This interdisciplinary effort by engineers, computer scientists and control engineering specialists aimed to develop a system for non-invasive monitoring and diagnosis of functional disorders of the urinary tract. Consequently, a diagnostic system based on electrical impedance tomography (EIT) and ultrasound (UT) was developed and deployed in clinical practice.
Prof. Volodymyr Mosorov of the Institute of Applied Computer Science, the coordinator in charge of the R&D work, thus describes the innovative test bench designed for the project:
Two phantoms
One of the goals in the project was to build a special-purpose laboratory station Model 3D 'Smart'. The core component of this model is a set of two phantoms mimicking the human body from the chest to the lower thighs. This is the region where the urinary system is situated, i.e. the focus research area in the project.
Both phantoms were fabricated with 3D printing technology, from highly engineered materials whose composition mimics physical properties of the respective human organs. For the UT study, the phantom was filled with organosilicon polymers, whereas for the EIT, with conductive, flexible polymer materials.
This rather unique setup is expected to enable advances in modern, non-invasive diagnostic methods for the condition of the urinary tract in children, thereby improving the likelihood of accurate diagnosis and effective therapy as well as reaching a greater number of children receiving treatment.
The project ‘System bezinwazyjnego monitorowania i diagnozowania czynnościowych zaburzeń dolnych dróg moczowych za pomocą tomografii elektrycznej oraz ultradźwiękowej’ (Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) and ultrasound tomography (UT) non-invasive monitoring and diagnosis of functional disorders of the lower urinary tract) was run under the OP Intelligent Development 2014- 2020 and co-funded from the European Regional Development Fund.