A flexible pressure monitoring system for pressure ulcer prevention

Author

Yip, Marcus ; He, David Da ; Winokur, Eric ; Balderrama, Amanda Gaudreau ; Sheridan, Robert ; Ma, Hongshen

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

3-6 Sept. 2009

Firstpage

1212

Lastpage

1215

Abstract

Pressure ulcers are painful sores that arise from prolonged exposure to high pressure points, which restricts blood flow and leads to tissue necrosis. This is a common occurrence among patients with impaired mobility, diabetics and the elderly. In this work, a flexible pressure monitoring system for pressure ulcer prevention has been developed. The prototype consists of 99 capacitive pressure sensors on a 17-cm times 22-cm sheet which is flexible in two dimensions. Due to its low cost, the sensor sheet can be disconnected from the reusable electronics and be disposed of after use, suitable for a clinical setting. Each sensor has a resolution of better than 2-mmHg and a range of 50-mmHg and offset is calibrated in software. Realtime pressure data is displayed on a computer. A maximum sampling rate of 12-Hz allows for continuous monitoring of pressure points.

Keywords

biomedical equipment; capacitive sensors; diseases; flexible electronics; patient monitoring; pressure sensors; capacitive pressure sensors; flexible pressure monitoring system; frequency 12 Hz; pressure ulcer; reusable electronics; size 17 cm; size 22 cm; Biomedical Engineering; Equipment Design; Humans; Monitoring, Physiologic; Pressure; Pressure Ulcer; Software; Transducers, Pressure;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2009. EMBC 2009. Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Minneapolis, MN

ISSN

1557-170X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3296-7

Electronic_ISBN

1557-170X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5333964

Filename

5333964