Particle Swarm Algorithm-based External Programmer App for an Animal Vagal Nerve Stimulator.

There is an urgent demand to determine optimal stimulation parameters for vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) treating heart failure. This paper designed and implemented an external programmer app, which is to increase the optimization iteration efficiency of stimulation parameters for animal VNS experiments. The app integrates mainly seven functional modules. It controls the VNS stimulators by configuring stimulation parameters, receives experimental information measured during vagal stimulation, then adjusts stimulation parameters in real-time based on experimental data. In particular, in order to achieve dynamic optimization, particle swarm optimization algorithm is used for parameter optimization. The algorithm seeks the optimal destination through collective information sharing with the advantages of fast convergence speed, few parameters and easy to implement. Thus, the app provides a convenient and efficient tool for the further development of domestic VNS devices for the prevention and treatment of heart failure.