*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics
in the School of Biological Sciences
Iris Lu
Defends her thesis:
Determination of the accuracy and sensitivity of infrared sensors for anthropometric based lymphedema assessment in clinical environments
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
1:00pm
EBB 1005, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Seminar Room
Thesis Co-Advisors:
Dr. J. Brandon Dixon
School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Rudolph L. Gleason
School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee Members:
Dr. Fredrik Vannberg
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. May Wang
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Eva Lee
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Sheryl Gabram
School of Medicine
Emory University.
Abstract:
Lymphedema is one of most feared side effects of cancer treatments in the United States. This disease leads to swelling of the affected limb and is associated with physical and psychological distress. Disease onset has no clear timeline. At risk patients may develop lymphedema immediately post-treatment or they may wait decades before developing lymphedema. Current medical care for at risk patients does not provide the continuous surveillance necessary for early lymphedema detection. Therefore, more often than not, patients diagnosed with lymphedema are subjected to a lifetime of maintenance, costing thousands of dollars per year in clinical visits and compression garments. In this dissertation, implementation of infrared sensor systems was explored and evaluated against the standard volume measurement tools used in specialized lymphedema clinics. The infrared sensor with the LymphaTech software resulted in good correlation and agreement with current measurement tools while being easier to use and more cost-effective than commercially available systems. Additionally, the efficacy of utilizing local arm geometries for the detection of arm lymphedema was determined. Anthropometric based features were extracted from a 3D point cloud using custom code and applied to train classification models for lymphedema. These features were shown to detect subtle changes in the arm of lymphedema patients with a sensitivity of 61% compared to the current standard volume difference measurement, which has a sensitivity of 33.3%. Clinics not equipped to detect lymphedema could integrate this infrared system and model as a screening tool to improve referral rates to lymphedema clinics.
