SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING A HYDRATION LEVEL OF A TISSUE REGION

• US 20150094548A1
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Published: 04/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Sabatini, James Enrico, Ashe, Jeffrey Michael, Chen, Xiaohui, Kao, Tzu-Jen
• Granted Patent: US 9,999,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/306
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0053 by applying pressure, e.g. compression, indentation, palpation, grasping, gauging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0537 Measuring body composition by impedance, e.g. tissue hydration or fat content
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4875 Hydration status, fluid retention of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4878 Evaluating oedema

Abstract

In accordance with one aspect of the present technique, a method is disclosed. The method includes applying a mechanical perturbation to a tissue region using a displacement device. The method further includes calculating a compression impedance of the tissue region in response to applying the mechanical perturbation. The method further includes retracting the displacement device and calculating a retraction impedance of the tissue region in response to retracting the displacement device. The method also includes determining a hydration level of the tissue region based on at least one of the compression impedance and the retraction impedances.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

applying a mechanical perturbation to a tissue region using a displacement device;

calculating a compression impedance (CI) of the tissue region in response to applying the mechanical perturbation;

retracting the displacement device;

calculating a retraction impedance (RI) of the tissue region in response to retracting the displacement device; and

determining a hydration level of the tissue region based on at least one of the CI and the RI.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the hydration level includes at least one of an edema stage and a dehydration stage of the tissue region.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying the mechanical perturbation to the tissue region based on at least one of a pre-determined force and a pre-determined displacement of the tissue region.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a rate of change of CI and a rate of change of RI; and

determining the hydration level of the tissue region based on at least one of the rate of change CI and the rate of change of RI.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining whether the rate of change of CI is within a stabilization threshold range;

calculating a CI change in response to determining that the rate of change of CI is within the stabilization threshold range; and

determining the hydration level of the tissue region based on the CI change.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

calculating a compression duration in response to determining that the rate of change of CI is within the stabilization threshold range; and

determining the hydration level of the tissue region based on the compression duration.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the CI change further comprises a slow CI change and a fast CI change.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising retracting the displacement device in response to determining that the rate of change of CI is within the stabilization threshold range.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether the rate of change of RI is within the stabilization threshold range;

calculating a RI change in response to determining that the rate of change of RI is within the stabilization threshold range; and

determining the hydration level of the tissue region based on the RI change.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

calculating a retraction duration in response to determining that the rate of change of RI is within the stabilization threshold range; and

determining the hydration level of the tissue region based on the retraction duration.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the RI change further comprises a slow RI change and a fast RI change.

12. A system comprising:

at least one processor;

a displacement module stored in a memory and executable by the at least one processor, the displacement module for applying a mechanical perturbation to a tissue region using a displacement device and retracting the displacement device;

an impedance module stored in the memory and executable by the at least one processor, the impedance module communicatively coupled to the displacement module for calculating a compression impedance (CI) of the tissue patch in response to applying the mechanical perturbation and calculating a retraction impedance (RI) of the tissue patch in response to retracting the displacement device; and

a staging module stored in the memory and executable by the at least one processor, the staging module communicatively coupled to the impedance module for determining a hydration level of the tissue region based at least on one of the CI and the RI.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the hydration level includes at least one of an edema stage and a dehydration stage of the tissue region.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the impedance module further calculates a rate of change of CI and a rate of change of RI.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the impedance module further determines whether the rate of change of CI is within a stabilization threshold range, calculates a CI change in response to determining that the rate of change of CI is within the stabilization threshold range, determines whether the rate of change of RI is within the stabilization threshold range, and calculates a RI change in response to determining that the rate of change of RI is within the stabilization threshold range.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the CI change comprises a slow CI change and a fast CI change and the RI change includes a slow RI change and a fast RI change.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the displacement module retracts the displacement device in response to determining that the rate of change of CI is within the stabilization threshold range.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising a timing module for calculating a compression duration in response to determining that rate of change of CI is within the stabilization threshold range and calculating a retraction duration in response to determining that rate of change of RI is within the stabilization threshold range.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the staging module further determines the hydration level based on at least one of the rate of change of CI, the rate of change of RI, the CI change, the RI change, the compression duration, and the retraction duration.

20. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium encoding instructions that, in response to execution by at least one processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

applying a mechanical perturbation to a tissue region using a displacement device;

calculating a compression impedance (CI) of the tissue region in response to applying the mechanical perturbation;

retracting the displacement device;

calculating a retraction impedance (RI) of the tissue region in response to retracting the displacement device; and

determining a hydration level of the tissue region based on at least one of the CI and the RI.