| Compression therapy is the core treatment for venous and lymphatic disorders and is commonly administered through medical compression hosiery, pneumatic pumps, and compression bandages. While the medical community agrees on compression therapy's efficacy, there is no approved testing standard in the US, with manufacturers required to adopt testing standards from Europe. There is also a lack of consensus for pressure classifications, which can be problematic as it can lead to confusion in prescribing treatment, the compression therapy product, and ultimately impact the patient and health. Various devices are used for measuring the pressure applied by a compression textile, and these work either indirectly by gathering force measurements or directly, by observing the pressure profile as it is worn on a patient. These methods are often associated with compression hosiery and not bandages.;This study examines implementing a newly developed indirect testing technique in order to characterize the relationship between tensile properties and pressure profiles for commonly used bandage wrap systems and hosiery samples. Two separate direct testing techniques were also performed -- the first using participants' legs to measure interface pressure with the PicoPress Compression Measuring System, a traditional and popular method, and the second test used a set of specially designed tubes with a sensor foot built into the surface known as the CRIM Pressure System. Pressure data was collected from all three testing techniques using three different circumferences and analyzed to show the correlation between each measuring system. Results showed that the indirect testing approach presented good correlation between rigidity and pressure profiles, while a comparison of the calculated data with direct PicoPress pressure readings indicated that some samples had good correlation, but others did not. PicoPress and CRIM Pressure System values showed a better correlation between readings, but still varied for some sampling. From this dissertation research, it was concluded that rigidity and pressure profiles of compression textiles are directly related, and that a range of pressure values can be calculated using tensile properties. Also, the CRIM Pressure System results are encouraging in establishing a new direct measuring approach. |
