Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Taramani, Chennai, Tamil Nadu-600 113, India.
Biomed Phys Eng Express. 2020 Feb 24;6(2):025013. doi: 10.1088/2057-1976/ab74ff.
The conventional medical imaging modalities used for arterial stiffness measurement are non-scalable and unviable for field-level vascular screening. The need for an affordable, easy-to-operate automated non-invasive technologies remains unmet. To address this need, we present a portable image-free ultrasound device-ARTSENS Pen, that uses a single-element ultrasound transducer for carotid stiffness evaluation.
The performance of the device was clinically validated on a cohort of 523 subjects. A clinical-grade B-mode ultrasound imaging system (ALOKA eTracking) was used as the reference. Carotid stiffness measurements were taken using the ARTSENS Pen in sitting posture emulating field scenarios.
A statistically significant correlation (r > 0.80, p < 0.0001) with a non-significant bias was observed between the measurements obtained from the two devices. The ARTSENS Pen device could perform highly repeatable measurements (with variation smaller than 10%) on a relatively larger percentage of the population when compared to the ALOKA system. The study results also revealed the sensitivity of ARTSENS Pen to detect changes in arterial stiffness with age.
The easy-to-use technology and the automated algorithms of the ARTSENS Pen make it suitable for cardiovascular risk assessment in resource-constrained settings.
用于动脉僵硬度测量的传统医学成像方式不具有可扩展性，不适用于现场级别的血管筛查。因此，我们仍然需要一种经济实惠、易于操作的自动化、非侵入性技术。为满足这一需求，我们研发了一种便携式无图像超声设备——ARTSENS Pen，它使用单个超声换能器进行颈动脉僵硬度评估。
该设备的性能在 523 名受试者的队列中得到了临床验证。使用临床级 B 型超声成像系统（ALOKA eTracking）作为参考。ARTSENS Pen 采用坐姿模拟现场场景进行颈动脉僵硬度测量。
两种设备的测量结果之间存在显著的相关性（r>0.80，p<0.0001），且无显著偏差。与 ALOKA 系统相比，ARTSENS Pen 设备能够对更大比例的人群进行高度可重复的测量（变化小于 10%）。研究结果还表明，ARTSENS Pen 对检测动脉僵硬度随年龄的变化具有敏感性。
ARTSENS Pen 易于使用的技术和自动化算法使其适用于资源有限环境下的心血管风险评估。
