Apparatus and method for non-invasive diagnosing of coronary artery disease

• US 20050038360A1
• Filed: 04/23/2004
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MedScanSonics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MedScanSonics, Inc.
• Inventors: Shertukde, Rekha, Shertukde, Hemchandra
• Granted Patent: US 7,291,111 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/586
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02007 Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7225 Details of analog processing, e.g. isolation amplifier, gain or sensitivity adjustment, filtering, baseline or drift compensation A61B5/30, A61B5/316 take precedence; transformers for specific applications H01F38/00; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/726 using Wavelet transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R

Abstract

A non-invasive diagnostic tool and method for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery, the diagnostic tool including a signal processor adapted to receive signals corresponding to a heart beat from a plurality of acoustic sensors attached to the chest of a patient. The signal processor is programmed to identify a diastolic portion of the signals for a plurality of heartbeats and conduct a wavelet transform analysis on the diastolic signals for determining the existence of, as well as the severity and the location of, an obstruction in a coronary artery of the patient.

Claims

1. A diagnostic tool for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery, the diagnostic tool comprising:

a signal processor adapted to receive signals corresponding to a heart beat from a plurality of acoustic sensors attached to the chest of a patient,

the signal processor being programmed to, identify a diastolic portion of the signals for a plurality of heartbeats and determine at least one of the severity and the location of an obstruction in a coronary artery relative to a location of at least one of the acoustic sensors.

2. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 further comprising a display coupled to the signal processor for displaying data indicative of the results of the determination.

3. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 further comprising a user interface coupled to the signal processor.

4. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 further comprising at least one analog to digital converter coupled to the signal processor and adapted to receive signals from the plurality of acoustic sensors and process the signals including at least one of digitizing, synchronizing and multiplexing the signals, and transmitting the processed signals to the signal processor.

5. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 wherein the signal processor is a digital signal processor.

6. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 wherein the signal processor is programmed to conduct a wavelet transform on the signals, the wavelet transform providing at least one of a frequency analysis and a time domain analysis for the signals.

7. The diagnostic tool according to claim 4 further comprising at least one amplifier coupled to the analog to digital converter and adapted to receive the signals from the acoustic sensors and amplify the signals and transmit the amplified signals to the analog to digital converter.

8. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 further comprising an external bus coupled to the signal processor for coupling an external device to the signal processor.

9. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 further comprising non-volatile memory for initialization of the signal processor.

10. The diagnostic tool according to claim 1 wherein the diagnostic tool is portable.

11. A method for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery of a patient, the method comprising the steps of:

attaching a plurality of acoustic sensors to the chest of a patient;

receiving a signal from each of the plurality of acoustic sensors, the signals representing a plurality of heartbeats of the patient;

establishing a threshold amplitude and a frequency range for identifying the signals to be evaluated;

processing the signals for determining at least one of the severity of an obstruction in a coronary artery and a location of the obstruction relative to the locations of the plurality of acoustic sensors.

12. The method for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery of a patient according to claim 11 wherein the step of processing further comprises at least one of amplifying, digitizing, synchronizing and multiplexing the signals.

13. The method for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery of a patient according to claim 11 wherein the step of processing further comprises identifying the existence of an amplitude of the signals exceeding the established threshold amplitude that is within the established frequency range.

14. The method for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery of a patient according to claim 11 wherein the step of processing further comprises conducting a wavelet transform analysis on at least two of the signals received from the plurality of acoustic sensors, the wavelet transform analysis providing at least one of a time domain analysis and a frequency analysis.

15. The method for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery of a patient according to claim 11 further comprising a step of displaying at least one of a location of the obstruction relative to a location of at least one of the plurality of acoustic sensors and an indicator representing the severity of the obstruction.

16. The method for detecting an obstruction in a coronary artery of a patient according to claim 11 wherein the step of attaching a plurality of acoustic sensors to the chest of a patient includes attaching the acoustic sensors at known locations relative to a reference point identified on the patient'"'"'s chest wherein the location of the obstruction is identified relative to the locations of the acoustic sensors.