Development of a polygraph graphical user interface for acquisition of physiological signals

Abstract

The focus of this work lies on the development of software designed to interface with a medical device that captures physiological signals. Thus, the software must be capable of handling high data rates, providing a real time display of all the information on the screen and storing this information using a suitable format for later analysis. This work was performed at CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, France) during a time period of six months. The project in which this work is inserted is driven by SORIN C.R.M. and it has as its main goal the development of new implantable electronic devices destined to apply the use of neurostimulation in pathologies related to the cardiac insufficiency. The laboratory LE2S, where the medical device and the software here presented were developed, is concerned with demonstrating that it is possible to find cardiac information in signals that are captured on the periphery of the vagus nerve (the name electroneurogram is attributed to this specific signal). To take advantage of the information that this signal carries, which has very weak amplitude (some microvolts), it is necessary to combine other signals along with the electroneurogram (e.g. electrocardiogram, electromyogram and arterial pressure). Therefore, the laboratory needed software capable of configuring the device responsible for collecting these signals (this device is often referred as NeuroPXI system, or sometimes BioMEA, which is the previous version of the device), storing all the information acquired during an experiment and displaying it on the screen.