Transcutaneous electrical nerve and/or muscle stimulator
First Claim
1. An apparatus for transcutaneously stimulating nerves and/or muscles in a body, comprising:
- means for generating an electrical signal which includes a sequence of pulses having a selected basic pulse sequence frequency, wherein each pulse includes positive and negative excursions relative to a reference voltage;
means for automatically changing the pulses in the pulse sequence between being initially positive-going and initially negative-going upon the successive occurrence of a predetermined number of pulses in the pulse sequence, thereby producing at least one harmonic frequency in the sequence of pulses in addition to the basic pulse sequence frequency; and
electrode means attachable to the generating means for applying the electrical signal to the body.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A transcutaneous muscle/nerve stimulator having a signal generator which produces a train of sine pulses about a zero volt reference line in which the pulses have an alternating order of polarity on a predetermined basis. The amplitude of and width of the positive and negative excursion portions of the pulses, respectively, may be controlled independently for each sine pulse; in addition, the respective positive and negative excursions may be separated by a time delay of selected duration. These features may also be modulated so that they change at a predetermined rate. The signal generator includes a pulse modulation feature which produces an exchange or shifting of selected pulses in the pulse train to produce groupings of two, three, or two plus one pulses or other groupings.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. An apparatus for transcutaneously stimulating nerves and/or muscles in a body, comprising:
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means for generating an electrical signal which includes a sequence of pulses having a selected basic pulse sequence frequency, wherein each pulse includes positive and negative excursions relative to a reference voltage; means for automatically changing the pulses in the pulse sequence between being initially positive-going and initially negative-going upon the successive occurrence of a predetermined number of pulses in the pulse sequence, thereby producing at least one harmonic frequency in the sequence of pulses in addition to the basic pulse sequence frequency; and electrode means attachable to the generating means for applying the electrical signal to the body. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An apparatus for transcutaneously stimulating nerves and/or muscles in a body, comprising:
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means for generating an electrical signal which includes a sequence of pulses having a selected basic pulse sequence frequency, wherein each pulse includes positive and negative excursions relative to a reference voltage; means for automatically shifting individual pulses in time within the pulse sequence to form successive selected groupings of pulses, wherein the time between successive pulses in each pulse grouping is approximately the same, and is less than the time between successive pulse groupings; and electrode means attachable to the generating means for applying the electrical signal to the body. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for transcutaneously stimulating nerves and/or muscles in a body, comprising the steps of:
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generating an electrical signal which includes a sequence of pulses having a selected basic pulse sequence frequency, wherein each pulse includes positive and negative excursions relative to a reference voltage; automatically changing the pulses between being initially positive going and initially negative going upon the successive occurrence of a predetermined number of pulses in the pulse sequence; and applying the electrical signal to the body. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification