Continuous Monitoring of Carotid Artery Flow Volume Using a Wearable T-Shaped Ultrasound Patch

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Cardiovascular Monitoring

Background:

• Continuous monitoring of carotid blood flow is crucial for cardiovascular health assessment.
• Existing methods for blood flow measurement can be invasive or lack continuous monitoring capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel wearable T-shaped ultrasound (WTSUS) patch.
• To enable simultaneous short-axis and long-axis imaging for in situ carotid artery monitoring.
• To measure carotid blood flow volume within a single cardiac cycle.

Main Methods:

• The WTSUS patch utilizes two ultrathin ultrasound transducer arrays (8.5 MHz).
• B-mode imaging measures carotid artery cross-section area.
• Doppler imaging captures velocity time integral for flow volume calculation.

Main Results:

• The WTSUS patch is 1.3 mm thick with a 65% bandwidth and resolutions of 0.37 mm (axial) and 0.45 mm (lateral) at 20 mm depth.
• In vitro flow volume measurements showed a maximum deviation of 6.3%.
• In vivo human common carotid artery imaging demonstrated good agreement with a commercial ultrasound system.

Conclusions:

• The wearable ultrasound imaging patch provides reliable, continuous monitoring of carotid blood flow volume.
• The WTSUS patch is comfortable and easy to wear, offering a noninvasive solution.
• This technology has significant potential for critical care and dynamic blood flow monitoring, including noninvasive cardiac output estimation.