METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIC EVOKED POTENTIALS ASSESSMENT

• US 20110224570A1
• Filed: 03/10/2010
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brainscope SPV LLC
• Original Assignee: Brainscope Company Inc.
• Inventors: Causevic, Elvir
• Granted Patent: US 8,700,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/544
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/378 Visual stimuli
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/38 Acoustic or auditory stimuli
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/726 using Wavelet transforms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/14 by matching peak patterns

Abstract

Systems and methods for assessing a patient'"'"'s neurologic state based on auditory evoked responses are provided.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring brain electrical activity, comprising:

a set of electrodes;

at least one auditory stimulus generator;

a detection system operatively connected to the set of electrodes and configured to receive electrical signals detected by the electrodes after production of an auditory stimulus by the stimulus generator, the electrical signals representing an auditory evoked response; and

a processor circuit including electrical circuitry configured to perform the steps of;

removing artifact noise from the signal;

performing a non-linear denoising step on the signal;

performing a non-linear transform on the signal;

producing a set of non-linear features related to the patient'"'"'s auditory brain stem response; and

comparing the set of non-linear features to one or more feature sets stored in a storage system and determining if the non-linear features are indicative of an abnormal neurologic state.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein linear computation of averaging is used, and linear features are calculated.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage system includes a database of normal values for auditory evoked response data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage system includes a database of auditory evoked response data for a group of patients, and the processor circuit is configured to compare the set of non-linear features to one or more feature sets of the group of patients and to classify the patient'"'"'s neurologic state based on the comparison.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the patient'"'"'s neurologic state is classified based on a similarity between one or more non-linear features of the patient'"'"'s auditory evoked response and one or more non-linear features of at least one other patient having a known neurologic state.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage system includes a database of prior auditory evoked response measurements for the same patient, and the processor circuit is configured to compare the set of non-linear features to one or more feature sets stored from the prior measurements and determine if any changes have occurred.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more features includes the timing of one or more peaks in an auditory evoked response.

8. The system of claim 1, further including a communication device configured to automatically generate a signal representing the patient'"'"'s neurologic state.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the communication system includes a visual display indicating a deviation from a baseline measurement.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the communication system includes a visual display indicating a deviation from a baseline measurement indicative of intracranial pressure for a patient.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the electrode set is positioned on a head band and includes at least two electrodes positioned on the head band to allow detection of auditory evoked response signals when the headband is positioned on a patient.

12. The system of claim 1, further including a communication system configured to transmit data related to auditory evoked response signals to a location distant from the system.

13. A method for monitoring brain electrical activity, comprising:

applying a set of electrodes to a patient;

generating at least one auditory stimulus that can be detected by the patient;

recording an electrical signal detected by the electrodes after production of an auditory stimulus by the stimulus generator, the electrical signal representing an auditory evoked response;

removing artifact noise from the signal;

performing a non-linear denoising step on the signal;

performing a non-linear transform on the signal;

producing a set of non-linear features of the signal; and

comparing the set of non-linear features to one or more feature sets stored in a storage system and determining if the non-linear features are indicative of an abnormal neurologic state.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein comparing the set of non-linear features to one or more feature sets stored in a storage system includes comparing the features to a database of normal values for auditory evoked response data.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein comparing the set of non-linear features to one or more feature sets stored in a storage system includes comparing the features to a database of auditory evoked response data for a group of patients and classifying the patient'"'"'s neurologic state based on the comparison.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the patient'"'"'s neurologic state is classified based on a similarity between one or more non-linear features of the patient'"'"'s auditory evoked response and one or more non-linear features of at least one other patient having a known neurologic state.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein comparing the set of non-linear features to one or more feature sets stored in a storage system includes comparing the non-linear features to non-linear features from prior measurements of the same patient and determining if any changes have occurred for the same patient.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more features includes the timing of one or more peaks in an auditory evoked response.

19. The method of claim 13, further including generating a signal representing the patient'"'"'s neurologic state.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the signal is a visual display.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the visual display indicates a deviation from a baseline measurement indicative of intracranial pressure for the patient.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the electrode set is positioned on a head band and includes at least two electrodes positioned on the head band to allow detection of auditory evoked response signals when the headband is positioned on the patient.

23. The method of claim 13, further including transmitting data related to repeated brain electrical activity measurements to a location distant from the system.