CAT S60 smartphone as a portable wound care device in home care

The purpose of this work is to study the suitability of the CAT S60 smartphone with built-in thermal camera to be used in self and home care to detect the risk level of wound appearance in advance. The purpose was to clarify different conditions where thermal imaging might act as a resource in detecting changes in limb circulation before visual signs even occur. The purpose is to detect early incipient tissue damage in foot usually occur in diabetic patients. Thermal images were acquired from voluntary domesticated elderly people. Thermal pictures from limbs of 3 persons were studied in order to find thermal differences indicating possible changes in limb circulation. Noteworthy thermal differences between limbs were found in elderly people. A smartphone having built-in thermal camera enables to detect plantar and limb thermal differences with a sufficient accuracy. This may support home monitoring for elderly people and thus reduce foot ulcers and possible foot amputations due to earlier detection and identification of harmful changes in limb circulation. Earlier detection of circulatory insufficiency via thermal imaging makes possible for nurses to intervene and enable medical assistance

CAT S60 smartphone as a portable wound care device in home care

The purpose of this work is to study the suitability of the CAT S60 smartphone with built-in thermal camera to be used in self and home care to detect the risk level of wound appearance in advance. The purpose was to clarify different conditions where thermal imaging might act as a resource in detecting changes in limb circulation before visual signs even occur. The purpose is to detect early incipient tissue damage in foot usually occur in diabetic patients. Thermal images were acquired from voluntary domesticated elderly people. Thermal pictures from limbs of 3 persons were studied in order to find thermal differences indicating possible changes in limb circulation.Noteworthy thermal differences between limbs were found in elderly people. A smartphone having built-in thermal camera enables to detect plantar and limb thermal differences with a sufficient accuracy. This may support home monitoring for elderly people and thus reduce foot ulcers and possible foot amputations due to earlier detection and identification of harmful changes in limb circulation. Earlier detection of circulatory insufficiency via thermal imaging makes possible for nurses to intervene and enable medical assistance.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Improving nursing methods by using thermal imaging: Observations by CAT S60 mobile phone

The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine, how thermal imaging could help in advancing nursing methods and offer some new usage targets of thermal imaging for the behoof of a patient. By using CAT S60 cellular phone with an inbuilt Flir thermal camera, thermal pictures were taken from voluntary subjects in order to find out if thermal imaging with CAT S60 phone could help in treatment of a patient. Thermal camera images were taken in order to find out temperature changes in whole body, limbs and extremities. By using thermal imaging in nursing the beginning of treatment could be hastened and the monitoring of the state of a patient would be more efficient thus improving the prognosis of a patient. The benefit of the method is, that it is non-invasive, cheap and easy to use (inside a cellular phone) thus being a clear advantage.  The results of different usage methods seen in thermal images suggest that thermal imaging with CAT S60 phone could be used to improve nursing methods and may also for its part to help in diagnosis. The present preliminary observations via thermal images showed, that the resolution of CAT S60 phone was sufficient to detect changes in human body temperature in home life. This may suggest the usage of the CAT S60 phone in home care services.The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine, how thermal imaging could help in advancing nursing methods and offer some new usage targets of thermal imaging for the behoof of a patient. By using CAT S60 cellular phone with an inbuilt Flir thermal camera, thermal pictures were taken from voluntary subjects in order to find out if thermal imaging with CAT S60 phone could help in treatment of a patient. Thermal camera images were taken in order to find out temperature changes in whole body, limbs and extremities. By using thermal imaging in nursing the beginning of treatment could be hastened and the monitoring of the state of a patient would be more efficient thus improving the prognosis of a patient. The benefit of the method is, that it is non-invasive, cheap and easy to use (inside a cellular phone) thus being a clear advantage.  The results of different usage methods seen in thermal images suggest that thermal imaging with CAT S60 phone could be used to improve nursing methods and may also for its part to help in diagnosis. The present preliminary observations via thermal images showed, that the resolution of CAT S60 phone was sufficient to detect changes in human body temperature in home life. This may suggest the usage of the CAT S60 phone in home care services

