Method for automatic, adaptive, active facilitation to access myocardial electrical instability
First Claim
1. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
- (a) injecting a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body;
(b) monitoring a plurality of electrocardiographic signals from said patient;
(c) recording changes in said electrocardiographic signals caused by said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; and
(d) nonlinearly optimizing said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said recorded changes, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus continuously, automatically, and adaptively facilitate the electrical activity of a patient'"'"'s heart by pulsing the heart with current. The method and apparatus further continuously, automatically, and adaptively monitor the resulting electrical activity of the patient'"'"'s heart to assess the patient'"'"'s likelihood for myocardial electrical instability. The method comprises the steps of injecting current across the patient'"'"'s heart, monitoring the patient'"'"'s electrocardiogram for the effects of these current pulses, and adapting the current pulses continuously and automatically to maximize the effects, thereby assessing a patient'"'"'s likelihood of sudden cardiac death.
93 Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) injecting a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body; (b) monitoring a plurality of electrocardiographic signals from said patient; (c) recording changes in said electrocardiographic signals caused by said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; and (d) nonlinearly optimizing said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said recorded changes, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) precisely regulating a programmable, digitally controlled, current source to inject electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body; (b) acquiring a plurality of high-fidelity electrocardiographic signals from said patient to monitor said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; (c) recording changes in said electrocardiographic signals caused by said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; (d) collecting said recorded changes into an electrical instability waveform; (e) integrating said electrical instability waveform to form an electrical instability index; and (f) adapting said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said electrical instability index, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed.
-
-
17. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) precisely regulating a programmable, digitally controlled, current source to inject electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body; (b) acquiring a plurality of high-fidelity electrocardiographic signals from said patient to monitor said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; (c) extracting and time-wise aligning a plurality of cardiac cycles from said electrocardiographic signals; (d) computing a squared algebraic difference between temporally-adjacent pairs of said cardiac cycles; (e) averaging said squared algebraic differences to form an electrical instability waveform; (f) computing a baseline of said electrical instability waveform; (g) subtracting said baseline from said electrical instability waveform to form a facilitated electrical instability waveform; (h) summing said facilitated electrical instability waveform to form a facilitated electrical instability index; and (i) nonlinearly optimizing said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said facilitated electrical instability index, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed.
-
-
18. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) injecting a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body; (b) controlling said injecting by a first microcontroller; (c) monitoring a plurality of electrocardiographic signals from said patient; (d) controlling said monitoring by a second microcontroller; (e) switching between said injecting and said monitoring with a third microcontroller, whereby said steps of injecting and monitoring operate synchronously and in parallel; (f) recording changes in said electrocardiographic signals caused by said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; and (g) adapting said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said recorded changes, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed.
-
-
19. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) injecting a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body; (b) continuously injecting a very high-frequency, high-impedance current source separate from said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; (c) monitoring a plurality of electrocardiographic signals from said patient; (d) continuously monitoring voltage levels derived from said injecting of said high-impedance current source; (e) signaling an alarm when said voltage levels exceed a predetermined threshold, whereby a failure of an electrocardiograph wire or an electrode is detected; (f) recording changes in said electrocardiographic signals caused by said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; and (g) adapting said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said recorded changes, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed.
-
-
20. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) precisely regulating a programmable current source to inject a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body; (b) monitoring a plurality of electrocardiographic signals from said patient; (c) recording changes in said electrocardiographic signals caused by said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; (d) collecting said recorded changes into an electrical instability waveform; (e) analyzing said electrical instability waveform to form an electrical instability index; and (f) adapting said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said electrical instability index, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed.
-
-
21. A method for assessing a patient'"'"'s myocardial electrical instability, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) monitoring a plurality of electrocardiographic signals from said patient; (b) recording a plurality of natural changes in said electrocardiographic signals; (c) injecting a plurality of electromagnetic energy pulses into said patient'"'"'s body; (d) monitoring a plurality of electrocardiographic signals from said patient; (e) recording a plurality of facilitated changes in said electrocardiographic signals caused by said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses; (f) removing said natural changes from said facilitated changes; and (g) adapting said injecting of said electromagnetic energy pulses automatically to maximize said facilitated changes, whereby said myocardial electrical instability is assessed and confounding effects of naturally occurring physiological variations are removed from said assessment of myocardial electrical instability.
-
Specification