A prototype device for non-invasive continuous monitoring of intracerebral hemorrhage

Abstract

A prototype for a non-invasive, real-time, monitoring device was developed to detect changes in the brain secondary to disease or injury such as intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The eventual goal is a non-invasive, real time sensor that can alert the clinician to alterations in the comatose patient's brain resulting from hemorrhage, seizure or stroke. In this work, a 400 MHz electromagnetic (EM) signal was transmitted with an antenna (T), incident on a 'brain gel' in vitro ICH model, and received by a receiving (R) antenna. Changes in the received signal were found to be induced by the presence of blood. The received power (P(R)) was found to be a linear function of the cross sectional area of blood, as measured normal to the incident wave. In addition, the sensor was able to detect as little as 1 mL of blood in this 1000 mL in vitro model.