Apparatus and method of processing a subject-specific value based on beat-to-beat information

• US 10,016,141 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2016
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lev-El Diagnostics of Heart Diseases, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Lev-El Diagnostics of Heart Diseases, Ltd.
• Inventors: Levitan, Jacob, Kobo, Roi
• Primary Examiner(s): VOORHEES, CATHERINE M
• Application Number:
  US15/171,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20170112397A1
• Time in Patent Office: 768 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0245 by using sensing means generating electric signals, i.e. ECG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/349 Detecting specific parameters of the electrocardiograph cycle
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/363 Detecting tachycardia or bradycardia
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3621 for treating or preventing abnormally high heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3702 Physiological parameters A61N1/365 takes precedence; evoked response A61N1/371
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37258 Alerting the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3925 Monitoring; Protecting
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3962 in combination with another heart therapy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/39622 Pacing therapy
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices

Abstract

A system for measuring heart rate variability (HRV) comprising 3 sub-systems: a data collection sub-system, a data analysis sub-system, and an output sub-system. A patient is connected to a heart monitoring device such as an ECG and the data collection sub-system records the patients heart beats, and an ECG chart is produced from which the patient'"'"'s HRV value is derived by the data analysis sub-system. The present invention obtains the HRV value through calculation of a new parameter called relative density (RD). In accordance with the inventive method, data points are generated from the peak interval data of measured heart beats and the HRV relative density parameter (RD) is calculated by correlation between two subsets of data points.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor to monitor a subject-specific value of a parameter corresponding to a subject based on input beat-to-beat information corresponding to said subject, the processor configured to determine the subject-specific value by determining a quotient of first and second factor values, the processor configured to determine the first and second factor values based on a two-dimensional representation of said beat-to-beat information on a coordinate system including a first axis and a second axis, the processor configured to determine the first factor value based on points within a first axis-interval of said first axis, the processor configured to determine the second factor value based on points within a second axis-interval of said second axis,

wherein the processor is configured to determine a forthcoming episode of Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) based at least on a comparison between the subject-specific value and a predefined reference value, the processor configured to cause the apparatus to generate an output based on the determined forthcoming episode of VT.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to monitor the subject-specific value in real-time based on real-time beat-to-beat information corresponding to said subject.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said parameter comprises a dy/dx parameter, said subject-specific value comprises a subject-specific dy/dx value, and said reference value comprises a reference dy/dx value.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said reference dy/dx value is equal to or less than 2.3.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one factor value of said first and second factor values comprises a dx factor value and another factor value of said first and second factor values comprises a dy factor value, the dx factor value corresponding to an x-axis of a Cartesian coordinate system, and the dy factor value corresponding to a y-axis of the Cartesian coordinate system.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said dx factor value is based on a first number of points within an interval along said x-axis having a maximal number of points compared to other axis-intervals along said x-axis, and wherein said dy factor value is based on a second number of points within an interval along said y-axis having a maximal number of points compared to other axis-intervals along said y-axis.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said subject-specific value is equal to the quotient of said first and second factor values.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the output comprises an alert to indicate the forthcoming episode of VT.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to generate the output adapted to be provided to an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD).

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the output comprises an output configured to trigger an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) to generate one or more electric shocks.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine the forthcoming episode of VT based on identifying a predefined number of consecutive heartbeats with a pulse rate above a predefined pulse rate threshold.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD).

13. A method comprising:

monitoring, by a processing device, a subject-specific value of a parameter corresponding to a subject based on input beat-to-beat information corresponding to said subject by;

determining first and second factor values based on a two-dimensional representation of said beat-to-beat information on a coordinate system including a first axis and a second axis, determining the first and second factor values comprises determining the first factor value based on points within a first axis-interval of said first axis, and determining the second factor value based on points within a second axis-interval of said second axis; and

determining the subject-specific value by determining a quotient of the first and second factor values;

determining, by the processing device, a forthcoming episode of Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) based at least on a comparison between the subject-specific value and a predefined reference value; and

generating an output based on the determined forthcoming episode of VT.

14. The method of claim 13 comprising monitoring the subject-specific value in real-time based on real-time beat-to-beat information corresponding to said subject.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said parameter comprises a dy/dx parameter, said subject-specific value comprises a subject-specific dy/dx value, and said reference value comprises a reference dy/dx value.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the output comprises an alert to indicate the forthcoming episode of VT.

17. The method of claim 13 comprising generating the output adapted to be provided to an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD).

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the output comprises an output configured to trigger an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) to generate one or more electric shocks.

19. An Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) comprising:

a data collector to monitor a heartbeat of a subject and to collect beat-to-beat information corresponding to the subject;

a memory to store the beat-to-beat information corresponding to the subject; and

a processor to monitor a subject-specific value of a parameter corresponding to the subject based on the beat-to-beat information corresponding to said subject, the processor configured to determine the subject-specific value by determining a quotient of first and second factor values, the processor configured to determine the first and second factor values based on a two-dimensional representation of said beat-to-beat information on a coordinate system including a first axis and a second axis, the processor configured to determine the first factor value based on points within a first axis-interval of said first axis, the processor configured to determine the second factor value based on points within a second axis-interval of said second axis, the processor configured to determine a forthcoming episode of Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) based at least on a comparison between the subject-specific value and a predefined reference value, the processor configured to cause the ICD to generate an output based on the determined forthcoming episode of VT.

20. The ICD of claim 19, wherein said parameter comprises a dy/dx parameter, said subject-specific value comprises a subject-specific dy/dx value, and said reference value comprises a reference dy/dx value.