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1. Measuring deformational plagiocephaly and brachycephaly using a smartphone in a prospective study

   Can Kocabalkanli ; Fereshteh Aalamifar ; Regina Fenton ; Susan Gaetani ; Marius George Linguraru ; Reza Seifabadi ( April 2022 , American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association 79th Annual Meeting, 2022)

   Background & Purpose: Deformational plagiocephaly and brachycephaly (DPB) is a cranial condition manifested in 20% of infants in the US. DPB affects children and their families through psychological pressure, social stigma, and significant medical costs. If detected between 0-3 months of age, there is strong potential for correction via aggressive repositioning and/or physical therapy if congenital muscular torticollis is present. At later stages, DPB is most effectively treated by more expensive treatments like helmet therapy. Two cranial parameters that can help with the early detection and tracking of DPB are the cranial index (CI) and cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI).more »Currently, these measurements are performed with a hand caliper by a specialist, i.e., nurse practitioner (CRNP) or physician assistant who specializes in cleft-craniofacial diagnosis, physical therapist, pediatric plastic/neurosurgeons, or orthotist. To make the measurements frequent, accessible, and accurate at the point of care, i.e., in pediatric offices, we developed and evaluated a mobile app called SoftspotTM to measure CI and CVAI, thus facilitating the early detection and monitoring of DPB. Method/Description: Sequences of bird’s eye-view head photos extracted from video were collected for 77 patients (aged 2 – 11 months, 51 females, 26 males) with an iPhone X (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA). The head length, width, and diagonals were measured by a single CRNP via hand calipers at a large multidisciplinary cranio-facial center with IRB approval and patient consent. For each patient, five images were chosen by an analyst and segmented into head components, namely the head and nose, using quantitative imaging methods. For each image CI and CVAI were automatically measured, and these measurements were averaged for each patient. Automated CI and CVAI measurements were compared to values obtained by the caliper measurements in terms of mean absolute error (MAE), and outliers were excluded beyond 3 standard deviations away from the average MAE. Results were further analyzed by the Bland-Altman method and Spearman Correlation Coefficient. Results: MAE was 2.18 ± 1.60 for CI and 1.57 ± 1.03 for CVAI measurements. Spearman Correlation Coefficients between measurements and ground truth were 0.93 for CI (p<0.001) and 0.91 for CVAI (p<0.001). Bland-Altman analysis revealed limits of agreement for CI and CVAI as [-4.59, 5.76] (mean = 0.59) and [-3.91, 3.40] (mean = -0.25) respectively. Conclusions: Digital smartphone-based methods for DPB assessment are feasible, and this study demonstrated significant correlation between automated digital measurements and ground truth clinical values. Smartphone-based measurements of DPB can be performed at the point of care to improve the early detection and treatment of DPB.« less
2. Smartphone-based Measurements of Deformational Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly: A Prospective Study

   Can Kocabalkanli ; Regina Fenton ; Susan Gaetani ; Fereshteh Aalamifar ; Marius G. Linguraru ; Reza Seifabadi ( May 2022 , Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting 2022)

   Background: Deformational plagiocephaly and brachycephaly (DPB) is manifested in ~20% of newborns in the US. DPB can be effectively corrected by repositioning and/or physical therapy if detected and monitored before 4 months of age. The cranial index (CI) and cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI) are used for DPB diagnosis and monitoring. As there is no current tool available for pediatricians or parents to quantitatively measure these indices at the point-of-care, we developed a smartphone app, called SoftSpot, that measures CI and CVAI from photographs of a child’s head to increase the chances of early detection and treatment. Objective: To prospectivelymore »evaluate the accuracy of the smartphone measurements of CI and CVAI in a clinical setting. Methods: Bird’s eye-view head photos of 117 infants aged 2-11 months (42 female, 75 male) were captured at a large multidisciplinary craniofacial center with the SoftSpot app (PediaMetrix Inc. Rockville, MD) using an iPhone X (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA). The study was IRB approved and parent consent was obtained. Measurements included width, length, and diagonals of the patients’ head were obtained by a single CRNP and were used to calculate CI and CVAI as the ground truth. At least five images for each patient were chosen by an analyst, CI and CVAI were automatically measured by the proprietary algorithms of the app, and results were averaged for each patient. Automated and ground truth CI and CVAI measurements were compared using the Bland-Altman method and Spearman Correlation Coefficient after excluding outliers with mean absolute error (MAE) greater than two standard deviations. Results: MAE was 2.47 ± 1.68 for CI, 1.55 ± 1.03 for CVAI. Spearman correlation coefficients were 0.93 and 0.91 (p-values < 0.001) for CI and CVAI, respectively (see Fig. 2). Bland-Altman analysis (see Fig. 2 resulted in limits of agreement of [-4.41, 6.53] for CI and [-3.64, 3.68] for CVAI, with respective biases of 1.06 and 0.02. Conclusion: Our app measures CI and CVAI from head 2D photos with very high correlation to caliper-based measurements obtained in the craniofacial clinic. This prospective study demonstrates the clinical feasibility of using a smartphone app for cranial measurements at the point-of-care with the potential to early detect and monitor DPB. The app can potentially be used in telemedicine encounters when in-person visits are difficult due to circumstances like COVID-19 or for remote and underserved areas.« less
3. A wireless, skin-interfaced biosensor for cerebral hemodynamic monitoring in pediatric care

