Cerebral blood-flow monitor for use in neonatal intensive care units.
The implementation of a real-time multichannel system for monitoring cerebral blood-flow is described. The instrument relies on a completely modular architecture and is based on the principle of measuring the electrical impedance between a number of periodically sensed electrode pairs positioned around the subject's head. The whole setup is controlled by a host computer that performs several functions, such as real-time acquisition, analysis, display and data logging. Two operating options can be chosen by the user: a normal mode that allows continuous monitoring and a triggered mode in which the measurement cycle is automatically started by the occurrence of a preset condition in some other circulatory signal, e.g. the permanently available ECG signal. The design is considerably user-friendly and embodies a number of special safety precautions to take account of the peculiar condition of patients, usually newborn infants hospitalized in intensive care units.
Bartocci
M
M
Servizio di Patologia Neonatale, Istituto G. Gaslini, Università di Genova, Italy.
Serra
G
G
Basano
L
L
Canepa
F
F
Ottonello
P
P
D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems