Closed-loop non-invasive oxygen saturation control system
First Claim
1. An adaptive controller for delivering a fractional amount of oxygen to a patient, said controller comprising:
- oximeter means coupled by a non-invasive sensor to said patient for measuring blood hemoglobin saturation in the patient, said oximeter generating a plurality of blood hemoglobin saturation output signal values over a given period of time, sequentially representative of said blood hemoglobin saturation;
means for generating a running average of said blood hemoglobin saturation output values;
means for generating pseudo-output signals that are a function of said running average;
processing means including means for identifying possibly invalid output signal values and being responsive to said blood hemoglobin saturation output signal values for evaluating a plurality of said blood hemoglobin saturation output signal values and, based on said evaluation, providing a processed output signal;
means for substituting respective pseudo-output signals for each of said possibly invalid output signal values thereby forming a sequence of valid output signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An adaptive controller for delivering a fractional amount of oxygen to a patient. The controller utilizes an oximeter coupled by a non-invasive sensor to the patient for measuring the blood hemoglobin saturation in the patient. The oximeter generates a plurality of blood saturation output signals over a given period of time which are sequentially representative of the patient'"'"'s blood hemoglobin saturation. A processing means evaluates a plurality of the oximeter output signals and, based on the evaluation, provides a pseudo blood saturation signal. A feedback control means responsive to the pseudo output signal sets the fractional amount of oxygen to be delivered to the patient. When deviations of the oximeter output signal are excessive, the pseudo output signals cause a gradual increase in the fractional amount of oxygen for the patient. Furthermore, the feedback control means is periodically disconnected, and the response of the patient to random changes in the fractional amount of oxygen delivered to the patient is used to adapt the response characteristics of the feedback control means in a manner tailored to the needs of the patient.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. An adaptive controller for delivering a fractional amount of oxygen to a patient, said controller comprising:
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oximeter means coupled by a non-invasive sensor to said patient for measuring blood hemoglobin saturation in the patient, said oximeter generating a plurality of blood hemoglobin saturation output signal values over a given period of time, sequentially representative of said blood hemoglobin saturation; means for generating a running average of said blood hemoglobin saturation output values; means for generating pseudo-output signals that are a function of said running average; processing means including means for identifying possibly invalid output signal values and being responsive to said blood hemoglobin saturation output signal values for evaluating a plurality of said blood hemoglobin saturation output signal values and, based on said evaluation, providing a processed output signal; means for substituting respective pseudo-output signals for each of said possibly invalid output signal values thereby forming a sequence of valid output signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An adaptive controller for delivering a fractional amount of oxygen to a patient, said controller comprising:
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oximeter means coupled by a non-invasive sensor to said patient for measuring blood hemoglobin saturation in the patient, said oximeter generating a plurality of blood saturation output signal values over a given period of time, sequentially representative of said blood hemoglobin saturation; processing means responsive to said blood saturation output signal values for evaluating a plurality of said output signal values and, based on said evaluation, providing a processed output signal; and feedback control means continuously responsive over a full range of patient activity to said processed output signal for determining the fractional amount of oxygen to be delivered to the patient; wherein the processing means includes; artifact recognition means for identifying possibly invalid output signals values and for providing a sequence of valid output signal values, exclusive of said identified possibly invalid output signal values; and means for generating a running average of valid output signal values and for providing said running average as said processed output signal; and wherein the artifact recognition means further includes means for substituting respective pseudo output signal values for each of said identified possibly invalid output signal values to generate said sequence of valid output signal values, wherein the value of said pseudo output signal values is a function of said running average of said oximeter means output signal values. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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11. An adaptive controller for delivering a fractional amount of oxygen to a patient, said controller comprising:
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measuring means, coupled to the patient, for measuring blood oxygen level in the patient and for providing a plurality of output signal values, sequentially representative of said measured blood oxygen level; processing means, coupled to said measuring means, for generating a running average of said plurality of output signal values and for subtracting said running average from a target value, representing a desired blood oxygen level for the patient, to produce a difference signal; feedback control means, coupled to receive said difference signal, for adjusting the fractional amount of oxygen to be delivered to the patient to minimize said difference signal in magnitude.
