Van Nguyen Chieu, Saraf Ravi F
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, ‡Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, University of Nebraska-Lincoln , Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2014 Sep 24;6(18):16368-74. doi: 10.1021/am5046789. Epub 2014 Aug 29.
Apart from texture, the human finger can sense palpation. The detection of an imbedded structure is a fine balance between the relative stiffness of the matrix, the object, and the device. If the device is too soft, its high responsiveness will limit the depth to which the imbedded structure can be detected. The sensation of palpation is an effective procedure for a physician to examine irregularities. In a clinical breast examination (CBE), by pressing over 1 cm(2) area, at a contact pressure in the 70-90 kPa range, the physician feels cancerous lumps that are 8- to 18-fold stiffer than surrounding tissue. Early detection of a lump in the 5-10 mm range leads to an excellent prognosis. We describe a thin-film tactile device that emulates human touch to quantify CBE by imaging the size and shape of 5-10 mm objects at 20 mm depth in a breast model using ∼80 kPa pressure. The linear response of the device allows quantification where the greyscale corresponds to the relative local stiffness. The (background) signal from <2.5-fold stiffer objects at a size below 2 mm is minimal.
除了质地，人的手指还能感知触诊。检测嵌入结构是基质、物体和设备相对刚度之间的一种精细平衡。如果设备太软，其高响应性会限制检测嵌入结构的深度。触诊是医生检查异常情况的有效方法。在临床乳房检查（CBE）中，通过按压1平方厘米的区域，接触压力在70 - 90千帕范围内，医生能感觉到比周围组织硬8至18倍的癌性肿块。早期检测出5 - 10毫米范围内的肿块会带来极佳的预后。我们描述了一种薄膜触觉设备，它通过在乳房模型中使用约80千帕的压力对20毫米深度处5 - 10毫米物体的大小和形状进行成像，来模拟人类触觉以量化CBE。该设备的线性响应允许进行量化，其中灰度对应于相对局部刚度。尺寸小于2毫米、硬度低于2.5倍的（背景）物体发出的信号最小。
