A Noninvasive Assistant System in Diagnosis of Lumbar Disc Herniation

The purpose of this study is the application of pressure sensors in diagnostics and evaluation of the accuracy diagnostics of lumbar disc herniation at levels L4/L5 and L5/S1 using the aforementioned platform. The motivation behind the idea to apply the pressure measurement platform is the fact that the motor weakness of plantar and dorsal flexia of the feet is one of the absolute indications for the operative treatment of patients with lumbar disc herniation at the indicated levels. In patients, MRI diagnosis of the lumbosacral spine served as the ground truth in the diagnosis of herniation at L4/L5 and L5/S1 levels. The inclusive criteria for the study were the proven muscle weakness based on manual muscle tests performed prior to surgery, after seven days of surgery and after physical therapy. The results obtained with the manual muscular test were compared with the results obtained using our platform. The study included 33 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The results of the measurements indicate that the application of our platform with pressure sensors has the same sensitivity diagnostics as a manual muscle test, when done preoperatively and postoperatively. After physical therapy, pressure sensors show statistically significantly better sensitivity compared to the clinical manual muscle test. The obtained results are encouraging in the sense that the pressure platform can be an additional diagnostic method for lumbar disc herniation detection and can indicate the effectiveness of operative treatment and physical therapy after operation. The main advantage of the system is the cost; the whole system with platform and sensors is not expensive

Implementation of Face Recognition Algorithm on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

The aim of this study is to implement an algorithm for face recognition, based on fast fourier transform (FFT), on the field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip. Implemented program included the initialization process of two single-IP-core ROM blocks, each with an image of a human face, which are sent to the real components of two-channel IP CoreFFT block. The result of classification could be displayed in the form of either a word "yes" or "no" on the seven-segment display or the information about the reference to the folder with the found match face. Due to the lack of memory on the chip, the results are discussed based on the results obtained by the simulation, whilst the implemented part of the system included displaying images on VGA monitor and result of the algorithm shown on seven-segment display or realized as a software solution in Matlab. The results show 79% accuracy and the advantage of presented system lies in the possibility of working with images in real time. The results obtained in this study can be a good starting point in the implementation of complex algorithms for face recognition using all the benefits that FPGAs offer

Non-invasive improved technique for lumbar discus hernia classification based on fuzzy logic

This paper presents the improved technique for classification of the type of lumbar discus hernia based on fuzzy logic. The reduced mobility of the foot is one of the symptoms of the disease that occurs because of the displaced discs in the space of two vertebrae. This fact was used for non-invasive discus hernia diagnosis by measuring force values from four sensors placed on both feet (first, second and fourth metatarsal head as well as the heel). Hardware and software systems were constructed for the doctor to perform the measurements and have a graphical representation during the measuring procedure. The procedure included measuring force values of 18 subjects during normal standing, standing on forefeet and heels. All subjects were diagnosed by a specialist with either L4/L5 or L5/S1 discus hernia. Filtering and further preprocessing of acquired values included separation of forefeet and heel segments that were used as inputs to fuzzy system. The results showed that the accuracy of such a fuzzy system was around 72%, and the proposed system correctly recognizes healthy individuals. Obtained information about forces on characteristic points on the foot represents useful data in diagnosis which further can be processed in order to be a supportive tool to doctors

An Early Disc Herniation Identification System for Advancement in the Standard Medical Screening Procedure Based on Bayes Theorem

The aim of this research was to analyze objectively the process of disc herniation identification using Bayes Theorem. One of the symptoms of discus hernia is muscle weakness on the foot that is caused by displaced discs in the space of two vertebrae. This fact is used by experts in initial diagnosis of herniated discs and we used it to create non-invasive platform for the same purposes by measuring force values from four sensors placed on both feet (first, second, and fourth metatarsal head as well as the heel). Dataset consisted of several minute force recordings of 56 subjects with discus hernia and 15 healthy individuals during normal standing, standing on forefeet and heels. The subjects were diagnosed by a specialist with either L4/L5 or L5/S1 discus hernia. Collected recordings were processed in several steps including filtering, extraction of forefeet and heel recordings, classification of average values for forefeet, and heel sensors to the groups with or without foot muscle weakness. Application of Bayes Theorem on the attributes of interest showed average 78.3 accuracy with 62.6 sensitivity and 80.9 specificity, while application of naive Bayes Network showed average 83.1 accuracy with 57.6 sensitivity and 88.2 specificity. Very weak or no correlation was observed between gender and disc hernia diagnosis (or obesity type and disc hernia diagnosis). Obtained results show that this method can be used in initial screening of patients and be a supportive tool to doctors to send the same patients for further examination

