Development of a wireless intra-vaginal transducer for monitoring intra-abdominal pressure in women

Abstract

Pelvic floor disorders (PFD) affect one of every four women in the United States. Elevated intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) during daily activity or strenuous physical activity has been identified as a risk factor in the prevalence of PFD. However, the relationship between IAP and physical activity is poorly understood and oftentimes activity restrictions are prescribed by physicians without clinical evidence linking various activities to elevated IAP. There are currently no pressure transducers capable of monitoring IAP non-invasively out of a clinical environment. To overcome this shortcoming, a novel intra-vaginal pressure transducer (IVT) was developed to continuously monitor IAP. Improvements were made to the first generation IVT by incorporating wireless capability to enhance the device’s mobility while creating a more robust IAP monitoring system. To ensure the changes maintained the functionality of the original device design, comparison testing with standard clinical pressure transducers in both bench top and clinical settings was conducted. The wireless device was found to have high linearity, robust signal transmission, and dynamic response that outperforms the clinical standard rectal transducer and is similar to the original first generation non-wireless design. The wireless IVT presented here is a mobile wireless device capable of measuring, storing and transmitting IAP data during various physical activities.