University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Master's Theses and Capstones Student Scholarship Spring 2018 Development of Electronic Testing Devices That Detect Peripheral Neuropathies Peter Svendsen University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Svendsen, Peter, "Development of Electronic Testing Devices That Detect Peripheral Neuropathies" (2018). Master's Theses and Capstones. 1175. https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis/1175 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses and Capstones by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRONIC TESTING DEVICES THAT DETECT PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHIES BY Peter J. Svendsen B.S., Computer Engineering, University of New Hampshire, 2015 THESIS Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering May 2018 This thesis has been examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the degrees of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering by: Thesis Director, Dr. John R. LaCourse Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Wayne J. Smith Senior Lecturer Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Ron Croce Professor Department of Kinesiology On April 20th, 2018 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School. ii DEDICATION For my family: Mom Dad Kristen Mike Jon Yuhui Jen Shane Justin Keith Christian Ginny Lilac Aaron Danny Willow Amelia Stephanie Kate Lindsey iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. LaCourse, Dr. Smith and Dr. Croce for all the help they have given me over the course of this research. I would also like to thank my sister Kristen for helping me proofread this paper. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................................. x ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... xii 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Nerve Conduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Alternative Devices ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Thesis Contributions ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.5 Thesis Organization ............................................................................................................................. 4 2. BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Methods of Assessing Nerve Health ................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Nerve Conduction Studies................................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Optimal Stimulus Voltages .................................................................................................................. 7 3. METHODS ................................................................................................................................................ 10 3.1 Arbitrary Waveform Generation ....................................................................................................... 10 3.2 High Frequency Waveform Testing ................................................................................................... 12 3.3 Designing a Suitable Bio-Amplifier .................................................................................................... 13 3.4 Processing Data from the Bio-Amplifier ........................................................................................... 16 3.5 Removing 60-hertz Noise .................................................................................................................. 17 3.6 Removing Random Noise .................................................................................................................. 22 3.7 Fixing Test Subject Isolation .............................................................................................................. 26 3.8 Electromagnetic Noise ...................................................................................................................... 27 3.9 Non-electrical Stimulus ..................................................................................................................... 28 3.10 High Voltage Stimulus ..................................................................................................................... 29 3.11 Electrodes Used .............................................................................................................................. 39 3.12 Electromagnetic Noise Revisited .................................................................................................... 41 3.13 Bench Amplifier ............................................................................................................................... 43 3.14 Bench Amplifier Isolation ................................................................................................................ 45 3.15 Battery-Based Power Supply ........................................................................................................... 48 3.16 Testing for Motor Nerve Signals ..................................................................................................... 50 3.17 Final Attempts to Observe a Nerve Signal ...................................................................................... 52 v 3.18 Thumb Twitch Testing System ........................................................................................................ 53 3.19 Microcontroller-Based System........................................................................................................ 56 3.20 System Precision ............................................................................................................................. 60 3.21 Simulating Nerve Compression ....................................................................................................... 62 4. SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 69 5. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................. 73 5.1 Design Significance ............................................................................................................................ 73 5.2 Future Improvements ....................................................................................................................... 74 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................................... 78 Code ........................................................................................................................................................ 78 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 79 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: One of the stimulus waveforms recorded by Pereira et al. [20] ................................................... 8 Figure 2: Stimulus waveform shape that was created based on the six stimulus waveforms measured by Pedro Pereira et al [20]. It was created using the program Matlab ........................................................... 10 Figure 3: Stimulus waveform created by importing data into the BK Precision WaveXpress software ..... 11 Figure 4: Stimulus frequency versus skin impedance from 1 hertz to 100 kilohertz.................................. 13 Figure 5: Block diagram of the bio-amplifier design ................................................................................... 14 Figure 6: Placement of electrodes on the hand. The “–R” symbol represents the negative recording electrode. The “+R” symbol represents the positive recording electrode. The “GR” symbol represents the ground