Skeletal Muscle Water Content Measurement Sensor/Tool

The objective of this proposal is to develop a Muscle Water Content (MWC) sensor, an ultrasonic device for assessment of body hydration status in soldiers with accuracy better than 2% during deployment and training. The MWC assessment is based on measurement of ultrasound velocity in muscle, which is, to a good approximation, a linear function of the water content. The expected outcome will be a lightweight, compact, and simple sensor for military use as well as civilian medical use for assessment of hydration status of various institutionalized patient, athlete, and worker populations. The proposed ultrasonic sensor will advantageously differ from the existing techniques by its completely non-invasive application, higher accuracy, rapid tests and possibility of continuous monitoring MWC by a portable lightweight device in the field. The goals of Phase I and Option Effort are to build the first MWC sensor prototype and to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technology and necessary sensitivity in the experiments on tissue models and ex vivo animal muscles.