Instrumentation for pacemaker diagnostic analysis
First Claim
1. In a system for evaluating a pacemaker operatively connected to a paced patient, the combination comprising:
- electrically floating first means for converting an input signal containing artificially paced heart function information derived from the patient to a digital representation thereof of predetermined form and high rate, andsecond means connected to said first means for selectively deriving from said digital representation a reproduction in its true fidelity of at least one pacer pulse waveform generated by said pacemaker and present in said input signal, said second means comprising means for providing said reproduction magnified in time by a predetermined amount and including memory means for receiving said digital representation from said first means and means for controlling the movement of the digital information of said digital representation into and within the memory, said controlling means including means for selectively effecting recirculation of the memory content at a predetermined slower rate relative to the rate at which said digital information enters the memory.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus for diagnostic analysis of patient-installed pacemaker devices. Patient connection is made via standard ECG leads and an electrically floating front end subassembly having means providing precise gain to the paced ECG input signal and conversion thereof to a digital form via very high rate, monobit delta-sigma modulation digitization. The front end also contains special overload indication circuitry, a reciprocal attenuation network to ensure high fidelity of the information being processed by the system and crystal clock controlled calibration means for providing a validity check of virtually the entire system. A pacer pulse sensing network provides as separate outputs in analog form the on-line, real-time, paced ECG and the individual pulses generated by the pacemaker device. A memory/magnification subassembly is also included, operating on the digitized paced ECG information, calibration and clock outputs from the front end, as well as the identified pacer pulses from the pacer pulse sensing network, to selectively provide as outputs, magnified X1000 in time, the calibration waveform and the pacemaker-generated pacer pulses in either digital or analog form. These and the on-line, real-time paced ECG signal are available for recordation locally and for transmission over the telephone.
20 Citations
26 Claims
-
1. In a system for evaluating a pacemaker operatively connected to a paced patient, the combination comprising:
-
electrically floating first means for converting an input signal containing artificially paced heart function information derived from the patient to a digital representation thereof of predetermined form and high rate, and second means connected to said first means for selectively deriving from said digital representation a reproduction in its true fidelity of at least one pacer pulse waveform generated by said pacemaker and present in said input signal, said second means comprising means for providing said reproduction magnified in time by a predetermined amount and including memory means for receiving said digital representation from said first means and means for controlling the movement of the digital information of said digital representation into and within the memory, said controlling means including means for selectively effecting recirculation of the memory content at a predetermined slower rate relative to the rate at which said digital information enters the memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18)
-
-
14. In a system for evaluating the cardiac function of a patient operatively connected to an artificial pacemaker pulse generating device, the combination comprising
electrically floating first means for converting an input signal from the patient containing artificially paced heart function information to a digital representation thereof of predetermined form; -
second means for selectively deriving from said digital representation a portion thereof which is representative of an artificially generated pacer pulse present in said input signal from the patient, magnified in time by a predetermined amount; third means for deriving said digitized output of said second means an analog waveform of said artificially generated pacer pulse in its true fidelity, magnified in time by said predetermined amount; and fourth means for selectively providing as output of the system said magnified digitized representation of said selectively derived pacer pulse or said magnified analog waveform of said pacer pulse.
-
-
15. In a system for analysis of pacemaker devices operatively connected to patients, in which there is derived for evaluation from an input signal taken from a paced patient via standard ECG leads, pacer rate (interval), pacer pulse width and a high fidelity predeterminably magnified analog reproduction of selected ones of the pacer pulses generated by the patient'"'"'s pacemaker device as well as a high fidelity on-line real time reproduction of the paced ECG of the patient, the combination comprising,
(a) first means for converting said input signal from the patient to a digital representation thereof of predetermined form; -
(b) second means for deriving from the information contained in said input signal the individual pacer pulses generated by the patient'"'"'s pacemaker device, in analog form of high fidelity; (c) waveform magnification means responsive to said digital representation of said input signal from said first means and to said pacer pulses from said second means for selectively deriving from said digital representation a high fidelity analog reproduction of at least one pacer pulse originating from the patient'"'"'s pacemaker and contained in said input signal, said pacer pulse analog reproduction being magnified in time a predetermined amount; and (d) third means for selectively transmitting to a remote location or recording said magnified analog reproduction of said at least one pacer pulse.
-
-
16. In a system for evaluating a pacemaker device operatively connected to a paced patient, the combination which comprises
(a) first means for deriving from the paced patient an input signal containing heart function information including pacer pulses artificially generated by the patient'"'"'s pacemaker device; -
(b) second means for converting said input signal into a digital representation thereof of predetermined monobit form, (c) monobit multi-element memory means; (d) third means for controlling the flow of digital information from said second means to said memory means; (e) clock means synchronized with said second means and operatively coupled to said memory means for effecting and controlling circulation of said digital information from element to element through said memory means at a first predetermined rate; (f) fourth means for effecting recirculation of a selected portion of said digital information through said memory means for a predetermined time and simultaneously causing said third means to inhibit the input of any further information to the memory means during the period of information recirculation; and (g) fifth means for effecting a synchronous change in the rate of recirculation of said digital information in said memory means from said first predetermined rate to a second predetermined rate while maintaining intact all recirculating information, thereby effecting as output from said memory said recirculating information predeterminably magnified in time in accordance with said change in recirculation rate.
-
-
17. In a system for providing transtelephonic information derived from a patient remotely located from an information processing center, in which the information to be transmitted to the center is related to heart function and includes pacemaker device-generated pulse information, the combination comprising:
-
(a) electrically isolated first means local to the patient and responsive to the input of said information for providing a high rate, monobit digitization of said information; and (b) second means responsive to and separate from said first means for selectively isolating from said digitized representation of said information a portion thereof pertaining to at least one pacemaker device-generated pulse and for providing same in a form constituting a reproduction of the pacer pulse waveform in its true fidelity and magnified a predetermined amount in time for transmission to the information processing center.
-
-
19. In a system for evaluating a pacemaker operatively connected to a patient, the combination comprising
electrically floating first means for converting an input signal containing artificially paced heart function information derived from the patient to a digital representation thereof of predetermined form and high rate, said first means including means for providing predetermined gain to said input signal, analog-to-digital converter means operatively coupled to said predetermined gain means, second means for selectively controlling the amplitude of the input to said analog-to-digital converter means, and calibration signal injection means operatively coupled to said predetermined gain means for providing upon actuation an accurate time and amplitude validity check on virtually the entire system, said second means including reciprocal attenuation network means operatively coupled to said predetermined gain means and to said calibration signal injection means for providing selective attenuation of the predetermined gain provided by said predetermined gain means and reciprocal attenuation with regard to the calibration signal provided by said calibration signal injection means in order to effect at the input to said analog-to-digital converter said calibration signal with constant amplitude regardless of the attenuation setting selected for said attenuation network means, and third means connected to said first means for selectively deriving from said digital representation a reproduction in its true fidelity of at least one calibration pulse or at least one pacer pulse waveform generated by said pacemaker, said third means including means for providing said reproduction magnified in time by a predetermined amount.
-
22. In a system for evaluating a pacemaker operatively connected to a paced patient, the combination comprising
electrically floating first means for converting an input signal containing artificially paced heart function information derived from the patient to a digital representation thereof of predetermined form and high rate, and second means connected to said first means for selectively deriving from said digital representation a reproduction in its true fidelity of at least one pacer pulse waveform generated by said pacemaker and present in said input signal, said reproduction being magnified in time by a predetermined amount, said second means including multi-element memory means having an output, third means for controlling the flow of said digitized input signal information to said memory means, fourth means for controlling the movement of said digital information at a first predetermined rate in the circulation thereof through said memory means, fifth means for selectively effecting recirculation of said information in said memory means for a predetermined time and simultaneously causing said third means to inhibit the input of any further information into said memory means during the information recirculation time, and sixth means for synchronously effecting a change in the rate of circulation of said information in said memory means from said first predetermined rate to a second predetermined rate while maintaining intact and recirculating the information in said memory means.
-
25. In a system for providing transtelephonic information derived from a patient remotely located from an information processing center, in which the information to be transmitted to the center is related to heart function and includes pacemaker device-generated pulse information, which system includes transmission means, receiving means and hard copy recording means, the combination comprising:
-
(a) electrically isolated first means local to the patient and responsive to the input of said information for providing a high rate, monobit digitization of said information; and (b) second means responsive to and separate from said first means for selectively isolating from said digitized representation of said information a portion thereof pertaining to at least one pacemaker device-generated pulse and for providing same in form constituting a reproduction of the pacer pulse waveform in its true fidelity and magnified a predetermined amount in time for transmission to the information processing center, wherein said first means includes calibration means selectively providing in place of said information a high rate, monobit digitization of a clock waveform of pre-established pulse repetition rate and amplitude, for enabling a validity check of virtually the entire system, and wherein said second means includes means for converting said digitized calibration output of said first means to analog form of high fidelity relative to the original clock waveform and magnified said predetermined amount in time for transmission as a calibration signal to the center, and further including means at the receive side of the transtelephonic infomation communication for enabling proper receiver gain adjustment based on said transmitted calibration signal and thereby enabling an accurate hard copy reproduction of the original waveform of said information selected for transmission in its true fidelity. - View Dependent Claims (26)
-
Specification