Date of Award

6-9-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2016.

Department

Bioengineering

First Advisor

Emre Araci

Abstract

Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) also known as Pseudotumor Cerebri is a condition resulting from an increase of Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF), a fluid that helps to protect the brain and spinal cord, in the cranial cavity. Currently the only treatment method for this health condition is the draining of the fluid via implanted intracranial shunts that get clogged in approximately 50% of patients. Clogged shunts can only be detected when IIH symptoms begin to reappear. We propose to create an ultrasound-read intracranial pressure sensor used to supplement shunts implanted in patients who suffer from Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. This will provide immediate knowledge of clogged catheters, preventing further damage to accrue due to an unknown buildup of pressure, prior to, and when symptoms begin to show. This pressure sensor will significantly benefit the current treatment method by allowing easy and immediate diagnosis of the current condition of the CSF and the shunt. This completely mitigates harmful symptoms that occur while Idiopathic Intracranial hypertension is left untreated and provides a simple method of keeping track of the patient’s current state, enabling doctors to know immediately when an additional shunt is necessary. In this paper, we design and fabricate an intracranial pressure sensor that is intended to be read via ultrasound. Our experiments show that our design is capable of reading pressure changes in water. Using a light microscope, we were also able to correlate the movement of the air-liquid interface in the sensor channel to pressure changes. From these findings, we hope that the sensitivity of the sensor can be further refined and will be tested for visibility under ultrasound.

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