An Energy-Efficient Bridge-to-Digital Converter for Implantable Pressure Monitoring Systems

This paper presents an energy-efficient, duty-cycled, and spinning excitation bridge-to-digital converter (BDC) designed for implantable pressure sensing systems. The circuit provides the measure of the pulmonary artery pressure that is particularly relevant for the monitoring of heart failure and pulmonary hypertension patients. The BDC is made of a piezoresistive pressure sensor and a readout integrated circuit (IC) that comprises an instrumentation amplifier (IA) followed by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The proposed design spins both the bridge excitation and the ADC’s sampling input voltages simultaneously and exploits duty cycling to reduce the static power consumption of the bridge sensor and IA while cancelling the IA’s offset and 1/f noise at the same time. The readout IC has been designed and fabricated in a standard 180-nm CMOS process and achieves 8.4 effective number of bits (ENOB) at 1 kHz sampling rate while drawing 0.53 µA current from a 1.2 V supply. The BDC, built with the readout IC and a differential pressure sensor having 5 kΩ bridge resistances, achieves 0.44 mmHg resolution in a 270 mmHg pressure range at 1 ms conversion time. The current consumption of the bridge sensor by employing duty cycling is reduced by 99.8% thus becoming 0.39 µA from a 1.2 V supply. The total conversion energy of the pressure sensing system is 1.1 nJ, and achieves a figure-of-merit (FoM) of 3.3 pJ/conversion, which both represent the state of the art

Neoplastic lymphangiosis of the upper aerodigestive tract simulating field cancerization: histopathological analysis, surgical limits and literature review

Neoplastic lymphangiosis is defined as extensive embolic spread of cancer cells in the lymphatic vessels often without any evidence of a mass. Instead, field cancerization is defined by the presence of multifocal neoplastic lesions in a mucosal field previously exposed to mutagenic factors. In this case report, this oncological entity was suggested by the wide extent and multifocality of the disease and by the patient's exposure to risk factors. Instead, the pathological slides revealed the integrity of the mucosa and the presence of widespread embolic metastasis to lymphatic vessels. Thus, the diagnosis was changed to neoplastic lymphangiosis. This clinical presentation is a negative prognostic factor, and surgical treatment is ineffective because of the impossibility to obtain adequate free margins. The present case underlines the poor prognosis of such locally advanced cancer and the importance of recognizing it early so that the treatment approach can be adapted

An energy-efficient bridge-to-digital converter for implantable pressure monitoring systems

This paper presents an energy-efficient, duty-cycled, and spinning excitation bridge-to-digital converter (BDC) designed for implantable pressure sensing systems. The circuit provides the measure of the pulmonary artery pressure that is particularly relevant for the monitoring of heart failure and pulmonary hypertension patients. The BDC is made of a piezoresistive pressure sensor and a readout integrated circuit (IC) that comprises an instrumentation amplifier (IA) followed by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The proposed design spins both the bridge excitation and the ADC's sampling input voltages simultaneously and exploits duty cycling to reduce the static power consumption of the bridge sensor and IA while cancelling the IA's offset and 1/f noise at the same time. The readout IC has been designed and fabricated in a standard 180-nm CMOS process and achieves 8.4 effective number of bits (ENOB) at 1 kHz sampling rate while drawing 0.53 μA current from a 1.2 V supply. The BDC, built with the readout IC and a differential pressure sensor having 5 k Ω bridge resistances, achieves 0.44 mmHg resolution in a 270 mmHg pressure range at 1 ms conversion time. The current consumption of the bridge sensor by employing duty cycling is reduced by 99.8% thus becoming 0.39 μA from a 1.2 V supply. The total conversion energy of the pressure sensing system is 1.1 nJ, and achieves a figure-of-merit (FoM) of 3.3 pJ/conversion, which both represent the state of the art

Development of a multiomics database for personalized prognostic forecasting in head and neck cancer: The Big Data to Decide EU Project

27Despite advances in treatments, 30% to 50% of stage III-IV head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients relapse within 2 years after treatment. The Big Data to Decide (BD2Decide) project aimed to build a database for prognostic prediction modeling.nonenoneCavalieri, Stefano; De Cecco, Loris; Brakenhoff, Ruud H; Serafini, Mara Serena; Canevari, Silvana; Rossi, Silvia; Lanfranco, Davide; Hoebers, Frank J P; Wesseling, Frederik W R; Keek, Simon; Scheckenbach, Kathrin; Mattavelli, Davide; Hoffmann, Thomas; López Pérez, Laura; Fico, Giuseppe; Bologna, Marco; Nauta, Irene; Leemans, C René; Trama, Annalisa; Klausch, Thomas; Berkhof, Johannes Hans; Tountopoulos, Vasilis; Shefi, Ron; Mainardi, Luca; Mercalli, Franco; Poli, Tito; Licitra, LisaCavalieri, Stefano; De Cecco, Loris; Brakenhoff, Ruud H; Serafini, Mara Serena; Canevari, Silvana; Rossi, Silvia; Lanfranco, Davide; Hoebers, Frank J P; Wesseling, Frederik W R; Keek, Simon; Scheckenbach, Kathrin; Mattavelli, Davide; Hoffmann, Thomas; López Pérez, Laura; Fico, Giuseppe; Bologna, Marco; Nauta, Irene; Leemans, C René; Trama, Annalisa; Klausch, Thomas; Berkhof, Johannes Hans; Tountopoulos, Vasilis; Shefi, Ron; Mainardi, Luca; Mercalli, Franco; Poli, Tito; Licitra, Lis