DEVICES AND METHODS FOR REMOTE HYDRATION MEASUREMENT

• US 20160213315A1
• Filed: 01/22/2015
• Published: 07/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Hyde, Roderick A., Sweeney, Elizabeth A., Wood, Lowell L. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 10,159,439 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0238 Means for recording calibration data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0425 Ergonomically shaped housings A61B2560/0418 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0475 Special features of memory means, e.g. removable memory cards
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0257 Proximity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0507 using microwaves or terahertz waves
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/443 Evaluating skin constituents, e.g. elastin, melanin, water
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4875 Hydration status, fluid retention of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7221 Determining signal validity, reliability or quality A61B5/7207 and A61B5/7217 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7278 Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/90 Identification means for patients or instruments, e.g. tags
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/98 using electromagnetic means, e.g. transponders

Abstract

Devices and methods are described for a hand-held hydration monitor including a micro-impulse radar component; a data storage component including stored information associated with reference reflected pulses correlated with reference hydration states; a user interface; and a computing component including a processor and circuitry, the circuitry including micro-impulse radar control circuitry configured to actuated the micro-impulse radar component, distance-finding circuitry configured to determine a distance between the hand-held hydration monitor and a target location on a subject, and hydration determination circuitry configured to receive information associated with one or more reflected pulses from a target tissue associated with the target location on the subject and to compare the information associated with the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue with the stored information associated with the reference reflected pulses correlated with the reference hydration states to determine a relative hydration state of the target tissue.

Claims

1. A hand-held hydration monitor comprising:

a micro-impulse radar component including a pulse generator and at least one antenna;

a data storage component including stored information associated with reference reflected pulses correlated with reference hydration states;

a user interface; and

a computing component including a processor and circuitry, the circuitry including

micro-impulse radar control circuitry configured to actuate the micro-impulse radar component;

distance-finding circuitry configured to determine a distance between the hand-held hydration monitor and a target location on a subject; and

hydration determination circuitry configured to receive information associated with one or more reflected pulses from a target tissue associated with the target location on the subject and to compare the information associated with the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue with the stored information associated with the reference reflected pulses correlated with the reference hydration states to determine a relative hydration state of the target tissue.

2. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the distance-finding circuitry includes circuitry configured to receive information associated with at least one first reflected pulse from a nearest surface of the target location on the subject and to determine the distance between the hand-held hydration monitor and the target location on the subject.

3. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the distance-finding circuitry includes circuitry configured to determine whether the determined distance is within a range of predetermined operating distances of the hand-held hydration monitor.

4. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the micro-impulse radar control circuitry includes circuitry configured to actuate the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance.

5. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 4, wherein the micro-impulse radar control circuitry includes circuitry configured to automatically actuate the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance if the determined distance is within a range of predetermined operating distances of the hand-held hydration monitor or prevent actuation of the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance if the determined distance is outside a range of predetermined operating distances of the hand-held hydration monitor.

7. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1,

further comprising alert circuitry configured to transmit an alert signal to the user interface in response to the determined distance, wherein the user interface includes circuitry configured to provide an alert message in response to the transmitted alert signal.

8. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 7, wherein the alert circuitry includes circuitry configured to transmit the alert signal to the user interface if the determined distance is not within a range of predetermined operating distances of the hand-held hydration monitor.

13. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the micro-impulse radar control circuitry includes circuitry configured to actuate the micro-impulse radar component in response to a user input to the user interface.

14. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the micro-impulse radar component includes adjustable output power and output power control circuitry configured to adjust an output power of the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance.

20. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, further comprising beam width control circuitry configured to adjust a beam width of the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance.

25. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the stored information associated with the reference reflected pulses correlated with the reference hydration states includes stored information associated with reference reflected pulses correlated with reference hydration states of a phantom.

26. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the stored information associated with the reference reflected pulses correlated with the reference hydration states includes stored information associated with reference reflected pulses correlated with measured hydration states.

30. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the data storage component includes stored information associated with a range of predetermined operating distances of the hand-held hydration monitor.

32. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, further comprising stored identifier information and identification circuitry configured to compare at least one subject identifier with the stored identifier information and to generate an identifier comparison.

33. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 32, wherein the micro-impulse radar control circuitry includes circuitry configured to actuate the micro-impulse radar component in response to the identifier comparison.

34. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the data storage component includes stored information associated with the determined relative hydration state of the target tissue linked to at least one of the determined distance and at least one subject identifier.

40. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the hydration determination circuitry includes circuitry configured to receive the information associated with the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue associated with the target location on the subject when the determined distance is within a range of predetermined operating distances of the hand-held hydration monitor.

41. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the hydration determination circuitry includes circuitry configured to determine the relative hydration state of the target tissue associated with the target location on the subject based on at least one of a time spectrum of the one or more reflected pulses and a frequency spectrum of the one or more reflected pulses.

43. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the hydration determination circuitry includes circuitry configured to determine the relative hydration state of the target tissue associated with the target location on the subject based on a comparison of a frequency spectrum of the one or more reflected pulses with a frequency spectrum of a transmitted pulse.

44. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the hydration determination circuitry includes circuitry configured to determine the relative hydration state of the target tissue associated with the target location on the subject as a function of tissue depth.

45. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, wherein the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue associated with the location on the subject includes a percentage of a transmitted pulse, wherein the percentage of the transmitted pulse is dependent upon the determined distance and a water content of the target tissue.

47. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, further comprising quality assurance circuitry configured to evaluate the quality of the received information associated with the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue associated with the target location on the subject.

48. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, further comprising a projector including at least one light-emitting source, the projector configured to project a tracer onto the target location on the subject.

50. The hand-held hydration monitor of claim 1, further comprising an image-capture device and operably coupled image-capture circuitry configured to actuate the image-capture device to capture at least one image of the target location on the subject in response to actuation of the micro-impulse radar component.

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52. A method of determining a hydration state with a hydration monitor comprising:

receiving information associated with at least one first reflected pulse from a nearest surface of a target tissue of a subject with the hydration monitor, the hydration monitor including a micro-impulse radar component, a data storage component including stored information associated with reference reflected pulses correlated with reference hydration states, a user interface, and a computing component including a processor and circuitry;

determining a distance from the hydration monitor to the subject using the information associated with the at least one first reflected pulse from the nearest surface of the target tissue of the subject;

actuating the micro-impulse radar component to transmit one or more pulses to the target tissue of the subject;

receiving information associated with one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue of the subject; and

comparing the received information associated with the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue of the subject with the stored information associated with the reference reflected pulses correlated with the reference hydration states to determine a relative hydration state of the target tissue of the subject.

53. The method of claim 52, further comprising determining whether the determined distance is within a range of predetermined operating distances of the hydration monitor.

54. The method of claim 52, further comprising actuating the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance.

55. The method of claim 52, further comprising automatically actuating the micro-impulse radar component to transmit the one or more pulses to the target tissue of the subject in response to the determined distance if the determined distance is within a range of predetermined operating distances of the hydration monitor or preventing actuation of the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance if the determined distance is not within a range of predetermined operating distances of the hydration monitor.

57. The method of claim 52, further comprising actuating the micro-impulse radar component to transmit one or more pulses to the target tissue of the subject in response to a user input to the user interface.

58. The method of claim 52, further comprising transmitting an alert signal to the user interface of the hydration monitor in response to the determined distance.

60. The method of claim 58, further comprising generating an alert message in response to the transmitted alert signal.

62. The method of claim 52, further comprising providing user instructions through the user interface.

64. The method of claim 52, further comprising adjusting at least one of an output power of the micro-impulse radar component and a beam angle of the micro-impulse radar component in response to the determined distance.

66. The method of claim 52, further comprising determining a range of operating distances of the hydration monitor based on at least one of an output power or a beam angle of the micro-impulse radar component.

67. The method of claim 52, further comprising comparing at least one subject identifier with identifier information stored in the data storage component of the hydration monitor to generate an identifier comparison and at least one of actuating the micro-impulse radar component in response to the identifier comparison and transmitting an alert signal to the user interface in response to the identifier comparison.

71. The method of claim 52, further comprising comparing the received information associated with the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue of the subject with the stored information associated with the reference reflected pulses correlated with the reference hydration states based on scaling to a reference distance.

74. The method of claim 52, further comprising evaluating the quality of the received information associated with the one or more reflected pulses from the target tissue of the subject against a quality threshold and actuating the micro-impulse radar component to transmit one or more additional pulses to the target tissue of the subject if the evaluated quality of the received one or more reflected pulses fails to meet or exceed the quality threshold.

76. The method of claim 52, further comprising determining the relative hydration state of the target tissue of the subject based on at least one of a time spectrum of the one or more reflected pulses, a frequency spectrum of the one or more reflected pulses, or a comparison of a frequency spectrum of the one or more reflected pulses and a frequency spectrum of a transmitted pulse.

79. The method of claim 52, further comprising determining the relative hydration state of the target tissue of the subject as a function of tissue depth.

80. The method of claim 52, further comprising reporting the determined relative hydration state of the target tissue of the subject to at least one of the user interface and a second computing component.

87. The method of claim 52, further comprising storing the determined relative hydration state of the target tissue of the subject in the data storage component of the hydration monitor linked to at least one subject identifier.

88. The method of claim 52, further comprising projecting a tracer on the nearest surface of the target tissue of the subject with a projector associated with the hydration monitor, wherein the projected tracer corresponds to a beam width of the transmitted one or more pulses.

90. The method of claim 52, further comprising capturing at least one image of a location on the subject with an image-capture device associated with the hydration monitor and storing the determined relative hydration state of the target tissue linked to the captured at least one image of the location on the subject.

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