Noninvasive measurement of transdermal drug delivery by impedance spectroscopy

The effectiveness in transdermal delivery of skin permeation strategies (e.g., chemical enhancers, vesicular carrier systems, sonophoresis, iontophoresis, and electroporation) is poorly investigated outside of laboratory. In therapeutic application, the lack of recognized techniques for measuring the actually-released drug affects the scientific concept itself of dosage for topically- and transdermally-delivered drugs. Here we prove the suitability of impedance measurement for assessing the amount of drug penetrated into the skin after transdermal delivery. In particular, the measured amount of drug depends linearly on the impedance magnitude variation normalized to the pre-treated value. Three experimental campaigns, based on the electrical analysis of the biological tissue behavior due to the drug delivery, are reported: (i) laboratory emulation on eggplants, (ii) ex-vivo tests on pig ears, and finally (iii) in-vivo tests on human volunteers. Results point out that the amount of delivered drug can be assessed by reasonable metrological performance through a unique measurement of the impedance magnitude at one single frequency. In particular, in-vivo results point out sensitivity of 23 ml(-1), repeatability of 0.3%, non-linearity of 3.3%, and accuracy of 5.7%. Finally, the measurement resolution of 0.20 ml is compatible with clinical administration standards

A Wearable SSVEP BCI for AR-based, Real-time Monitoring Applications

A real-time monitoring system based on Augmented Reality (AR) and highly wearable Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) for hands-free visualization of patient's health in Operating Room (OR) is proposed. The system is designed to allow the anesthetist to monitor hands-free and in real-time the patient's vital signs collected from the electromedical equipment available in OR. After the analysis of the requirements in a typical Health 4.0 scenario, the conceptual design, implementation and experimental validation of the proposed system are described in detail. The effectiveness of the proposed AR-BCI-based real-time monitoring system was demonstrated through an experimental activity was carried out at the University Hospital Federico II (Naples, Italy), using operating room equipment

Active and Passive Brain-Computer Interfaces Integrated with Extended Reality for Applications in Health 4.0

This paper presents the integration of extended reality (XR) with brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to open up new possibilities in the health 4.0 framework. Such integrated systems are here investigated with respect to an active and a passive BCI paradigm. Regarding the active BCI, the XR part consists of providing visual and vibrotactile feedbacks to help the user during motor imagery tasks. Therefore, XR aims to enhance the neurofeedback by enhancing the user engagement. Meanwhile, in the passive BCI, user engagement monitoring allows the adaptivity of a XR-based rehabilitation game for children. Preliminary results suggest that the XR neurofeedback helps the BCI users to carry on motor imagery tasks with up to 84% classification accuracy, and that the level of emotional and cognitive engagement can be detected with an accuracy greater than 75%