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12. An adaptive controller for delivering a fractional amount of oxygen to a patient, said controller comprising:
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measuring means, adapted to be coupled to the patient, for measuring blood oxygen level in the patient and for providing a plurality of output signal values, sequentially representative of said measured blood oxygen level; processing means, coupled to said measuring means, for generating a running average of said plurality of output signal values and for subtracting said running average from a target value, representing a desired blood oxygen level for the patient, to produce a difference signal; feedback control means, coupled to receive said difference signal, for adjusting the fractional amount of oxygen to be delivered to the patient to minimize said difference signal in magnitude; wherein the feedback controller is defined by a transfer function, having a plurality of adjustable coefficients, which establishes how the fractional amount of oxygen delivered to the patient is to be changed, both in time and in magnitude, in response to a change in the difference signal. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. In a system for automatically providing a controlled fractional amount of oxygen to a patient, including an oximeter for measuring blood oxygen levels of the patient and a feedback controller, coupled to the oximeter for adjusting the fractional amount of oxygen delivered to the patient to maintain the measured blood oxygen levels within predetermined limits, a safety subsystem to prevent the system from erroneously administering a hypoxic mixture, said safety subsystem comprising:
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means for measuring the fractional amount of oxygen being delivered to the patient and for providing a signal indicative thereof including means for sensing the oxygen level of the air being provided to the patient using a plurality of sensors; means for correlating the measured fractional amount of oxygen to a preferred fractional amount of oxygen as determined by the feedback control system and for providing an alarm signal when the measured and preferred fractional amounts of oxygen are determined to be uncorrelated including means for correlating the preferred fractional amount of oxygen to each of the plurality of sensed oxygen levels and for generating said alarm signal if any of the sensed oxygen levels is not correlated to said preferred fractional amount of oxygen; and means, responsive to said alarm signal, for adjusting the fractional amount of oxygen to be delivered to the patient to a maximum value said safety subsystem further including means for monitoring the blood oxygen level signals provided by the oximeter including means to identify possibly invalid signal values and means to provide a sequence of valid signal values, exclusive of said identified possibly invalid signal values; and
said safety subsystem includes means for setting a first threshold value representing a minimum desirable level of said blood oxygen level signal and a second threshold value representing a minimum desirable level of said preferred fractional amount of oxygen and said measured fractional amount of oxygen; and
means for producing said alarm signal when one of said sequence of valid signal values is less than said first threshold value;
means for producing said alarm signal when one of said preferred fractional amount of oxygen and said measured fractional amount of oxygen is less than said second threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method for adaptively controlling the fractional amount of oxygen delivered to a patient comprising the steps of:
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a) measuring the blood hemoglobin saturation in the patient during a plurality of intervals over a given period of time and providing said measured values as an output signal; b) evaluating each of the measured values of said output signal to identify possibly invalid output signal values; c) eliminating said identified possibly invalid output signal values from said output signal to produce a processed output signal; d) adjusting the fractional amount of oxygen delivered to the patient in a sense to minimize any difference between said processed output signal and a predetermined desired blood hemoglobin saturation signal.
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27. A method for adaptively controlling the fractional amount of oxygen delivered to a patient comprising the steps of:
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a) measuring the blood hemoglobin saturation in the patient during a plurality of intervals over a given period of time and providing said measured values as an output signal; b) evaluating each of the measured values of said output signal to identify possibly invalid output signal values; c) eliminating said identified possibly invalid output signal values from said output signal to produce a processed output signal by c1) generating a sequence of valid output signal values by substituting a pseudo value for each of said identified possibly invalid output signal values; c2) generating a running average of successive values of said sequence of valid output signal values, wherein the instantaneous value of said running average is said pseudo value; c3) providing said running average as said processed output signal; and d) adjusting the fractional amount of oxygen delivered to the patient in a sense to minimize any difference between said processed output signal and a predetermined desired blood hemoglobin saturation signal. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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Specification