Thesis (M.S.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, 2006. / "May, 2006." Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed 01/16/2008) Advisor, Dale Mugler; Co-Advisor, Bruce Taylor; Committee member, Daniel Sheffer; Department Chair, Daniel Sheffer; Dean of the College, George K. Haritos; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anatomical Sciences, 2002? / Bibliography: leaves 318-367.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-161). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.App.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-145). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

published_or_final_version / Physiology / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

Blood pressure is vital sign information that physicians often need as preliminary data for immediate intervention during emergency situations or for regular monitoring of people with cardiovascular diseases. Despite the availability of portable blood pressure meters in the market, they are not regularly carried by people, creating a need for an ultra-portable measurement platform or device that can be easily carried and used at all times. One such device is the smartphone which, according to comScore survey is used by 26.2% of the US adult population. the mass production of these phones with built-in sensors and high computation power has created numerous possibilities for application development in different domains including biomedical. Motivated by this capability and their extensive usage, this thesis focuses on developing a blood pressure measurement platform on smartphones. Specifically, I developed a blood pressure measurement system on a smart phone using the built-in camera and a customized external microphone. the system consists of first obtaining heart beats using the microphone and finger pulse with the camera, and finally calculating the blood pressure using the recorded data. I developed techniques for finding the best location for obtaining the data, making the system usable by all categories of people. the proposed system resulted in accuracies between 90-100%, when compared to traditional blood pressure meters. the second part of this thesis presents a new system for remote heart beat monitoring using the smart phone. with the proposed system, heart beats can be transferred live by patients and monitored by physicians remotely for diagnosis. the proposed blood pressure measurement and remote monitoring systems will be able to facilitate information acquisition and decision making by the 9-1-1 operators.

Malaria was identified as one of the first infectious diseases recognised to spread through blood transfusion. Although transfusion acquired malaria is rare, nevertheless it can be lethal if it not diagnosed or treated immediately. It is a continuous challenge for the blood services to identify and exclude asymptomatic malaria infected donors, while minimising the exclusion of uninfected donors. The diagnostic tests in current use present certain limitations which include the use of inherently antigenically variable vaccine candidate proteins that have limited sensitivity against all human malaria species. Additionally, the blood transfusion services also require alternative methods for test and reagents that may be critical to the blood supply. There is therefore a scientific and an operational requirement to use alternative strategies to develop sensitive tests to all the species of malaria. In this study, we have used immunoproteomic approach to define conserved immunogenic malaria proteins. A total of 17 target P. falciparum proteins have been identified using cohorts of malaria immune sera from adults living in endemic areas, as well as by control sera from Europeans, who have never been exposed to malaria. The identified blood stage target antigens were cloned and expressed as recombinant proteins in a suitable bacterial system. In total, 15 target proteins have been expressed with 13 of them have been successfully purified. An ELISA-based system was developed, and the antigenicity of nine target antigens were evaluated using both non-malaria and malaria sera. Single antigen testing gave overall sensitivity of 50 - 84 %, with specificity consistently over 90%. Antigens such as Alpha tubulin and 26s protease showed promising immunogenicity, while Nucleosome assembly protein achieved 100% specificity. Further development of multiple antigens in an ELISA test will be required for continued evaluation of these antigens and the humoral immune response in malaria in general.

MSc (Med), Molecular Medicine and Haematology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / This study assessed the effect that certain logistical and methodological factors in the laboratory could have on influencing precision and accuracy of enumeration of CD4+ cells. The efficacy of a new blood stabiliser to extend the window of CD4 testing, was also evaluated. CD4+ counts were derived using the 2-colour Pan-leucogating, 4-colour TetraONE and MultiTEST/TruCount protocols on the EPICS-XL, FC-500 or FACSCalibur flow cytometers. Statistical analyses included the paired-t-test, Spearman’s correlation and Bland Altman comparisons. The results showed that the reliability of CD4+ count results was heavily dependent on how blood samples were handled prior to and after receipt into the laboratory and on how samples were processed and analysed. The factors, motion, operator pipetting and analysis skills, storage temperature, use of different protocols, different gating strategies and the use of different flow cytometers, were found to influence accurate and precise enumeration of CD4+ counts.

Body fluid identification is an important aspect of forensic work, as it can help identify a suspect and provide information about the kind of criminal activity that took place. Blood is one of the most commonly found body fluids at a crime scene. While visually it is easily distinguishable from other fluids, an accurate method is needed to differentiate between peripheral blood and menstrual blood. This differentiation could provide critical evidence regarding consent in an alleged sexual assault. The presence of peripheral blood indicates a traumatic cause, whereas menstrual blood points towards a natural bleeding cause. Accurate detection of menstrual blood can also help with the reconstruction or corroboration of events. Menstruation is the shedding of the internal lining of the uterus that occurs on a monthly basis in women of a reproductive age group. Menstrual blood is different in composition from the peripheral blood flowing through arteries and veins. It consists of a mixture of vaginal and cervical secretions, epithelial cells, debris from the endometrial lining, blood and fibrinolytic products. The fibrinolytic products are associated with the prevention of blood clot formation. Several methods have been researched and used for the detection of menstrual blood. These include microscopy, identification of the lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme, detection of fibrinolytic products, and profiling of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and micro RNA (miRNA). Even though menstrual blood is encountered at crime scenes, a reliable routine procedure for its identification has not yet been incorporated in forensic laboratories. In this study, four methods of detection of menstrual blood were evaluated and compared with each other regarding efficacy. These methods are the LGC ParaDNA® Body Fluid ID Test, SERATEC® PMB Test, DIMERTEST® Latex Assay and Microscopic methods using Lugol’s Iodine and Dane’s staining method. The LGC ParaDNA® Body Fluid ID Test identifies menstrual blood by detecting the mRNA marker MMP10. The SERATEC® PMB Test and DIMERTEST® Latex Assay both detect D-dimers present in menstrual blood. In addition, the SERATEC® PMB Test can detect the presence of peripheral blood. Microscopic identification is performed by identifying vaginal epithelial cells present in the menstrual blood. Menstrual blood samples were self-collected from six anonymous donors on three consecutive days of menses on either a cotton swatch or a cotton swab. Samples from the earliest day were tested in triplicate using the first three methods. For the fourth method, Lugol’s Iodine and Dane’s stain were applied to various cell types to test the utility of the stains. The ParaDNA® Body Fluid ID Test, SERATEC® PMB test and the DIMERTEST® Latex Assay all show promise for the detection of menstrual blood in forensic samples. None of the tests showed a cross reactivity to the other body fluids tested, but some ParaDNA® and DIMERTEST® samples yielded a false negative result for menstrual blood or peripheral blood. The SERATEC® PMB Test outperformed the other methods, both in sensitivity and accuracy. It was accurate for all samples, with a short run time and minimal training required. Microscopic detection of menstrual blood via detection of vaginal epithelial cells could not be accurately investigated as Dane’s staining method could not be reproduced and the presence of blood obscured the results for the Lugol’s method.