Development of a bio-impedance measurement system for bladder monitoring
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Date
2022-11-01
Authors
Behrouzirad, Ardeshir
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
The occurrence of disturbance in the control of urine flow and voiding,
which leads to involuntary leakage, is called Urinary Incontinence (UI), and
it may happen due to several factors such as pregnancy, family background,
neurological disorders, etc. It has a negative impact on the social life and
also the physical health of patients, highlighting the need for a mechanism
to monitor the patient’s bladder and warn them during their routine daily
activities. For this purpose, the development of a low cost bio-impedance
measurement system as a method for bladder monitoring is investigated in
this thesis.
Prior to this thesis, the trend in the literature was to identify the correlation
between the change of the impedance and the accumulation of urine
in the bladder. Categorizing the current challenges and designing a bioimpedance
measurement system, this thesis employs a vertical monitoring
method, as a feasibility study, to increase the sensitivity of the measurement
of impedance variation related to bladder fullness. Also, it employs a separate
mechanism with extra sets of electrodes to address the issue of bladder
relocation and its impact on the monitoring. The findings of the vertical
monitoring method, with around 400 experiments performed on a phantom
mimicking the abdomen and bladder, indicated the increased sensitivity of 45% and 52% in the measured impedance for two different urine conductivities,
1 and 2 S/m, respectively, after reaching 60 ml of volume, compared
to the conventional horizontal monitoring in bio-impedance measurement.
For the extra monitoring mechanism, when the target was relocated, with
more than 500 experiments on the phantom, the sensitivity was increased
between 1.43 to 4.61 times compared to the conventional horizontal method,
depending on the urine conductivity and location of the target. The location
of the target was found to be a key factor as the distance of the target to
the electrodes recording the impedance change can vary and lead to erroneous
outcomes, especially in the case where the bladder is far from the
electrodes, due to individual parameters such as the weight or even posture.
In summary, the thesis made an impact towards a non-invasive, wearable
bio-impedance measurement system for bladder monitoring, by identifying
and addressing important issues related to the areas that are still at their
early stages.
Description
Keywords
Bladder monitoring , Urinary incontinence , Bioimpedance measurement system
Citation
Behrouziradr, A. 2022. Development of a bio-impedance measurement system for bladder monitoring. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.