鑲嵌於止鼾牙套之舌壓感測陣列

Abstract

阻塞性睡眠呼吸中止症是由上呼吸道的阻塞所造成，在近年來盛行率有不斷上升的趨勢。下顎推進裝置等具有止鼾功能的牙套，是對於阻塞性睡眠呼吸中止症極具潛力的治療方式之一。本研究提出一鑲嵌於止鼾牙套內部之壓力感測陣。此裝置目的為透過舌頭壓力的量測得知舌頭活動之訊息以幫助阻塞性睡眠呼吸中止症的研究或是治療。本研究提出之可撓性壓力感測陣列由具有指叉型電極陣列之軟性電路版以及導電高分子層組成。導電高分子的表面具有微圓頂結構，能夠有效地提升壓力感測的靈敏度以及大幅縮短反應時間。量測結果顯示干擾現象在所提出之陣列中並不顯著。在浸入水中達100小時候感測陣列的靈敏度幾乎沒有發生變化。實驗結果顯示所提出之裝置能夠有效地感測並追蹤舌頭壓力的大小以及分布。

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which is caused by obstructions of the upper airway, is a syndrome with rising prevalence. Mandibular advancement devices (MAD) are oral appliances for potential treatment of OSA. This work proposes a highly-sensitive pressure sensing array embedded in a MAD. The device aims to measure tongue pressure distribution in order gain information about tongue activity when studying or treating OSA. The flexible sensing array consists of an interdigital electrode pair array assembled with conductive polymer films. The surfaces of the conductive polymer films were patterned with microdomed structures, which effectively increases the sensitivity and reduces the pressure sensing response time. The measured results also show that the crosstalk effect between the sensing elements of the array was negligible. In addition, the sensitivity of the sensing array barely changed after the device was submerged in water for up to 100 h. Measurement results of tongue pressure performed in the Sleeping Center of the National Taiwan University Hospital were also presented.