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Author
Navarro Pons, Oriol
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Abstract
The human body is made up of systems that must work in harmony in order to survive and lead a full life. Each of these systems handles a specific task. The lymphatic system is part of this group of systems and is responsible for draining the interstitial fluid that forms between cells, and redirecting it to the bloodstream. It must also carry out an important task in terms of the immune response of the body, since it is in the lymph nodes, where antibodies are released to fight foreign substances and pathogenic microorganisms. For these reasons the lymphatic system is of vital importance to the human body.
Unfortunately, it is possible that it is affected and damaged, either by external causes, such as surgery, or by hereditary genetic reasons. When this happens, the system is not able to drain the filtered interstitial fluid into the intercellular space and as a consequence there is an abnormal accumulation of this. This pathology is known by the name of lymphedema and, in the long run, it produces inflammation in the affected area, which can have serious health consequences.For this reason, it is essential that medical consultations that treat this type of disease have measuring equipment that allows it to be detected in its primary stages, so that we can act accordingly. The equipment currently used, although providing qualitative information on the pathology, does not allow the quantitative amount of accumulated interstitial fluid to be measured quantitatively. From this need is born the soul of this project. This work presents the creation of an algorithm that, through the variables obtained with an OECP (Open Ended Coaxial Probe) device, allows to obtain values of the thickness of the layer of accumulated lymph fluid, present in patients with lymphedema. To get to this point an analysis of the disease has been performed as well as a state of the art study of the current diagnostic equipment to determine what was the best starting point, so that the new device economical, fast, easy to use, non-invasive in terms of patient health and that you get quantitative results. Subsequently, a study was performed on the operation on which both the device and the algorithm would be based, and the algorithm in question was developed using a simulated experimental analysis. Finally, a graphical user interface has been designed where, by introducing the variable permittivity measurements, the thickness of the accumulated lymphatic fluid layer is obtained by means of the algorithm.
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