METHOD AND DEVICE FOR EARLY DETECTION OF HEART ATTACK

• US 20120179055A1
• Filed: 12/07/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Original Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Inventors: Tamil, Lakshman S., Nourani, Mehrdad, Gupta, Gopal, Banerjee, Subhash
• Granted Patent: US 9,161,705 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/509
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/349 Detecting specific parameters of the electrocardiograph cycle
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/726 using Wavelet transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7465 Arrangements for interactive communication between patient and care services, e.g. by using a telephone network telemetry of measured physiological signal A61B5/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

A device and method for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection is disclosed herein. The device and method analyze and characterize cardiac electrophysiological signals which help in the diagnosis of myocardial ischemia in advance of a heart attack.

Claims

1. A device for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection, comprising:

an interface for receiving sampled data representing an electrical signal indicating electrical activity of a patient heart over a plurality of heart beat cycles;

a signal processor for using the received sampled data in determining a first ECG morphological signal value over a plurality of heart cycles;

a comparator for comparing the first ECG morphological signal value with a threshold value to provide a comparison indicator; and

a patient monitor that in response to said comparison indicator indicates a calculated signal value exceeding the threshold value, and generates an alert message associated with the threshold.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said signal processor uses the received sampled data in determining a second ECG morphological signal value over a plurality of heart cycles.

3. A device according to claim 2, wherein said signal processor determines a ratio of a first signal characteristic value to a second signal characteristic value.

4. A device according to claim 2, wherein said signal processor determines a relationship between the first ECG morphological signal and the second morphological signal.

13. A device according to claim 1, including a repository of mapping information, associating ranges of said first and second signal values with corresponding medical conditions and said comparator compares said first and second characteristic values with said ranges to provide a comparison indicator identifying a medical condition and said patient monitor generates an alert message identifying said medical condition.

14. A device according to claim 13, wherein said predetermined mapping information associates ranges of said first and second signal values with particular patient demographic characteristics and with corresponding medical conditions and said system uses patient demographic data including at least one of, age weight, gender and height in comparing the first and second characteristic values with said ranges and generating an alert message indicating a potential medical condition.

16. The device according to claim 1, wherein said alert message is delivered through a smartphone.

17. The device according to claim 1, wherein said alert message is computed by a smartphone.

5. A device for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection, comprising:

an interface for receiving sampled data representing an electrical signal indicating electrical activity of a patient heart over a plurality of heart beat cycles;

a signal processor for using the received sampled data in determining a first ECG morphological signal value and a second ECG morphological signal value over a plurality of heart cycles;

a comparator for comparing the first ECG morphological signal value and the second ECG morphological signal value to provide a comparison indicator; and

a patient monitor for generating an alert message associated with the threshold in response to said comparison indicator indicating a calculated signal value that exceeds the threshold value.

6. A device according to claim 5, wherein said comparator determines a comparison indicator indicating whether said at least one of the first or second signal values lies in a predetermined value range and said patient monitor, in response to said comparison indicator indicating a calculated signal value lies in a predetermined value range, generates an alert message associated with the value range.

7. A device according to claim 5, wherein said threshold value is derived from recorded electrical signal data for said patient.

8. A device according to claim 5, wherein said threshold value is derived from recorded electrical signal data for a population of patients.

9. A device according to claim 8, wherein said population of patients has similar demographic characteristics including at least two of, (a) age, (b) weight, (c) gender and (d) height, to those of said patient.

10. A device according to claim 5, wherein said signal processor dynamically adjusts said threshold value in response to a determined sensitivity of arrhythmia detection.

11. A device according to claim 5, wherein said plurality of heart cycles are successive heart cycles.

12. A device according to claim 5, wherein said signal processor dynamically adjusts at least one of said predetermined threshold values in response to a determined heart electrical activity signal variation of said patient.

15. A method for heart monitoring, characterization and abnormality detection, comprising the activities of:

acquiring an electrophysiological signal representing a heart beat cycle of a patient heart;

identifying a morphological change in the signal;

measuring the morphological change; and

predicting the classification of the heart beat.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the morphological change occurs in the ST wave.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the morphological change occurs in the T wave.