ANALYSIS OF HEART RATE VARIABILITY DATA IN ANIMALS FOR HEALTH CONDITIONS ASSESSMENT

• US 20080004539A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Christine Ross
• Original Assignee: Christine Ross
• Inventors: Ross, Christine
• Granted Patent: US 8,412,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/509
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/40 Animals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00

Abstract

Assessing health condition of an animal under study includes receiving heart rate information of the animal under study and performing heart rate variability (HRV) analysis on the received heart rate information for determining autonomic dynamics of the animal under study with respect to a species of which the animal under study is a member, wherein the HRV analysis relates to time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data of the received heart rate information that are evaluated with respect to physiological states and corresponding health condition for the time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data for the species of the animal under study.

Claims

1. A method of assessing health condition of an animal under study, the method comprising:

receiving heart rate information from the animal under study over a wireless communication link until sufficient data has been collected for reliable health condition assessment;

performing heart rate variability (HRV) analysis on the received heart rate information for determining autonomic dynamics of the animal under study with respect to a species of which the animal under study is a member, wherein the HRV analysis relates to time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data of the received heart rate information that are evaluated with respect to physiological states and corresponding health condition for the time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data for the species of the animal under study;

generating a health condition report for the animal under study based on the determined autonomic dynamics.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the received heart rate information includes data relating to heart rate and heart interbeat interval (IBI) of the animal under study.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further including:

receiving the heart rate information from the animal under study when the animal is in a known healthy condition;

storing the data at a data store for later comparison.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further including:

receiving heart rate information that comprises data sufficient to establish a baseline of heart rate variability data for one or more animals similar to the animal under study who are in a known healthy condition.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein performing heart rate variability analysis comprises:

determining standard deviation data for variation between heart beats of the received heart rate information;

determining high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) components of the received heart rate information; and

determining a plot of the HF and LF components and identifying quadrants of the plot that correspond to predetermined health condition states;

determining a value for total power output of the animal under study.

6. The method as defined in claim 5, further including:

indicating an unhealthy condition of the animal under study if at least one data point of the plot exceeds a predetermined value.

7. The method as defined in claim 5, wherein the health condition report includes a representation of a log-log plot of the HF and LF components.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein generating a health condition report comprises:

transmitting a health condition signal over a wireless communication link to a receiving device.

9. The method as defined in claim 8, wherein the receiving device comprises a processing device that communicates with a computer network.

10. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the receiving device comprises a portable processing device with an integral display that indicates the health condition signal.

11. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein performing heart rate variability analysis comprises:

transmitting the received heart rate information to a network processor;

comparing the received heart rate information at the network processor against corresponding heart rate information for known healthy condition animal; and

determining health condition of the animal under study in response to the comparison.

12. A system for assessing health condition of an animal under study, the system comprising:

a data collection unit that receives heart rate information from the animal under study until sufficient data has been collected for reliable health condition assessment;

a data analysis unit that processes the received heart rate information and performs heart rate variability (HRV) analysis on the received heart rate information for determining autonomic dynamics of the animal under study with respect to a species of which the animal under study is a member, wherein the HRV analysis relates to time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data of the received heart rate information that are evaluated with respect to physiological states and corresponding health condition for the time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data for the species of the animal under study;

a data reporting unit that generates a health condition report for the animal under study based on the determined autonomic dynamics.

13. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein the received heart rate information includes data relating to heart rate and heart interbeat interval (IBI) of the animal under study.

14. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein the data collection unit receives heart rate information from the animal under study when the animal is in a known healthy condition.

15. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein the received heart rate information comprises data sufficient to establish a baseline of heart rate variability data for one or more animals similar to the animal under study who are in a known healthy condition.

16. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein the data analysis unit performs heart rate variability analysis by determining standard deviation data for variation between heart beats of the received heart rate information, determining high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) components of the received heart rate information, and determining a plot of the HF and LF components and identifying quadrants of the plot that correspond to predetermined health condition states.

17. The system as defined in claim 16, wherein the data reporting unit indicates an unhealthy condition of the animal under study if at least one data point of the plot exceeds a predetermined value.

18. The system as defined in claim 16, wherein the health condition report includes a representation of a log-log plot of the HF and LF components.

19. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein the health condition report comprises a health condition signal transmitted over a wireless communication link to a receiving device.

20. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the receiving device comprises a processing device that communicates with a computer network.

21. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the receiving device comprises a portable processing device with an integral display that indicates the health condition signal.

22. The system as defined in claim 12, further including:

a wireless communication interface that receives heart rate information from the animal under study over a wireless communication link and provides the heart rate information to the data collection unit.

23. The system as defined in claim 12, further including:

a network processor that receives the heart rate variability analysis and compares the received heart rate information against corresponding heart rate variability data for known healthy condition animal and determines health condition of the animal under study in accordance with the comparison.

24. A method of assessing health condition of an animal under study, the method comprising:

receiving heart rate information from the animal under study over a wireless communication link until sufficient data has been collected for reliable health condition assessment of the animal under study;

transmitting the received heart rate information to a network processor;

comparing the received heart rate information at the network processor against corresponding heart rate information for known healthy condition animal;

determining health condition of the animal under study in response to the comparison;

generating a health condition report for the animal under study based on the determined autonomic dynamics.

25. The method as defined in claim 24, wherein the received heart rate information includes data relating to heart rate and heart interbeat interval (IBI) of the animal under study.

26. The method as defined in claim 24, wherein determining health condition comprises:

determining standard deviation data for variation between heart beats of the received heart rate variability data;

determining high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) components of the received heart rate variability data;

determining a log-log plot of the HF and LF components and identifying quadrants of the plot that correspond to predetermined health condition states;

and wherein generating a health condition report comprises indicating an unhealthy condition of the animal under study if at least one data point of the log-log plot exceeds a predetermined value.

27. The method as defined in claim 26, wherein determining health condition further includes:

determining total power output of the animal under study.

28. An apparatus for processing heart rate information of an animal under study, the apparatus comprising a processor that receives heart rate information of the animal under study and performs heart rate variability (HRV) analysis on the received heart rate information for determining autonomic dynamics of the animal under study with respect to a species of which the animal under study is a member, wherein the HRV analysis relates to time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data of the received heart rate information that are evaluated with respect to physiological states and corresponding health condition for the time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data for the species of the animal under study.

29. The apparatus as defined in claim 28, wherein the apparatus receives the heart rate information from a data collection unit.

30. The apparatus as defined in claim 29, wherein the data collection unit receives output comprising the heart rate information from a plurality of sensors in physical, contact with the animal under study via wireless communication link.