Abstract
A new automatic controller of brain temperature was developed based on the inevitable conditions of its clinical use from the viewpoint of various kinds of feasibility, in particular, electric power consumption of less than 1,500W in ICU. The adaptive algorithm was employed to cope with individual time-varying characteristic change of patients. The controller under water-surface cooling hypothermia requires much power for the frequent regulation of the water temperature of cooling blankets. Thus, in this study, the power consumption of the controller was checked by several kinds of examinations involving the control simulation of brain temperature using a mannequin with thermal characteristics similar to that of adult patients.
The required accuracy of therapeutic brain hypothermia, i.e. control deviation within ±0.1C was experimentally confirmed using “root mean square of the control error”, despite the present controller consumes less energy comparing with the one in the case of our conventional controller, where it can still keeps remaining power margin more than 300W even in the full operation. Thereby, the clinically required water temperature was also confirmed within the limit of power supply, thus its practical application is highly expected with less physical burden of medical staff inclusive of more usability and more medical cost performance.
