Dr. George Wodicka, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Elect. & Comp. Eng. at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. |
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Acoustic Modeling of Tracheal Sounds |
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| The analysis of breathing sounds measured over the extrathoracic trachea has the potential to allow for noninvasive monitoring of respiratory tract obstructions. Key to the development of such techniques is a quantitative understanding of how such tracheal sounds are related to the underlying tract anatomy and airflow. An acoustic model, analogous to an electrical transmission line, was developed that accounts for airway shape, wall properties, branching, and glottal aperture, as well as inherent turbulent sound sources due to airflow. Model predictions were compared to tracheal sounds measured on healthy adult subjects at various airflows. Despite the inherent complexity of the respiratory tract and its acoustic properties, the model predicts many of its key acoustic features including resonance locations and airflow dependence. The model also highlights the importance of vocal tract shape and glottal aperture in spectral feature determination. This spatially distributed modeling approach provides some of the first insights into the potential utility of tracheal sounds to monitor specific anatomic or physiologic changes of the respiratory tract. |
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Biography George R. Wodicka is Professor and Head of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. He is also Co-Director of the Bindley Bioscience Center at Purdue University, and Chairman of the Joint Purdue University - Indiana University Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program. Professor Wodicka was born on June 11, 1960 in Malverne, New York. After graduating from Malverne High School in 1978, he attended The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, where he received the B.E.S. degree in biomedical engineering with both departmental and university honors in 1982. He was then awarded a fellowship from the Raytheon Company to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Cambridge, Massachusetts, and received the S.M. degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1985 and the Ph.D. degree in medical engineering in 1989. From 1987 to 1989 he was a graduate instructor in the Harvard-M.I.T. Division of Health Sciences and Technology where he taught the essentials of respiratory pathophysiology to Harvard Medical and M.I.T. graduate students. Upon completion of his doctoral studies, Professor Wodicka received the Harvard-M.I.T. graduate award in medical engineering for academic excellence. Since joining the Purdue faculty in 1989, Professor Wodicka has received the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Award in 1991, the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Teacher Award in 1993 and again in 1997, the Honeywell Excellence in Teaching Award in 1994, the A.A. Potter Outstanding Teaching Award in 1997, and the D.D. Ewing Outstanding Teacher Award in 2000. Professor Wodicka conducts an active research program in the area of biomedical acoustics - the application of sonic technologies toward the solution of problems in clinical medicine. His current efforts include the design of acoustic guidance systems for clinical catheters and tubes, and the development of acoustic biosensors to quantify airway obstruction. Numerous government agencies, foundations, and medical device corporations have supported his research program. Professor Wodicka is the recipient of a Young Investigator Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation, and is a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu, and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. |