ECG rhythm advisory method

• US 8,226,543 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2006
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Zoll Medical Corporation (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Inventors: Tan, Qing, Geheb, Frederick J., Freeman, Gary A., Brewer, James E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lavert, Nicole F
• Application Number:
  US11/567,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162076A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,056 Days
• Field of Search: 607/5, 600/17, 601/41
• US Class Current: 600/17
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/347 Detecting the frequency distribution of signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/361 Detecting fibrillation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/363 Detecting tachycardia or bradycardia
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4839 combined with drug delivery
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7207 of noise induced by motion artifacts
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/726 using Wavelet transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 2201/5015 using specific interfaces or standards, e.g. USB, serial, parallel
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 2230/04 Heartbeat characteristics, e.g. E.G.C., blood pressure modulation
• CPC Class Codes: A61H 31/005 with feedback for the user
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/39 Heart defibrillators
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3904 External heart defibrillators [EHD]
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/39044 in combination with cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] therapy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3925 Monitoring; Protecting

Abstract

A method of automatically determining which type of treatment is most appropriate for a cardiac arrest victim, the method comprising transforming one or more time domain electrocardiogram (ECG) signals into a frequency domain representation comprising a plurality of discrete frequency bands, combining the discrete frequency bands into a plurality of analysis bands, wherein there are fewer analysis bands than discrete frequency bands,

determining the content of the analysis bands, and determining the type of treatment based on the content of the analysis bands.

Claims

1. An AED and adhesively-secured electrical pads connected to the AED configured for automatically determining which type of treatment is appropriate for a cardiac arrest victim and delivering defibrillation therapy to a patient when defibrillation treatment is appropriate, comprising:

two electrical pads, each pad comprising a defibrillation electrode of a diameter configured for delivering defibrillation therapy; and

each electrical pad further comprising at least ECG electrode smaller in diameter than the diameter of the defibrillation electrode;

the smaller diameter ECG electrodes being configured to provide at least one additional electrical vector that is approximately orthogonal to an ECG monitoring vector produced by the ECG signal from the defibrillation electrodes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a processor capable of forming a vector sum of the at least one additional ECG electrical vector and the ECG monitoring vector to provide a trajectory over time that is used by the AED in determining which type of treatment is appropriate.