Title page for ETD etd-22398-215911

Type of Document

Master's Thesis

Author

Robinson, Paul S.

Author's Email Address

robinson@stnick.me.vt.edu

URN

etd-22398-215911

Title

Development of Methodologies for the Noninvasive Estimation of Blood Perfusion

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Diller, Thomas E.	Committee Chair
Diller, Thomas E.	Committee Member
Scott, Elaine P.	Committee Member
Veit, Hugo P.	Committee Member

Keywords

blood perfusion
biothermal modeling
biothermal heat transfer
parameter estimation
heat flux sensors

Date of Defense

1998-01-29

Availability

restricted

Abstract

This work focuses on the development of a system to
noninvasively estimate blood perfusion using thermal methods. This is
accomplished by the combination of a bioprobe, biothermal model, and
parameter estimation techniques. The probe consists of a heat flux
sensor and surface thermocouple placed in contact with tissue
while the opposite side is cooled by jets of room temperature air. The
biothermal model predicts the temperature and heat flux within tissue
and probe based upon the input of blood perfusion and the thermal contact
resistance between probe and tissue. Parameter estimation techniques
are developed that use the model to simultaneously estimate blood
perfusion and contact resistance based on experimental heat flux
and/or temperature. A gradient based system minimizes a sum of
squares error function based on either or both heat flux and
temperature. This system
is tested on human forearms and in controlled flow rate experiments
using tissue phantoms. Blood perfusion estimates from the controlled
experiments are positively correlated with experimental flow rate.
Experimental measurements and statistical analysis show distinct
variations in the heat flux signal and rises in perfusion estimates
with increasing flow rate. This research validates the use of
thermal and parameter estimation methods to develop a practical,
noninvasive probe to clinically measure blood perfusion.

Files

Filename		Size	Approximate Download Time (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)
Filename		Size	28.8 Modem	56K Modem	ISDN (64 Kb)	ISDN (128 Kb)	Higher-speed Access
	thesis.pdf	1.83 Mb	00:08:29	00:04:22	00:03:49	00:01:54	00:00:09

indicates that a file or directory is accessible from the Virginia Tech campus network only.