Method and Apparatus For Venipuncture Site Location
First Claim
1. A method for locating a vein within organism tissue, the method comprising:
- directing an incident energy beam toward the organism tissue, at least a portion of the incident energy beam reflecting from structures within the organism tissue as a reflected energy beam;
moving the incident energy beam across a scan region of the organism tissue a first time and detecting a corresponding first reflected energy beam, thereby generating a first signal representative of at least one characteristic of the first reflected energy beam;
identifying an extremum of the first signal and determining a threshold level based on the identified extremum;
moving the incident energy beam across the scan region a second time and detecting a corresponding second reflected energy beam, thereby generating a second signal representative of at least one characteristic of the second reflected energy beam; and
while moving the incident energy beam across the scan region the second time, locating a vein on the basis of comparing the second signal to the threshold level.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A vein locator comprises an energy source for directing incident energy toward organism tissue. At least a portion of the incident energy is reflected from structures within the organism tissue as reflected energy. The vein locator comprises an energy detector connected to detect energy reflected from the organism tissue. The incident energy is moved across a scan region a first time and the energy detector produces a corresponding first signal representative of at least one characteristic of the first reflected energy. A controller receives the first signal, identifies an extremum in the first signal and determines a threshold level based on the identified extremum. The incident energy is then moved across the scan region a second time and the energy detector produces a corresponding second signal representative of at least one characteristic of the second reflected energy. The controller compares the second signal to the threshold level to determine whether a current location of the incident beam represents a location of a vein.
27 Citations
87 Claims
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1. A method for locating a vein within organism tissue, the method comprising:
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directing an incident energy beam toward the organism tissue, at least a portion of the incident energy beam reflecting from structures within the organism tissue as a reflected energy beam; moving the incident energy beam across a scan region of the organism tissue a first time and detecting a corresponding first reflected energy beam, thereby generating a first signal representative of at least one characteristic of the first reflected energy beam; identifying an extremum of the first signal and determining a threshold level based on the identified extremum; moving the incident energy beam across the scan region a second time and detecting a corresponding second reflected energy beam, thereby generating a second signal representative of at least one characteristic of the second reflected energy beam; and while moving the incident energy beam across the scan region the second time, locating a vein on the basis of comparing the second signal to the threshold level. - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24, 28, 31, 32, 35, 36, 40, 45)
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3. (canceled)
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5. (canceled)
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7. (canceled)
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10-16. -16. (canceled)
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19. (canceled)
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25-27. -27. (canceled)
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29. (canceled)
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30. (canceled)
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33. (canceled)
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34. (canceled)
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37-39. -39. (canceled)
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41-44. -44. (canceled)
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46-50. -50. (canceled)
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51. A vein locator comprising:
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a transmitter for directing an incident energy beam toward organism tissue, at least a portion of the incident energy beam reflecting from structures within the organism tissue as a reflected energy beam; a receiver, the receiver connected to detect a first reflected energy beam when the incident energy beam is moved across a scan region a first time and configured to produce a corresponding first signal representative of at least one characteristic of the first reflected energy beam, the receiver connected to detect a second reflected energy beam when the incident energy beam is moved across the scan region a second time and configured to produce a corresponding second signal representative of at least one characteristic of the second reflected energy beam; and a controller connected to receive the first and second signals from the receiver and configured to; identify an extremum of the first signal and determine a threshold level based on the identified extremum; and compare the second signal to the threshold level while the incident energy beam is being moved across the scan region the second time to locate a vein. - View Dependent Claims (52, 54, 56, 57, 61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 71, 74, 75, 77, 78, 82)
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53. (canceled)
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55. (canceled)
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58-60. -60. (canceled)
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63. (canceled)
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66. (canceled)
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68-70. -70. (canceled)
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72. (canceled)
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79-81. -81. (canceled)
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83-85. -85. (canceled)
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86. A vein locator according to claim h 51 wherein the threshold level comprises a threshold range extending above and below the identified extremum and wherein the controller is configured to compare the second signal to the threshold level by:
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(a) sampling and digitizing the second signal for a peak detect timer period to obtain a second digital signal; (b) obtaining a maximum value of the second digital signal; (c) determining whether the maximum value of the second digital signal falls within the threshold range; and (d) repeating procedures (a), (b) and (c) while the incident energy beam is moved across the scan region the second time.
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87-91. -91. (canceled)
Specification