Integrated, plural-signal, heart-signal sensor system and related data-presentation methodology

• US 20060100535A1
• Filed: 10/25/2005
• Published: 05/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inovise Medical, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Inovise Medical, Inc.
• Inventors: Bauer, Peter T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,589 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/513
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/339 Displays specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R

Abstract

A system and a related methodology for gathering, during a selected time span, and from a common anatomical site, time-contemporaneous ECG-electrical and heart-sound signals including (1) processing such signals to effect (a) time-based, related ECG fiducials, and (b) systolic and diastolic heart-sound indicators, and (2) creating a reportable data stream which communicates such effected fiducials and indicators in a manner whereby time-based relationships between them, and non-time-based differentiation between systolic and diastolic heart-sound indicators, are made visually discernible. The methodology of the invention may also be implemented strictly for the gathering and processing of heart sounds.

Claims

1. A patient-portable heart-condition monitoring and reporting system comprising

a single-site, anatomy-contact sensor having a sensing axis, and plural-parameter sensing elements collaboratively centered on said sensing axis, including an audio sensing element, and plural electrical-signal sensing elements distributed equi-angularly about said audio-sensing element, and

reporting, signal-processing circuit structure operatively connected to said sensing elements, operable, during a selected time interval, to collect from said sensing elements audio and electrical-ECG signals detected by said sensing elements under a circumstance with said device contacting a selected anatomical site on a person'"'"'s anatomy, and to create therefrom an output signal information-reporting stream constructed to generate an intuitively styled, time-based graphical, laddergram display keyed to selected ECG fiducials, and including an audio-event presentation which is datumed to a neutral axis, with systolically-related heart-sound information pictured as marks deployed on one side of this neutral axis, and diastolically-related heart-sound information deployed on the other side of the neutral axis.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said systolically-related and diastolically-related heart-sound marks are characterized with excursion heights measured relative to the mentioned neutral axis which are indicators of the intensities of the respective, associated heart sounds.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said output signal stream is further constructed to generate the mentioned laddergram display including additional heart-sound information marks having time-based widths whose sizes are related to frequency and/or intensity-content characteristics of respective, associated heart sounds.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein said output signal stream is further constructed to generate the mentioned laddergram display including additional heart-sound information marks having time-based widths whose sizes are related to frequency 10 and/or intensity-content characteristics of respective, associated heart sounds.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said sensing elements which detect electrical-ECG signals, and said operatively connected circuit structure, collaboratively produce in the output signal stream ECG vector information from which said keyed-to ECG fiducials are produced.

6. During a selected time span, gathering, from a common anatomical site, time-contemporaneous ECG-electrical and heart-sound signals,

processing such signals to effect (a) time-based, related ECG fiducials, and (b) systolic and diastolic heart-sound indicators, and

creating a reportable data stream which communicates such effected fiducials and indicators in a manner whereby time-based relationships between them, and non-time-based differentiation between systolic and diastolic heart-sound indicators, are made visually discernible.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the created data stream is constructed to communicate heart-sound visual indicators having heights and/or time-based widths whose sizes are selectively relatable to frequency and/or intensity-content characteristics of respective, associated heart sounds.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein non-time-based differentiation is accomplished in relation to a graphical axis, with systolic heart-sound indicators being exhibited as linear visual elements of one characteristic that depart from such axis, and diastolic heart-sound indicators being exhibited as linear visual elements of another characteristic that also depart from such axis.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the mentioned axis is an axis of positive-negative neutrality having opposite-polarity sides, and said systolic and diastolic visual elements are differentiated by positivism and negativism.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein systolic elements are associated with positivism, and diastolic elements are associated with negativism.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein said gathering is performed by plural, adjacent audio transducers.

12. During a selected time span, gathering heart-sound signals from a selected anatomical site,

processing such signals to effect time-based systolic and diastolic intuitive heart-sound surrogate indicators, and

creating a reportable data stream which communicates such indicators in a manner whereby time-based relationships between them, and non-time-based differentiation between such systolic and diastolic indicators, are made visually discernible.