Development of the Pocket Doppler for AI Cloud Connectivity

Abstract

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is the buildup of plaque in a patient’s peripheral arteries namely the legs and feet. PAD currently affects more than 10 million Americans and is an underserved disease as most patients are asymptomatic and there is no outstanding cure. The best available treatment for PAD is to detect it early, as making informed lifestyle changes can significantly reduce the chances of experiencing major adverse limb events (MALE), major adverse cardiac events (MACE), and death. However, PAD diagnosis is often missed or diagnosed too late as the symptoms are either non-presenting early in the disease progression or masked by other comorbidities such as diabetes and renal disease. Continuous wave (CW) doppler ultrasound is currently used for PAD diagnosis by measuring changes in blood flow and finding the location of plaque buildup. Some of the main issues with current diagnostic practices include being too expensive, time consuming, inconvenient, uncomfortable, and perpetuating interobserver variability. Thus, there is a need for a highly accurate and inexpensive method offering diagnosis of PAD in one appointment. Our device is a wireless, pocket sized, Bluetooth enabled, 8MHz CW doppler ultrasound capable of transmitting a patient’s doppler waveform to a nearby phone or computer. The team hopes that our device will allow patients to get diagnosis and care earlier and cheaper enabling them to make the proper lifestyle changes to reduce their likelihood of experiencing MALE, MACE, or death.

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