Long term atrial fibrillation monitor
First Claim
1. A long-term monitor using scheduled short-term acquisition of data from a patient for determining whether an arrhythmia selected from the group consisting of at leas one of atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, a prolonged QT interval, atrial tachycardia, PVC'"'"'s, and ventricular pauses exists, the monitor comprising:
- (a) a first and second momentary contact electrode for momentarily receiving ECG signals from the patient;
(b) a detector circuit communicating with the first and second electrodes and executing a stored program to;
(i) receive the ECG signals from the patient touching the first and second momentary contact electrodes;
(ii) detect a likelihood that the patient is experiencing at least one of the arrhythmias; and
(iii) provide a first output signal to the patient if the likelihood is above a predetermined threshold and otherwise providing to the patient a second output signal indicating that the likelihood is not above the predetermined threshold.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A cardiac arrhythmia monitor provides electrodes to allow daily ECG measurements of a patient without cumbersome electrode connection to the patient. ECG data may be diagnosed by the monitor to indicate likelihood of an arrhythmia and an indication provided to the patient ECG data based on that indication may be forwarded to a physician or other healthcare professional for a review.
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Citations
91 Claims
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1. A long-term monitor using scheduled short-term acquisition of data from a patient for determining whether an arrhythmia selected from the group consisting of at leas one of atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, a prolonged QT interval, atrial tachycardia, PVC'"'"'s, and ventricular pauses exists, the monitor comprising:
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(a) a first and second momentary contact electrode for momentarily receiving ECG signals from the patient;
(b) a detector circuit communicating with the first and second electrodes and executing a stored program to;
(i) receive the ECG signals from the patient touching the first and second momentary contact electrodes;
(ii) detect a likelihood that the patient is experiencing at least one of the arrhythmias; and
(iii) provide a first output signal to the patient if the likelihood is above a predetermined threshold and otherwise providing to the patient a second output signal indicating that the likelihood is not above the predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of long term monitoring a patient for an arrhythmia selected from the group consisting of at leas one of atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, a prolonged QT interval, atrial tachycardia, PVC'"'"'s, and ventricular pauses using a monitor having a first and second momentary contact electrode sized to contact a patient, and incorporating a detector circuit communicating with the first and second momentary contact electrode, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) touching at least one of the momentary contact electrodes;
(b) at no more than a predetermined interval, collecting from the patient an ECG sample when the patient touches the momentary contact electrodes, wherein the data is collected for a short period of time substantially less than a daily interval;
(c) detect by the detector circuit a likelihood that the patient is experiencing at least one of the arrhythmias; and
(d) provide a first signal to the patient when the likelihood is above a predetermined threshold and otherwise providing to the patient a second output signal indicating that the likelihood is not above the predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A long-term monitor using scheduled short-term acquisition of data from a patient for detecting an arrhythmia, the monitor comprising:
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(a) a first and second momentary contact electrode for momentarily receiving ECG signals from the patient;
(b) a detector circuit communicating with the first and second electrodes and executing a stored program to;
(i) receive the ECG signals from the patient touching the first and second momentary contact electrodes;
(ii) detect a likelihood that the patient is experiencing the arrhythmia; and
(iii) provide a first output signal to the patient if the likelihood is above a predetermined threshold and otherwise providing to the patient a second output signal indicating that the likelihood is not above the predetermined threshold; and
(c) a cascading memory having a plurality storage locations configured to store received ECG signals, wherein an age identifier corresponds to each received ECG signal, and wherein newly received ECG signals are stored in the storage location whose data corresponds to the oldest age identifier. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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- 54. The monitor of claim 38, wherein the memory further includes a nonvolatile storage location configured to receive a historical baseline ECG sample, wherein the baseline ECG sample is compared to the received ECG sample to detect the arrhythmia.
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54-1. A method of long term monitoring a patient for an arrhythmia using a monitor having a first and second momentary contact electrode sized to contact a patient, and incorporating a detector circuit communicating with the first and second momentary contact electrode, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) touching at least one of the momentary contact electrodes;
(b) at no more than a predetermined interval, collecting from the patient an ECG sample when the patient touches the momentary contact electrodes, wherein the data is collected for a short period of time substantially less than a daily interval;
(c) detect by the detector circuit a likelihood that the patient is experiencing at least the arrhythmia;
(d) provide a first signal to the patient when the likelihood is above a predetermined threshold and otherwise providing to the patient a second output signal indicating that the likelihood is not above the predetermined threshold;
e) storing ECG data in a cascading memory having a plurality of memory storage locations;
f) assigning an age indicator to each stored ECG signal;
g) directing the stored ECG data into a memory slot currently storing ECG data having an oldest age indicator.
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71. A method of long term monitoring a patient for an arrhythmia using a monitor having a first and second momentary contact electrode sized to contact a patient, and incorporating a detector circuit communicating with the first and second momentary contact electrode, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) touching at least one of the momentary contact electrodes;
(b) at no more than a predetermined interval, collecting from the patient an ECG sample when the patient touches the momentary contact electrodes, wherein the data is collected for a short period of time substantially less than a daily interval;
(c) determining at the detector circuit whether the patient is experiencing the arrhythmia, including;
(i) using a first detection method to determine a first likelihood that the patient is experiencing the arrhythmia;
(ii) using a second detection method to determine a second likelihood that the patient is experiencing the arrhythmia; and
(d) provide a first output signal to the patient when at least one of the two likelihoods is above a predetermined threshold and otherwise providing to the patient a second output signal indicating that the likelihood is not above the predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85)
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86. A method of long term monitoring a patient for an arrhythmia using a monitor having a plurality of contact electrode sized to contact a patient, and incorporating a detector circuit communicating with the electrodes, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) placing the contact electrodes in contact with the patient;
(b) collecting from the patient at least two channels of ECG data on a continuous basis;
(c) determining at the detector circuit whether the patient is experiencing the arrhythmia, including;
(i) using a first detection method on a first channel of data to determine a first likelihood that the patient is experiencing the arrhythmia;
(ii) using a second detection method on a second channel of data to determine a second likelihood that the patient is experiencing the arrhythmia; and
(d) provide a first output signal to the patient when at least one of the two likelihoods is above a predetermined threshold and otherwise providing to the patient a second output signal indicating that the likelihood is not above the predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (87, 88, 89, 90, 91)
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Specification