Historicalarchived

Photrodes™ for Medical Monitoring

ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH AND MATERIEL COMMAND

Srico has developed innovative, optical sensors (Photrodes™) for electrocardiogram (EKG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring. The key operational component of the sensor device is a miniature, specially designed optical chip. While electronic chips use electrical current (electrons) optical chips use light (photons) for measurement and transmission of signals. Photrodes™ play the same role as electrodes – to detect and communicate brain or heart activity to the EEG or EKG recording device. However, the Photrodes™ measure the electrical activity of the heart or brain using state-ofthe-art optical voltage sensing technology. They may also be used for electromyography (EMG) and electrooculography (EOG).

Applications

Military and Commercial Significance:
To measure heart rate (EKG), the small sensor is placed over the person’s clothing enabling emergency medical personnel to make a quick patient assessment, particularly at scenes of mass trauma. As an EEG sensor, it may be used in situations where attaching a suite of conventional electrodes to the scalp with sticky gels would be uncomfortable, inconvenient, or timeconsuming, such as for ambulatory monitoring, anesthesia awareness monitoring, alertness monitoring, sleep studies, pediatric monitoring, and emergency
or critical medicine. The Photrodes™ eliminate the need for troublesome electrode attachment, and the sensor probe does not require exacting physical contact. Motion, skin moisture, and other characteristics
typical of non-laboratory environments do not affect the Photrode™ device.
The Photrode™ technology is especially well suited in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the heart or brain. Because there are no electrical or electronic components inside the magnet room, there
is no interference with the RF and magnetic fields of the scanner and no burn risk to the patient. Combined with fMRI, Photrodes™ have the potential to open the door to new brain and heart research, neurodiagnostics, and cardiodiagnostics. The all-optical technology offers uninterrupted, truly artifact-free capture of heart or brain activity.

Provenance

Original: https://dodtechmatch.com/dod/successstories/view.aspx?id=60136
Archived copy: Wayback Machine snapshot

This record was recovered from a public web archive of dodtechmatch.com and is preserved for historical reference. It may be outdated. Not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Contact details from the original listing have been withheld.