Coupled in silico platform: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling

One of the critical components of the respiratory drug delivery is the manner in which the inhaled aerosol is deposited in respiratory tract compartments. Depending on formulation properties, device characteristics and breathing pattern, only a certain fraction of the dose will reach the target site in the lungs, while the rest of the drug will deposit in the inhalation device or in the mouth-throat region. The aim of this study was to link the Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling in order to predict aerolisolization of different dry powder formulations, and estimate concomitant in vivo deposition and absorption of amiloride hydrochloride. Drug physicochemical properties were experimentally determined and used as inputs for the CFD simulations of particle flow in the generated 3D geometric model of Aerolizer (R) dry powder inhaler (DPI). CFD simulations were used to simulate air flow through Aerolizer (R) inhaler and Discrete Phase Method (DPM) was used to simulate aerosol particles deposition within the fluid domain. The simulated values for the percent emitted dose were comparable to the values obtained using Andersen cascade impactor (ACI). However, CFD predictions indicated that aerosolized DPI have smaller particle size and narrower size distribution than assumed based on ACI measurements. Comparison with the literature in vivo data revealed that the constructed drug-specific PBPK model was able to capture amiloride absorption pattern following oral and inhalation administration. The PBPK simulation results, based on the CFD generated particle distribution data as input, illustrated the influence of formulation properties on the expected drug plasma concentration profiles. The model also predicted the influence of potential changes in physiological parameters on the extent of inhaled amiloride absorption. Overall, this study demonstrated the potential of the combined CFD-PBPK approach to model inhaled drug bioperformance, and suggested that CFD generated results might serve as input for the prediction of drug deposition pattern in vivo

Effect of Circulation Chamber Dimensions on Aerosol Delivery Efficiency of a Commertial Dry Powder Inhaler Aerolizer (R)

Aim of this study was to analyze how modifications in circulation chamber dimensions affect aerosol particle deposition in a Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) Aerolizer. Combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD), for simulation of fluid flow (air), with discrete phase model (DPM) for particles simulation, we can better understand particle dispersion within inhaler's air flow field. Input in the simulation was 20mg of aerosol particles with initial velocity of 11,79166m/s. Dimension change influences maximum velocities, as well as percentage of deposited particles. Based on these information we were able to calculate the number of particles on the outlet and compare efficiency reduction when circulation chamber height increased. Knowledge obtained in this way can help in device performance optimization

Numerical simulation of electrospinning process in commercial and in-house software PAK

The aim of this research was to investigate if it is possible to implicitly determine the homogeneity of the obtained electrospun fibers based on jet shape during electrospinning. Experiments were performed with 10 wt% PVA solution, and four variations in process parameters were investigated in order to examine their effect on fiber structure. Data obtained during experiments were used as input for computational simulation. The simulation results, both using commercial ANSYS and in-house software PAK, show good agreement with experiments in terms of outcome-no fiber differences in experiments were present when different voltage pairs were used, and similar jet shapes were obtained during simulations. Shapes of the electric field potential for all the used voltage pairs were very similar, due to the uniformity of the field, which is in agreement with the experiment, as no differences in fiber structure are observed in these cases. This confirms the hypothesis that based on jet shape during electrospinning, it is possible to implicitly determine the homogeneity of the obtained electrospun fibers. Differences that may occur between experiments and simulation can be a result of simplifications in simulations, influence of uniform and non-uniform electric field etc. This kind of two-phase simulation could be useful in reducing the trial-and-error approach and maintenance costs in electrospinning experiments