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2019786117  

   Rwei, Alina Y. ; Lu, Wei ; Wu, Changsheng ; Human, Kelia ; Suen, Emily ; Franklin, Daniel ; Fabiani, Monica ; Gratton, Gabriele ; Xie, Zhaoqian ; Deng, Yujun ; et al ( December 2020 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   The standard of clinical care in many pediatric and neonatal neurocritical care units involves continuous monitoring of cerebral hemodynamics using hard-wired devices that physically adhere to the skin and connect to base stations that commonly mount on an adjacent wall or stand. Risks of iatrogenic skin injuries associated with adhesives that bond such systems to the skin and entanglements of the patients and/or the healthcare professionals with the wires can impede clinical procedures and natural movements that are critical to the care, development, and recovery of pediatric patients. This paper presents a wireless, miniaturized, and mechanically soft, flexible device thatmore »supports measurements quantitatively comparable to existing clinical standards. The system features a multiphotodiode array and pair of light-emitting diodes for simultaneous monitoring of systemic and cerebral hemodynamics, with ability to measure cerebral oxygenation, heart rate, peripheral oxygenation, and potentially cerebral pulse pressure and vascular tone, through the utilization of multiwavelength reflectance-mode photoplethysmography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Monte Carlo optical simulations define the tissue-probing depths for source–detector distances and operating wavelengths of these systems using magnetic resonance images of the head of a representative pediatric patient to define the relevant geometries. Clinical studies on pediatric subjects with and without congenital central hypoventilation syndrome validate the feasibility for using this system in operating hospitals and define its advantages relative to established technologies. This platform has the potential to substantially enhance the quality of pediatric care across a wide range of conditions and use scenarios, not only in advanced hospital settings but also in clinics of lower- and middle-income countries.« less
4. Imputation of the continuous arterial line blood pressure waveform from non-invasive measurements using deep learning

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-94913-y  

   Hill, Brian L. ; Rakocz, Nadav ; Rudas, Ákos ; Chiang, Jeffrey N. ; Wang, Sidong ; Hofer, Ira ; Cannesson, Maxime ; Halperin, Eran ( August 2021 , Scientific Reports)

   In two-thirds of intensive care unit (ICU) patients and 90% of surgical patients, arterial blood pressure (ABP) is monitored non-invasively but intermittently using a blood pressure cuff. Since even a few minutes of hypotension increases the risk of mortality and morbidity, for the remaining (high-risk) patients ABP is measured continuously using invasive devices, and derived values are extracted from the recorded waveforms. However, since invasive monitoring is associated with major complications (infection, bleeding, thrombosis), the ideal ABP monitor should be both non-invasive and continuous. With large volumes of high-fidelity physiological waveforms, it may be possible today to impute amore »physiological waveform from other available signals. Currently, the state-of-the-art approaches for ABP imputation only aim at intermittent systolic and diastolic blood pressure imputation, and there is no method that imputes the continuous ABP waveform. Here, we developed a novel approach to impute the continuous ABP waveform non-invasively using two continuously-monitored waveforms that are currently part of the standard-of-care, the electrocardiogram (ECG) and photo-plethysmogram (PPG), by adapting a deep learning architecture designed for image segmentation. Using over 150,000 min of data collected at two separate health systems from 463 patients, we demonstrate that our model provides a highly accurate prediction of the continuous ABP waveform (root mean square error 5.823 (95% CI 5.806–5.840) mmHg), as well as the derived systolic (mean difference 2.398 ± 5.623 mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (mean difference − 2.497 ± 3.785 mmHg) compared to arterial line measurements. Our approach can potentially be used to measure blood pressure continuously and non-invasively for all patients in the acute care setting, without the need for any additional instrumentation beyond the current standard-of-care.

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5. A New Authentication Approach for People with Upper Extremity Impairment

   https://doi.org/10.1109/PerComWorkshops48775.2020.9156171  

   Lewis, Brittany ; Hebert, Joshua ; Venkatasubramanian, Krishna ; Provost, Matthew ; Charlebois, Kelly ( March 2020 , A New Authentication Approach for People with Upper Extremity Impairment)

   In recent years, people with upper extremity impairment (UEI) have been using wearable Internet of Things (wIoT) devices like head-mounted devices (HMDs) for a variety of purposes such as rehabilitation, assistive technology, and gaming. Often such wIoT devices collect and display sensitive information such as information related to medical care and rehabilitation. It is therefore crucial that HMDs can authenticate the person wearing them so that appropriate access control can be implemented for the sensitive information they manage. In this paper, we explore a new authentication approach for people with upper extremity impairment (UEI) for wIoT devices head-mounted devices (HMDs).more »The approach works by leveraging ballistocardiograms - representations of the cardiac rhythm - derived from an accelerometer and a gyroscope, mounted on an HMD for authentication. The derived ballistocardiograms are then fed into six participant-specific convolutional neural networks (CNNs) which act as our authentication models. Analysis of our approach shows its viability. Using data from 6 participants with UEI (and 22 able-bodied participants, for evaluation), we show that we can authenticate a participant in 4 seconds with an average equal error rate of 4.02% and 10.02%, immediately after training and ~2 months later, respectively.« less