APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR ACOUSTIC DIAGNOSIS
First Claim
1. A diagnostic method comprising:
- sensing, by at least one sensor, acoustic energy emitted by blood flow in an artery of a patient;
producing, by said at least one sensor, at least one signal in response to said sensed acoustic energy;
validating said signal so as to determine whether at least a portion of said at least one signal is emitted by a heartbeat;
conditioning said at least one signal;
identifying a portion of said at least one conditioned signal;
performing a wavelet transform on said portion to produce a wavelet diagnostic parameter indicative of an attribute of said blood flow; and
outputting information relating to said attribute of said blood flow.
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Abstract
The apparatus and methods disclosed herein relate to diagnosis of disease through the detection of signals from portions of a body. The signals may be acoustic signals, which can be used to diagnose the presence, severity and/or location of occlusions in arteries, such as the coronary arteries. The signals may be detected through noninvasive methods such as, for example, passive reception. Such methods can avoid many of the problems associated with invasive angiogram and angioplasty procedures. The apparatus and methods described herein are not limited to use for diagnosing occlusions in the coronary arteries, but can be used for a wide variety of biomedical diagnosis in human and nonhuman animals.
24 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A diagnostic method comprising:
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sensing, by at least one sensor, acoustic energy emitted by blood flow in an artery of a patient;
producing, by said at least one sensor, at least one signal in response to said sensed acoustic energy;
validating said signal so as to determine whether at least a portion of said at least one signal is emitted by a heartbeat;
conditioning said at least one signal;
identifying a portion of said at least one conditioned signal;
performing a wavelet transform on said portion to produce a wavelet diagnostic parameter indicative of an attribute of said blood flow; and
outputting information relating to said attribute of said blood flow. - 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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Specification