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New
Frontiers |
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Conference
2009 |
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Session 3: Detecting changes in intracranial pressure
using emissions from the inner ear Description
Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is currently an invasive procedure that requires access to the intracranial space through an opening in the skull. Noninvasive monitoring of ICP via the auditory system is theoretically possible because changes in ICP transfer to the inner ear through connections between the cerebral spinal fluid and the cochlear fluids. In particular, low-frequency distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), measured noninvasively in the external ear canal, have magnitudes that appear to depend on intracranial pressure. Postural changes in healthy humans cause systematic changes in ICP. This session will explore the effects of postural changes, and presumably ICP changes, on DPOAE magnitudes as well as preliminary results related to the measurement of DPOAEs on patients undergoing medically necessary ICP monitoring. Speaker: Dr Susan Voss Susan Voss is
an associate professor of engineering at Smith College and currently holds
appointments at the Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Infirmary, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. She earned her B.S. in electrical
engineering from Brown University in 1991, her M.S. in electrical and
computer engineering from MIT in 1995, and her Ph.D. from the Harvard-MIT
division of Health Sciences and Technology in 1998. Her research focuses on sound transmission
in normal and diseased ears. Recent
work examines the effect of changes in intracranial pressure on transmission
of sound through the middle ear. |
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