Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
5-31-1988
Degree Name
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering - (M.S.)
Department
Electrical Engineering
First Advisor
Peter Engler
Second Advisor
Stanley S. Reisman
Third Advisor
W. H. Warren Ball
Abstract
The system comprises a microwave interferometer as a computer-based non-invasive cardiopulmonary monitor. The microwave interferometer records the mechanical vibration of the chest wall. The objective is to determine whether the signals may have diagnostic value and to evaluate the instrument as a non-invasive and non-contacting cardiopulmonary monitor.
With the help of a computer it is possible to analyze the mechanical vibration of the chest wall produced by the heart and thereby detect, and possibly categorize, cardiac abnormalities. This system is able to process two channels, the first signal from microwave interferometer records chest wall vibrations and the second signal is the Electrocardiogram (ECG) which is used as a timing reference signal. The analog signals are passed through a low pass analog filter and recorded on an FM tape recorder; the analog data on the recorder are digitized and the digitized data is stored on floppy disks.
The interferometer output signal is sent to an IBM-AT equipped with a DASH-16 A/D-D/A board that is controlled by the MS-DOS 3.0 operating system. The ILS-IEEE digital signal processing software package was selected to process digitized data and plot the results.
Experiments have been performed to test the system and the results accumulated so far seem very promising. It is found that the signals recorded from the microwave interferometer are similar to those of the Ballistocardiogram. The processed recordings from a group of young male students reveals distinct peaks during each cardiac cycle that represent high-velocity displacements of the chest wall. The pattern is correlated with the mechanical events in the cardiac cycle such as valve action and maximum aortic blood flow.
Recommended Citation
Ho, Chin-Yee Eric, "A computer-based microwave interferometer instrumentation system as a non-invasive cardiopulmonary monitor" (1988). Theses. 3102.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/3102
