Development of an Intelligent Digital Monitoring and Biofeedback System for Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Therapy Device

Intermittent pneumatic compression ( IPC ) is a proactive pressure therapeutic technique in treatment of blood circulation disorders. It commonly includes an air pump, and inflatable auxiliary sleeves, gloves or boots in a system to improve venous hemodynamics in the limbs of patients who suffer from edema, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). The existing IPC devices only involves a control or an analog input system, which are incapable to timely monitor and obtain real-time feedback of pressure dosages delivered to the biological human body, and is also unable to visualize pressure variations with inflation time. To address the aforementioned problems, a newly designed intelligent digital monitoring and biofeedback system is proposed in this study. This new system is equipped with flexible force-sensing resistors (FSRs), which are used to measure the exerted pressure on the skin. The pressure sensors with different detection functions are employed to determine pneumatic pressure inside bladders. The air mass flow sensors are utilized to measure the air volume in the bladder quantitatively. A software to visualize interface pressure between IPC and the lower limbs is also developed to facilitate the users to timely learn pressure magnitudes and variations and to gain biofeedback on dynamic pressure dosage delivery. Besides, the system involves a wireless transmission data interface to realize real-time dynamic monitor via Bluetooth communication. These determined pneumatic-mechanical parameters will be highly helpful to evaluate therapeutic effectiveness of IPC system in practical application, and inversely to asist improving functional design of IPC system for diverse treatment conditions and satisfying the end users' demands.