Thermal imaging in skin trauma evaluation: observations by CAT S60 mobile phone

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability of a mobile phone with inbuilt thermal camera in wound imaging for medical purposes. Thermal imaging could help in evaluating wound healing and in assisting doctors in diagnose making. By using CAT S60 smart phone with an inbuilt Flir thermal camera, thermal pictures from skin wounds and lower limbs were taken from six people in order to find out if thermal imaging could help the treatment and diagnosis of a patient. Thermal images were taken in order to find and visualize temperature changes (being normally invisible) in skin damage areas including deep skin damages especially from limbs and extremities. By using thermal imaging the beginning of treatment could be hastened and the monitoring of the state of a patient would be more efficient thus improving the prognosis of a patient. The thermal pictures taken from skin damages suggest that thermal imaging with CAT S60 smart phone can be used to improve nursing methods and may also help in diagnosis. Non-invasive thermal imaging may be a valuable asset and for its part hasten the beginning of treatment. The resolution and properties of CAT S60 smart phone was sufficient to detect skin damage temperature changes. This may suggest the usage of the CAT S60 smart in hospital, emergency ward and in home care services.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability of a mobile phone with inbuilt thermal camera in wound imaging for medical purposes. Thermal imaging could help in evaluating wound healing and in assisting doctors in diagnose making. By using CAT S60 smart phone with an inbuilt Flir thermal camera, thermal pictures from skin wounds and lower limbs were taken from six people in order to find out if thermal imaging could help the treatment and diagnosis of a patient. Thermal images were taken in order to find and visualize temperature changes (being normally invisible) in skin damage areas including deep skin damages especially from limbs and extremities. By using thermal imaging the beginning of treatment could be hastened and the monitoring of the state of a patient would be more efficient thus improving the prognosis of a patient. The thermal pictures taken from skin damages suggest that thermal imaging with CAT S60 smart phone can be used to improve nursing methods and may also help in diagnosis. Non-invasive thermal imaging may be a valuable asset and for its part hasten the beginning of treatment. The resolution and properties of CAT S60 smart phone was sufficient to detect skin damage temperature changes. This may suggest the usage of the CAT S60 smart in hospital, emergency ward and in home care services

Effect of Toluene on PEMFC Performance

Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) are promising means for hydrogen transportation. They are compatible with existing liquid fuel transport infrastructure and enable for efficient and safe hydrogen storage and transfer over long distances. Toluene and dibenzyltoluene are considered the two most promising LOHCs. Toluene is probably a contaminant found in hydrogen released from these LOHC liquids. The impact of hydrocarbon contaminants on automotive type fuel cells has been analyzed to a limited extent, and a few species only have specific limits (CO, CO2, HCOOH, HCHO, CH4). Currently, hydrocarbons are limited to a total of 2 ppm (methane basis) in the automotive hydrogen fuel standard, ISO 14687:2019. This may lead to strict impurity levels for species from LOHC, and therefore higher costs of hydrogen purification and quality assurance. This work presents contamination studies with toluene. The measurements were conducted using a PEMFC short stack with anode recirculation and with high fuel utilization (98%). The results show no effect or only a small contamination effect with up to 20 ppm toluene, and clear contamination with 50 ppm toluene. This supports the need for more studies so that a separate limit can be defined for toluene in future versions of the ISO 14687.</p

QT interval time lag in response to heart rate changes during stress test for Coronary Artery Disease diagnosis

Background: Slow adaptation of the QT interval to abrupt changes in heart rate (HR) can enhance ventricular heterogeneity and has been suggested as a marker of arrhythmic risk. Most investigations on QT rate adaptation lag have been performed in response to step-like HR changes. However, abrupt HR changes are difficult to induce or observe in ECG recordings under ambulatory conditions. Objective: We aim to evaluate the power of indices related to the QT lag in response to ramp-like HR changes in stress test to assess CAD risk. Methods: We quantified the lag between the actual QT series and the memoryless expected QT series, which was obtained by fitting a hyperbolic regression model to the instantaneous QT and HR measurements in stages where their behavior could be assumed stationary. The proposed methodology was applied to analyze ECG stress tests of a subset of 448 patients presenting different risk levels for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). The QT lag was estimated separately in the exercise and recovery phases. Results: An increase in the estimated QT lag during exercise (from 25 to 36 s) and a decrease during recovery (from 57 to 39 s) were associated with higher CAD risk. The difference between these lags showed significant capacity for CAD risk stratification. Conclusion: The QT lag in response to HR changes can be quantified from a stress test. QT lag values in response to ramp-like HR changes are in ranges comparable to those quantified from abrupt HR changes and show clinical significance to stratify CAD risk

