Estimation of Bladder Volume From Afferent Neural Activity

Refractive urinary dysfunction in individuals suffering from neurogenic bladder syndrome can be treated with implanted neurostimulators that restore, to some degree, the control of the urinary bladder. A sensor capable of relaying feedback from bladder activity to the implanted neurostimulator is re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering 2013-09, Vol.21 (5), p.704-715
Main Authors: Mendez, Arnaldo, Sawan, Mohamad, Minagawa, Tomonori, Wyndaele, Jean-Jacques
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Animals
Biomedical monitoring
biomedical signal processing
Bladder
bladder pressure
bladder volume
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Electric Stimulation
Electrical stimulation
Electrodes
Electrophysiology - instrumentation
Electrophysiology - methods
Female
Mechanoreceptors - physiology
Models, Neurological
Monitoring
Monitoring, Physiologic
Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated - physiology
Neural Conduction - physiology
neural prosthesis
Neurons, Afferent - physiology
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Sensation - physiology
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Urinary Bladder - anatomy & histology
Urinary Bladder - innervation
Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic - diagnosis
Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic - pathology
Volume measurement
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Summary:Refractive urinary dysfunction in individuals suffering from neurogenic bladder syndrome can be treated with implanted neurostimulators that restore, to some degree, the control of the urinary bladder. A sensor capable of relaying feedback from bladder activity to the implanted neurostimulator is required to implement a closed-loop system to improve overall implant efficacy and minimize deleterious effects to neural tissue caused by continuous electrical stimulation. In this paper, we present a method that allows real-time estimation of bladder volume from the primary afferent activity of bladder mechanoreceptors. Our method was validated with data acquired from anesthetized rats in acute experiments. It was possible to qualitatively estimate three states of bladder fullness in 100% of trials when the recorded afferent activity exhibited a Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.6 or better. Furthermore, we could quantitatively estimate bladder volume, and also its pressure, using timeframes of properly chosen duration. The mean volume estimation error was 5.8±3.1%. Our results also demonstrate that it is possible to quantify both phasic and tonic bladder responses during slow filling and isovolumetric measurements, respectively.
ISSN:1534-4320
1558-0210
DOI:10.1109/TNSRE.2013.2266899