| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SAGAWA Koichi Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University Research Associate, 大学院・情報科学研究科, 助手 (30272016)
OHBA Kotaro Dept.of Mechanical Engineering, Tohoku University Research Associate, 工学部, 助手 (70221835)
INOOKA Hikaru Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University Professor, 大学院・情報科学研究科, 教授 (20006191)
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| Research Abstract |
Recently in Japan, a great deal of attention have been paid to the patient's death during ambulance transport before arriving at hospital, called DOA (Dead On Arrival). We consider that a deteriorating factor of the patient's condition during ambulance transport is a relatively poor ride of the ambulance compared with a private car characterized by : vibration, acceleration, and deceleration. To solve the problem, many researches have been made on the design of the stretcher based on the isolation of the ambulance vibration.
We have, however, found that the blood pressure of human laying on a stretcher varies during a brake causing foot-to-head acceleration. The blood pressure variation (BPV) especially appears when the ambulance runs through a zigzag or narrow road ; the accelerations or decelerations are repeatedly performed. As the enforced change of the blood pressure may lead to deterioration of patient's condition, it is necessary to use a stretcher to decrease the effect of the foot-to-head acceleration and to reduce the BPV during transport. We have, therefore, worked on the design of the ambulance stretcher from a slightly defferent angle, since no such studies have been done on designing of a stretcher which reduces the BPV.In 1994, we investigated the effect of an actively controlled stretcher (ACS) on the reduction of the BPV by simulation analysis. The simulation results suggest that the ACS can effectively decrease the BPV and comfortably transport the patient. In 1995, we designed an ACS for an ambulance to reduce patient's blood pressure variation, and performed emergency brake tests using the ACS.The experimental results showed that the ACS can effectively decrease the foot-to-head acceleration by continuously controlling the tilying angle of the stretcher under gravity according to back-to-front acceleration of the running ambulance.
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