Method of producing an audible alarm in a blood pressure and pulse oximeter monitor
First Claim
1. A method for producing an audible alarm in a patient monitoring system including a blood pressure module having a cuff placed on a limb of a patient and a pulse oximeter placed on the limb of the patient, comprising the steps of:
- using said cuff to measure peak oscillation amplitudes of the blood pressure of said patient over a blood pressure measurement cycle and to produce a first output which represents a first logical state;
using said pulse oximeter to measure an oxygen saturation (SpO2) level of said patient and to produce a second logical state;
inputting said first and second logical states into a gate producing an output from said gate, said output capable of enabling an audible alarm; and
masking said second logical state as input for enabling said audible alarm in said gate whenever said peak oscillation amplitudes fall in a range between a minimum level Pmin and a threshold level Pthr,wherein during said masking of said second logical state, said audible alarm rejects a spurious oxygen saturation level alarm and said masking does not occur during at least a portion of said blood pressure measurement cycle.
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Abstract
A patient monitoring system includes a pulse oximeter sensor and an audible alarm which is not produced when a blood pressure module is taking measurements, but only during that portion of the cycle that affects the pulse oximeter reading. During such measurements, the pulses detected by the oximeter decrease below a threshold Toxim. An audible alarm is caused to receive a logic level of zero by an AND gate through the detection of measurements exceeding a minimum pressure Pmin on the blood pressure module. The audible alarm continues to receive such a logic level until the measurements exceed a threshold Pthr. After that time, the audible alarm AND gate logic level is reset to one, so as to permit reporting of pulses missing at the oximeter. None of the other alarms, such as the actual SpO2 reading, are affected by the AND gate. Accordingly, the present invention does not affect the taking of important SpO2 readings during cuff inflation/deflation and, moreover, only prevents a pulse missing audible alarm from being heard for a short period of time.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method for producing an audible alarm in a patient monitoring system including a blood pressure module having a cuff placed on a limb of a patient and a pulse oximeter placed on the limb of the patient, comprising the steps of:
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using said cuff to measure peak oscillation amplitudes of the blood pressure of said patient over a blood pressure measurement cycle and to produce a first output which represents a first logical state; using said pulse oximeter to measure an oxygen saturation (SpO2) level of said patient and to produce a second logical state; inputting said first and second logical states into a gate producing an output from said gate, said output capable of enabling an audible alarm; and masking said second logical state as input for enabling said audible alarm in said gate whenever said peak oscillation amplitudes fall in a range between a minimum level Pmin and a threshold level Pthr, wherein during said masking of said second logical state, said audible alarm rejects a spurious oxygen saturation level alarm and said masking does not occur during at least a portion of said blood pressure measurement cycle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification