Heart contraction monitor
First Claim
1. An apparatus for dynamically determining the dimension of a muscle which comprises:
- means for transmitting a sonic or ultrasonic pulse into said muscle through a first surface of said muscle at a first time;
means for receiving and signalling the emergence of said pulse from a second surface of said muscle opposite said first surface of said muscle at a second time;
means for determining the difference between said first time and said second time to generate a pulse transmit time;
processing means for filtering said pulse transit time and ignoring said pulse transit time when said pulse transit time is not within a predetermined range; and
means for converting said pulse transit time to a distance signal for display and storage.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for determining the magnitude of heart muscle contractions has two ultrasonic transceivers, both of which are disposed in sonic alignment on selected points of the heart. A digital counter electrically interconnects the transceivers with a digital microprocessor. The counter determines a pulse transit time which corresponds to the difference in time between the transmission of a sonic pulse from the transmitter and the reception of the sonic pulse by the receiver. Immediately after determining each pulse transit time, the counter sends the transit time signal to the microprocessor, which first filters the signals to reject any signal which indicates a heart size that is unreasonably large or small. After filtering, the transit times are averaged in groups of a predetermined number and then converted to corresponding heart size measurements for storage and display.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. An apparatus for dynamically determining the dimension of a muscle which comprises:
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means for transmitting a sonic or ultrasonic pulse into said muscle through a first surface of said muscle at a first time; means for receiving and signalling the emergence of said pulse from a second surface of said muscle opposite said first surface of said muscle at a second time; means for determining the difference between said first time and said second time to generate a pulse transmit time; processing means for filtering said pulse transit time and ignoring said pulse transit time when said pulse transit time is not within a predetermined range; and means for converting said pulse transit time to a distance signal for display and storage. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for measuring the variations of a muscle'"'"'s size, over time, which comprises:
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means for generating sonic pulses through said muscle; means for receiving and signalling the reception of said pulses after said pulses transit said muscle; timing means for determining the transit times of said pulses through said muscle; processing means for filtering said transit times and rejecting said transit times which exceed a predetermined value; means for averaging the remaining transit times; and means for converting said averaged transit times to distance signals for display and storage. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for measuring the variations in a muscle'"'"'s size, over time, comprising the steps of:
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transmitting sonic pulses into said muscle; receiving said pulses; signalling the reception of said pulses after said pulses transit said muscle; determining the length of time of said pulse transit through said muscle; rejecting said transit times which exceed a predetermined value; averaging said transit times; and
converting said averaged transit times to distances. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification