Pelvic floor disorders are caused by weakening or damage to the tissues lining the bottom of the abdominal cavity. These disorders affect nearly 1 in every 4 women in the United States and symptoms that drastically diminish a patient’s quality of life. Vaginal closure force is a good measure of pelvic health, but current vaginal dynamometers were not designed for the rigors of hospital reprocessing, often failing due to sensor degradation through repeated sterilization processes. In order to obtain measurements of vaginal closure force in a large study, we designed a vaginal dynamometer that utilizes a removable intra-abdominal sensor already in production for the study. The sensor’s existing data acquisition system was modified to transmit to a tablet allowing the user to view data in real-time. The new speculum design allowed a single sensor to measure vaginal closure force before being used to collect intra-abdominal pressure data in the same study visit. The measurements taken with the new speculum were similar to measurements taken with a previously reported vaginal dynamometer.

中文翻译：

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在临床试验中使用压力传感器记录最大阴道闭合力后的腹内压

盆底疾病是由腹腔底部内衬组织的削弱或损伤引起的。这些疾病影响美国近四分之一的女性，其症状会大大降低患者的生活质量。阴道闭合力是衡量骨盆健康的一个很好的指标，但目前的阴道测力计不是为严格的医院再处理而设计的，通常由于重复消毒过程导致传感器退化而失败。为了在一项大型研究中获得阴道闭合力的测量值，我们设计了一种阴道测力计，该测力计利用已为研究生产的可拆卸腹内传感器。传感器现有的数据采集系统被修改为传输到平板电脑，允许用户实时查看数据。新的窥器设计允许单个传感器在用于收集同一研究访问中的腹内压数据之前测量阴道闭合力。使用新窥器进行的测量类似于使用先前报道的阴道测力计进行的测量。