Lightweight, Portable, Noninvasive Physiologic Sensors for Multi-site Determination/Quantitatin of Surface & Deep Tissue Microvascular Blood Flow

In this effort we propose a unique new approach for detecting an quantifying microcirculatory blood flow. This technique has been proven feasible in previous work (Schrope et al, 1992, Burns et al 1993), and will be extended and adapted for use in the emergent care situations of truma and trige. The method uses the modality of Doppler ultrasound enhanced by the use of a saccharide-based contrast agent, which imparts an acoustic signature to the blood flow and allows unabiguous detection of the slow, small volume flows characteristic of the microcirculation. We propose a limited amount of theoretical work to bring the technique to full potential for this purpose, followed by construction of prototype components and experimental verification of the validity of the technique. In addition, exhaustive investigation into the compatibility of the data with existing military and hospital data display and storage systems will be performed.