This award will support collaborative research in bioengineer- ing between Dr. Vernon Newhouse, Drexel University, and two European investigators: Dr. Dominique Cathignol, National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Lyons, France and Dr. Piero Tortoli, Electrical Engineering Department, University of Florence, Italy. The objective of the project is to find more accurate methods of blood-flow measurement. Dr. Newhouse and his research group have discovered a new method of blood-flow measurement, in which the transducer is held at right angles to the blood-flow. But tests are required to perfect this method and to shed more light on the interpretation of data. The laboratory in Florence has Doppler systems whose parameters can be adjusted optimally for this transverse Doppler method. Such systems are not available commercially. Dr. Tortoli and his associates are willing to test this method in simulated blood-flow and living subjects. In order to develop the Transverse Doppler method further, the US investigator has developed new transducer designs which will make it possible to separate flow parameters, such as turbulence and mean flow velocity. The research group in Lyons headed by Dr. Cathignol will assist Dr. Vernon to construct these new transducer shapes and test them with the instrumentation in his laboratory, which is highly sophisti- cated and not generally available in the US.
