The Millar Instruments MPVS Ultra Pressure Volume System measures pressures, impedances and ECG from an intracardiac catheter. It converts these signals to diagnostic pressure volume (PV) loop data and other hemodynamic parameters that are used by researchers for drug development or for assessment of cardiovascular functions. It has programmable measurement features that allow it to be used on a wide range of animal models from mice to pigs.
Cooper Consulting Service worked closely with the Millar Instruments technical and marketing team in the design and development of this product from initial concept to production documentation. CCS performed the following hardware and software design functions:
- Documentation
- Developed system hardware requirements documentation
- Developed system configurator software requirements documentation
- Wrote software and hardware design specifications
- Wrote verification and validation specification and test report
- Analyzed conductance measurement accuracy and wrote evaluation reports
- Wrote hardware design document for the system
- Analog Hardware Design
- Designed (7) channel 20kHz impedance measurement circuitry with selectable gain
- Designed circutry for selecting electrode connections and volume calibration components for impedance measurements
- Designed EMC protection for sensitive electrode inputs
- Designed dual pressure sensor interface circuitry
- Designed ECG amplifier with 1 mV calibration and with electrode inputs selectable from catheter or surface electrodes.
- Designed isolation amplifiers for (7) impedance signals, (2) pressure signals and (1) ECG
- Designed absolute value circuit and analog divider circuit to convert (7) impedance signals to conductance signals
- Designed filters and output drivers for all signals.
- Designed interface for 56 digital control lines and digital isolation for (40) of the control lines
- Hardware Design
- Selected AC/DC power supply and designed voltage regulators and filters for system power
- Designed pc board layout with electrical isolation for all signal channels
- Designed system enclosure and labels
- Software Design
- Designed configurator software and integrated with hardware
- Designed graphical user interface (GUI) for operator selection of PV catheter and electrode configuration for volume measurements
- Developed evaluation protocol and tested software on multiple PC configurations and Windows operating systems.
- Production Support
- Designed system test fixtures and calibration procedures
- Wrote production test procedure for system
- Provided software support to resolve transition from Windows XP to Windows 7 and 8.