Towards the Optimization of a Portable Coil Array for Magnetocardiography
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Date
2024-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Magnetocardiography (MCG) is the process of sensing the magnetic bio-signal generated by ionic flow within the heart during the cardiac cycle. MCG is an alternative to electrocardiography (ECG) with several benefits: electrode-free detection, spatial mapping of the signal, and better signal quality. Unfortunately, the widespread use of MCG as a medical tool is currently limited by how weak the signal is, with a maximum strength much weaker than the Earth’s magnetic field. Current technology to measure such magnetic fields is exorbitantly expensive and nonportable.
The purpose of this thesis is to build on a research-in-progress inexpensive, lightweight, and portable MCG sensor that detects the fields using an array of induction coils and digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. This thesis rigorously defines the previous theoretical model used to analyze MCG coils, then proposes an alternative model that better captures the behavior of a coil illuminated by the heart’s magnetic field. Optimization guidelines based on this model are given for a coil with an outer diameter of 16.6 mm, and they are compared to previously reported optimization guidelines, as well as simulation-based optimization guidelines. The proposed theoretical model is in excellent agreement with the simulated model. The effect of averaging the signal received by several coils concurrently receiving the MCG signal is analyzed, and an experimental setup to validate this analysis is presented. This thesis lays the foundation for the theoretical and simulation-based optimization of coils and coil arrays for the application of MCG detection.
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Keywords
Electromagnetics, Magnetocardiography, Coil, Bio-Signals