoring utilizes a wired computer monitor and requires the operator to be next to the machine while viewing, making it a potentially cumbersome addition to an overcrowded operating room. Thus, it is necessary to redesign this viewing system to allow for wireless transmission of data, enabling a more versatile diagnostic process. As a first step to achieving this goal, this thesis presents a novel device that allows for Bluetooth transmission of ultrasound data for real-time monitoring on a mobile tablet. The resulting application demonstrated the efficacy of real-time short-range patient data transmission and provided crucial first steps towards a fully wireless TCD system.
Comments
Copyright Erica Dolph 2019