Developing a self-powered and directly digitized piezoelectric micro sensor for monitoring blood pressure change inside brain aneurysm after endovascular treatment: A feasibility study

Pathologies in blood vessels are categorized under two major classes: blockage and bleeding. Bleeding is mainly caused by aneurysm. The aneurysm can grow and become so thin that it leaks or ruptures, causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). With the available endovascular treatment options, studies show that the post procedural complication rate is 3% leading to delayed bleeding. The reason behind this rupture is still unclear. One of the main theories behind this rupture is: no change in the pressure within the aneurysm. Our research aims at investigating this rupture problem by designing a wireless, self-powered, passively operated micro (<; 1cm) PolyVinyliDene Fluoride (PVDF) pressure sensor that can be deployed within the aneurysm, during flow diverting endovascular treatment that is very sensitive to small changes in pressure. This work presents the first step of our research, including the concept of the sensing system, a multi-striped piezoelectric PVDF pressure sensor design, its modeling, and preliminary simulation and experimental results. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed sensing structure.