Carotid and radial pulse feature analysis with EMFi sensor

The purpose of this work is to show the potential of Electromechanical Film (EMFi) sensor in vascular elasticity studies when pulse wave features from carotid pulse (CP) and radial pulse are studied. ECG, seat ballistocardiogram (BCG) and pulse signals from the limbs and CP were recorded from 48 working aged men in sitting position. Duration and amplitudes of the signal components from the ballistic seat signal, CP and radial pulse according to R wave of the ECG were studied. Several calculated parameters used to obtain vasculature stiffness information were compared with Bland-Altman (BA) plots and with Pearson correlation in order to study, whether CP and radial pulse give consistent information about vascular elasticity. Results from the BA plots and Pearson correlation show that elastic information obtained from the CP and radial pulse signals clearly differ from each other. The elasticity changes along the arterial tree seen in local pulse signals reflect also to the form of the seat BCG signal

Recovery Assessment of Open-heart Cardiac Surgery Patients Using Heart Rate Variability Parameters

Surgical operation causes short-term stress changing the balance of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS activity can be assessed through heart rate variability (HRV). This work aims to evaluate the recovery process of open-heart cardiac surgery patients under two post-surgery physiotherapy interventions using HRV parameters. Ten-minute ECG recordings were performed on 17 open-heart cardiac surgery patients pre-operatively (PREOP) and during three consecutive post-operative days (POD1, POD2 and POD3). The recovery process was promoted using two different physiotherapy techniques: positive expiratory pressure (PEP, N = 9) and inspiratory training (IMT, N = 8). Common HRV parameters (SDNN, LF power and SD1) were calculated for each patient and statistical analyses were performed. The results show significant differences between HRV parameters pre- and post-operatively, and there was a reduction of all three investigated HRV parameters in the POD1 for both groups. HRV parameters average values increased between POD1 to POD3 for both intervention groups indicating that patients were eventually starting to recover from the surgery. Statistically significant difference between PEP and IMT interventions was not discovered (e.g., p = 0.54 for SDNN, PREOP vs. POD3). Based on the results, all studied HRV parameters are potential indicators of the short-term recovery after cardiac surgery.Peer reviewe

QT variability unrelated to RR variability during stress testing for identification of coronary artery disease

Stress test electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis is widely used for coronary artery disease (CAD) diagnosis despite its limited accuracy. Alterations in autonomic modulation of cardiac electrical activity have been reported in CAD patients during acute ischemia. We hypothesized that those alterations could be reflected in changes in ventricular repolarization dynamics during stress testing that could be measured through QT interval variability (QTV). However, QTV is largely dependent on RR interval variability (RRV), which might hinder intrinsic ventricular repolarization dynamics. In this study, we investigated whether different markers accounting for low-frequency (LF) oscillations of QTV unrelated to RRV during stress testing could be used to separate patients with and without CAD. Power spectral density of QTV unrelated to RRV was obtained based on time-frequency coherence estimation. Instantaneous LF power of QTV and QTV unrelated to RRV were obtained. LF power of QTV unrelated to RRV normalized by LF power of QTV was also studied. Stress test ECG of 100 patients were analysed. Patients referred to coronary angiography were classified into non-CAD or CAD group. LF oscillations in QTV did not show significant differences between CAD and non-CAD groups. However, LF oscillations in QTV unrelated to RRV were significantly higher in the CAD group as compared with the non-CAD group when measured during the first phases of exercise and last phases of recovery. ROC analysis of these indices revealed area under the curve values ranging from 61 to 73%. Binomial logistic regression analysis revealed LF power of QTV unrelated to RRV, both during the first phase of exercise and last phase of recovery, as independent predictors of CAD. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of removing the influence of RRV when measuring QTV during stress testing for CAD identification and supports the added value of LF oscillations of QTV unrelated to RRV to diagnose CAD from the first minutes of exercise. This article is part of the theme issue 'Advanced computation in cardiovascular physiology: new challenges and opportunities'