Hsu Jia-Lien, Lee Chia-Hui, Hsieh Chung-Ho
Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Department of General Surgery, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
PeerJ. 2020 Dec 17;8:e10511. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10511. eCollection 2020.
An abdominal physical examination is one of the most important tools in evaluating patients with acute abdominal pain. We focused on palpation, in which assessment is made according to the patient's response and force feedback. Since palpation is performed manually by the examiner, the uniformity of force and location is difficult to achieve during examinations. We propose an integrated system to quantify palpation pressure and location. A force sensor continuously collects pressure data, while a camera locates the precise position of contact. The system recorded, displayed average and maximum pressure by creating a pressure/time curve for computer-aided diagnosis. Compared with previous work on pressure sensors of quantifying abdominal palpation, our proposed system is the integrated approach to measure palpation force and track the corresponding position at the same time, for further diagnosis. In addition, we only make use of a sensing device and a general web camera, rather than commercial algometry and infrared cameras used in the previous work. Based on our clinical trials, the statistics of palpation pressure values and the corresponding findings are also reported. We performed abdominal palpation with our system for twenty-three healthy participants, including fourteen males and nine females. We applied two grades of force on the abdomen (light and deep) by four-quadrant and nine-region schemes, record the value of pressure and location. In the four-quadrant scheme, the average pressures of abdominal palpation with light and deep force levels were 0.506(N) and 0.552(N), respectively. In the nine-region scheme, the average pressures were 0.496(N) and 0.577(N), respectively. Two episodes of contact dermal reaction were identified. According to our experiment statistics, there is no significant difference in the force level between the four-quadrant and nine-region scheme. Our results have the potential to be used as a reference guide while designing digital abdominal palpation devices.
腹部体格检查是评估急性腹痛患者最重要的手段之一。我们重点关注触诊，触诊是根据患者的反应和力反馈进行评估的。由于触诊是由检查者手动进行的，在检查过程中很难实现力和位置的一致性。我们提出了一种用于量化触诊压力和位置的集成系统。一个力传感器持续收集压力数据，而一个摄像头确定接触的精确位置。该系统通过创建压力/时间曲线来记录、显示平均压力和最大压力，以用于计算机辅助诊断。与之前关于量化腹部触诊压力传感器的工作相比，我们提出的系统是一种同时测量触诊力并跟踪相应位置的集成方法，以便进行进一步诊断。此外，我们仅使用了一个传感设备和一个普通网络摄像头，而不是之前工作中使用的商业压力计和红外摄像头。基于我们的临床试验，还报告了触诊压力值的统计数据及相应结果。我们用我们的系统对23名健康参与者进行了腹部触诊，其中包括14名男性和9名女性。我们通过四象限和九分区方案在腹部施加了两级力度（轻触和深触），记录压力值和位置。在四象限方案中，轻触和深触力度水平下腹部触诊的平均压力分别为0.506（N）和0.552（N）。在九分区方案中，平均压力分别为0.496（N）和0.577（N）。识别出两例接触性皮肤反应。根据我们的实验统计，四象限和九分区方案在力度水平上没有显著差异。我们的结果有可能在设计数字腹部触诊设备时用作参考指南。
