A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Continuous cardiac function assessment is crucial for cardiovascular health, acute dysfunction detection, and patient management.
• Conventional non-invasive imaging lacks continuous measurement capabilities due to device bulkiness.
• Existing wearable devices capture only skin-level signals, not direct cardiac function.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a wearable ultrasonic device for continuous, real-time, and direct cardiac function assessment.
• To overcome limitations of conventional and existing wearable cardiac monitoring technologies.

Main Methods:

• Innovations in device design and material fabrication for improved skin coupling.
• Utilizing a deep learning model for automated left ventricular volume extraction from continuous ultrasound imaging.
• Enabling examination of the left ventricle from multiple views during patient motion.

Main Results:

• Successful development of a wearable ultrasonic device for direct cardiac assessment.
• The deep learning model accurately extracts left ventricular volume, generating waveforms for key cardiac indices.
• Demonstrated dynamic wearable monitoring of cardiac performance with enhanced accuracy across various environments.

Conclusions:

• The wearable ultrasonic device offers a novel solution for continuous, real-time cardiac monitoring.
• This technology significantly advances the capabilities of wearable cardiac assessment tools.
• Enables dynamic monitoring of stroke volume, cardiac output, and ejection fraction with improved accuracy.