Oa. Lindahl et S. Omata, IMPRESSION TECHNIQUE FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF EDEMA - COMPARISON WITH A NEW TACTILE SENSOR THAT MEASURES PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES OF TISSUE, Medical & biological engineering & computing, 33(1), 1995, pp. 27-32
To measure tissue oedema, the impression technique and a new tactile s
ensor technique are compared and evaluated in a silicone rubber model
and in an in vivo rat testis model. The principles of the two techniqu
es differ in that the impression technique evaluates interstitial flui
d flow FT and peak force F(O) when tissue is compressed, whereas the t
actile sensor evaluates the hardness/softness or change in resonance f
requency Delta f when a vibrating rod is attached to tissue. Both tech
niques can detect changes in silicone hardness/softness or in hormone-
induced changes of-testis interstitial fluid. Although both F(O) and F
T are significantly correlated to Delta f in the experiments, it is co
ncluded that F(O) is the most promising impression parameter to give v
aluable information about the hardness of living tissue as compared wi
th Delta f. The comparison indicates that the impression technique is
the most easy to interpret, non-invasive tool to assess tissue oedema
so far developed.