Design of a thermal diffusion sensor for noninvasive assessment of skin surface perfusion and endothelial dysfunction

The skin microcirculation performs a range of vital functions, such as maintaining nutritional perfusion to the tissues and overall thermoregulation. Not only does impairment to the skin blood supply lead to tissue necrosis and other disease complications, increasing evidence shows that dysfunctional vasoreactivity in the skin microcirculation is associated with multiple disease states, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, peripheral vascular disease, and coronary artery disease, and it is one of the earliest indicators of systemic endothelial dysfunction, the precursor to atherosclerotic disease. Endothelial dysfunction is functionally characterized by abnormal vasomotor response to either a pharmacological or flow-mediated stimulus and can be demonstrated in the skin by measuring reperfusion following a period of ischemia, a phenomenon known as post-occlusive reactive hyperemia (PORH). In my research, I have reviewed the literature regarding endothelial dysfunction and its association with a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors. I have also described the mechanisms thought to link endothelial function in the central vascular beds (i.e. coronary) to that of peripheral conduit vessels and the microcirculation. The knowledge thus gathered confirmed that the microcirculation of the skin is an appropriate site for endothelial function assessment. The ultimate goal of my thesis is to design a noninvasive sensor that is capable of obtaining a quantitative measure of skin perfusion, continuously and in real-time, using the principle of thermal diffusion in perfused tissue. I performed preliminary noninvasive endothelial function testing with a modified Thermal Diffusion Probe (TDP), which has been previously validated for absolute perfusion measurement in an invasive setting.

Department dc:contributor.department

Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Li, Vivian V. (Vivian Victoria)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• H. Frederick Bowman.

• Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43874

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/43874