Jeremiah Ukwela recently defended his MS thesis “Finite Element Informed Optimization of an Implantable Flexible Blood Pressure Sensor” at Case Western Reserve University School of Engineering.
Jerry’s work led to an order of magnitude increase in sensor sensitivity and paved the way to developing a sensor for parasympathetic activation.
Jerry’s excellent work was accompanied by an equally excellent public presentation at CWRU.
Congratulations once again on finishing your thesis!
We have two papers at the upcoming BIOCAS 2023 conference in Toronto, Canada. The 4-page papers will be available on IEEEXplore after the conference. Here is a preview:
Analog Interface Amplifiers for Sub-mm Broadband Polymer Intravascular Ultrasonic Imaging
Authors: Ruiyan Wang, Isaias Treviño, Aaron Fleischman, Steve JA Majerus
Conformal Ultrasound Transducer Array for Image-Guided Neuromodulation
Authors: Vida Pashaei, Junjun Huan, Haoyang Chen, Mohamed S.E.A. Osman, Sri-Rajasekhar Kothapalli, Steve JA Majerus, Soumyajit Mandal
Check out this article describing a double helix antenna for implantable devices. The double helix structure is unique as it is printed “flat” but captures magnetic flux after wrapping. This allows much more flexibility for surgical deployment or other form factors compared to traditional wound wire inductors.
The paper mainly focuses on modeling the antenna, but we also demonstrated a proof-of-concept using RFID to monitor blood flow. This could be used, for example, as a post-surgery monitoring system.
A Flexible Double Helix Inductive Antenna for RFID Vascular Flow Sensing
IEEE Sensors Journal
Authors: Yaneev Hacohen and Steve J.A. Majerus
Check out our latest article describing a bowel pressure and content sensor tested in human-scale animals:
This article describes our first-in-human demonstration of the UroMonitor sensor.
Unlike traditional diagnostic testing which uses catheters in a clinic, this device enables monitoring of symptoms as the patient lives their life. We hope the future of urodynamics testing is catheter free!
Check it out at Journal of Urology
This paper by us and our collaborators at the University of British Columbia, summarizes spinal cord injury (SCI) research models. We are working to understand how the bladder is impacted after SCI, and eventually, how to mitigate the damage.
To read more, visit Biomedicines.
Congratulations to everyone involved with this significant work! We think this is the first device to measure pressure and volume in the bladder, without catheters. This technology enables at-home diagnosis of urinary incontinence, advanced treatments like conditional neuromodulation, and sensory restoration of bladder fullness.
S. J. A. Majerus, B. Hanzlicek, Y. Hacohen, D. Cabal, D. Bourbeau and M. S. Damaser, “Wireless and Catheter-Free Bladder Pressure and Volume Sensor,” in IEEE Sensors Journal, doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2023.3267749.
Congrats to the team for a Best Paper award from the IEEE SPMB conference!!
This approach may cut the number of catheters needed for urodynamics in half. Half the waste, less patient discomfort, and fewer recording artifacts. We will be expanding on this topic in an upcoming book chapter in 2023.
Co-authors Vikram Abbaraju, Kevin Lewis, Jiahe Han, Mohamed Abdelhady, Lee Brody, Margot Damaser, and Steve Majerus published ongoing work on real-time bladder event detection and improved urodynamics testing using machine learning, wavelet decomposition, and system identification at the 2022 IEEE SPMB conference.
Steve Majerus and Vikram Abbaraju both gave talks at this virtual meeting. You can find the papers and presentations at the IEEE SPMB 2022 site.
Our papers focusing on signal processing with bladder pressure data will be presented at IEEE SPMB 2022. The papers involve machine learning to detect multiple bladder events in real time, and estimation of bladder pressure using only a single catheter (versus today’s standard that uses two catheters). Congratulations to all authors!
