LONG-TERM, IMPLANTABLE, INTRA-CRANIAL PRESSURE SENSOR

Disorders that occur in the nervous system can effect millions of people every year. These include trauma, vascular and immunological diseases of the nervous. Many of these disorders will produce changes in the blood brain barrier. Using state-of-the-art fiber optic technology, Foster- Miller is proposing to develop a sensor system that can monitor and map pressure changes along the blood-brain barrier. Our clinical partner, Tufts University School of Medicine, will implant a prototype sensor into a laboratory rat. Following several weeks of post-operative recuperation, the senor will be activated and intra-cranial pressures measured. The animal will then be exposed to a model disease, experimental allergic encephalitis, and the sensor will monitor changes in intra-cranial pressures throughout on-set and progression of the disease. Successful completion of this program will permit us to identify a relationship between changes in intra-cranial pressure and the development of a neurological disease in an animal.