Impact of an aortic valve implant on body surface UWB propagation: A preliminary study

Abstract

-Efficient transceiver design in body area networks requires in-depth understanding of the propagation channel which in this case involves the human body. Several studies have been done to characterize RF propagation on the body surface and determine the parameters of an appropriate model. However, the possible effect of an already existing medical implant on body surface propagation has not been considered until during a recent measurement experiment. There it was discovered that an aortic implant may have an impact on Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) propagation between wearable nodes that are in the vicinity of the implant location. In this paper, we use a 3D immersive visualization environment to study and observe the impact of an aortic implant on body surface propagation. Specifically, we focus on the UWB impulse response of the channel between nodes located around the upper body. The difference in the obtained impulse responses (for scenarios with and without the implant) both in measurement and simulation points to the possible impact that such medical implants could have on body surface RF propagation.

Introduction

“…This phenomenon has also been demonstrated by computer simulations using the 3D human model in an immersive visualization environment [59]. [59] was narrower than what was used in the measurements. The simulated links are modeled using partially the same parameters and antenna positions than the experiment in Refs.…”

“…The modeling in the simulation environment was carried out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, USA. [59] in more details. [48,57,58] utilized.…”

Performance comparison of the different IR-UWB receivers in wireless body area networks

“…In addition, implanted metallic obstacles impact also on close body signal propagation, as showed in [20], [21]. Based on the studies, the main lobe of the measured impulse response is attenuated when a metallic implant is close to communicating antenna.…”

Ultra wideband in vivo radio channel characterisation and system modeling

“…Path loss is being calculated for different distances and an average path loss of 20 to 50 dB is observed with very minute time dispersion. Yang et al [17] used 3D model to study UWB propagation between nodes, which were in vicinity of an arotic implant. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been presented in past for UWB system modeling and also radio channel characterisation of in vivo channel for whole UWB band.…”