Systems, devices, and methods including implants for managing cumulative x-ray radiation dosage

• US 8,693,633 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2011
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Hyde, Roderick A., Ishikawa, Muriel Y., Leuthardt, Eric C., Smith, Michael A., Sweeney, Elizabeth A., Wood, Lowell L. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomas, Courtney
• Application Number:
  US13/199,836
• Publication Number:
  US 20130064349A1
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: 378/65, 378 95- 97, 378/98.8, 250/370.07
• US Class Current: 378/97
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1038 taking into account previously administered plans applied to the same patient, i.e. adaptive radiotherapy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1048 Monitoring, verifying, controlling systems and methods
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1071 for verifying the dose delivered by the treatment plan
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 1/02 Dosimeters G01T1/15 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 1/161 Applications in the field of nuclear medicine, e.g. in vivo counting apparatus for radiation diagnosis A61B6/00

Abstract

Systems, devices, and methods are described including implantable radiation sensing devices having exposure determination devices that determines cumulative exposure information based on the at least one in vivo measurand.

Claims

1. An implantable radiation sensing device, comprising:

an x-ray radiation sensor device including one or more pixels that acquire at least a portion of a transcutaneous x-ray radiation stimulus and transduces the x-ray radiation stimulus acquired by the x-ray radiation sensor device into at least one measurand indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure during an integration period of the x-ray radiation sensor device;

an exposure determination device that determines cumulative exposure information based on the at least one measurand output; and

a biocompatible housing enclosing the x-ray radiation sensor device and the exposure determination device.

2. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the exposure determination device includes one or more memory devices having radiation exposure information stored thereon and a computing device that generates at least one of radiation intensity data, radiation energy data, radiation exposure time data, rate of radiation energy deposition, or depth of radiation energy deposition data based on the at least one measurand.

3. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the exposure determination device includes one or more memory devices having radiation exposure information stored thereon and a computing device generates at least one of absorbed dose data, absorbed dose rate data, committed effective dose data, cumulative dose data, effective dose data, equivalent dose data, or exposure data based on the at least one measurand.

4. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the exposure determination device includes one or more memory devices having at least one of absorbed dose conversion data, absorbed dose rate conversion data, committed effective dose conversion data, cumulative dose conversion data, effective dose data, equivalent dose conversion data, or exposure conversion data stored thereon.

5. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the exposure determination device includes one or more memory devices having user-specific radiation dosimetry conversion data stored thereon.

6. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the exposure determination device includes one or more memory devices having at least one of organ-specific average conversion dose data, organ-specific equivalent conversion dose data, tissue-specific average conversion dose data, or tissue-specific equivalent dose conversion data stored thereon.

7. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the exposure determination device includes one or more memory devices having radiation-type-specific weighting factor data stored thereon.

8. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the exposure determination device further comprises:

a transceiver operable to concurrently or sequentially transmit or receive one or more of cumulative exposure information, radiation intensity data, radiation energy data, radiation exposure time data, rate of radiation energy deposition, depth of radiation energy deposition data, absorbed dose data, absorbed dose rate data, committed effective dose data, cumulative dose data, effective dose data, equivalent dose data, or exposure data based on the at least one measurand output.

9. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the x-ray radiation sensor device includes at least one computing device operably coupled to one or more sensors configured to acquire at least one of intensity data, energy, exposure time, rate of energy deposition, or depth of energy deposition associated with the x-ray radiation stimulus.

10. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, further comprising:

an authorization device that transmits or receives user-specific data based on at least one of an authorization protocol, an authentication protocol, or an activation protocol.

11. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, further comprising:

a power source, the power source including at least one of a thermoelectric generator, a piezoelectric generator, a microelectromechanical system generator, or a biomechanical-energy harvesting generator.

12. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, further comprising:

a power source, the power source including at least one of a battery, a capacitor, a rechargeable power, fuel cell, or a mechanical energy store.

13. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, further comprising:

a transcutaneous energy transfer system, the transcutaneous energy transfer system electromagnetically, magnetically, ultrasonically, optically, inductively, electrically, or capacitively coupled to at least one of the x-ray radiation sensor device or the exposure determination device.

14. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 1, wherein the biocompatible housing includes one or more biocompatible materials that permit the passage of x-ray radiation from an exterior environment to an interior environment of the biocompatible housing.

15. A system, comprising:

in vivo means for generating at least one measurand output indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure event in response to a transcutaneously received x-ray radiation stimulus; and

in vivo means for comparing the measurand output to user-specific radiation exposure information and generating user-specific x-ray radiation exposure information based on the comparison.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the in vivo means for comparing the measurand output to the user-specific radiation exposure information and generating the user-specific x-ray radiation exposure information includes one or more memory devices having radiation exposure information stored thereon and a computing device that compares the measurand output indicative of the x-ray radiation exposure event to the radiation exposure information, and generates at least one of radiation intensity data, radiation energy data, radiation exposure time data, rate of radiation energy deposition, or depth of radiation energy deposition data based on the comparison.

17. A method of assessing a radiation exposure status, comprising:

determining an exposure status of a user in response to one or more transcutaneously received x-ray radiation stimuli obtained via an implanted radiation sensing apparatus; and

generating a response indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure status.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the exposure status includes comparing a measurand output from the implanted radiation sensing apparatus indicative of the one or more transcutaneously received x-ray radiation stimuli to cumulative exposure information, and determining an exposure status of the user based on the comparison.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the response indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure status includes generating an output indicative of a current user-specific lifetime exposure history.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the response indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure status includes generating at least one of a visual representation, an audio representation, a haptic representation, or a tactile representation indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure status.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

updating a user-specific lifetime exposure history based on the response indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure status.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

updating a cumulative x-ray radiation dose history based on the response indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure status.

23. An implantable radiation sensing device, comprising:

a proposed dose verification device configured to transcutaneously elicit proposed dose information from an external x-ray radiation-emitting system; and

an exposure determination device configured to determine a potential exposure status associated with the proposed dose information from the external x-ray radiation-emitting system and to generated potential exposure status information.

24. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, further comprising:

a biocompatible housing enclosing the proposed dose verification device and the exposure determination device.

25. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, wherein the proposed dose verification device includes an irradiation authorization component that generates one or more cryptographic keys that provide authorized x-ray radiation dose information to the external x-ray radiation-emitting system.

26. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, further comprising:

a user identification circuit operable to initiate an identification protocol that identifies one of the implantable radiation sensing device or the external x-ray radiation-emitting system and initiates a data transmission protocol between the implantable radiation sensing device and the external x-ray radiation-emitting system based on the identification protocol.

27. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, the proposed dose verification device further comprising:

an x-ray radiation sensor device operable to detect a transcutaneously received x-ray radiation stimulus associated with the external x-ray radiation-emitting system.

28. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, the proposed dose verification device further comprising:

an x-ray radiation sensor device including one or more pixels that acquire at least a portion of a transcutaneous x-ray radiation stimulus emitted by the external x-ray radiation-emitting system and transduce the x-ray radiation stimulus acquired by the x-ray radiation sensor device into at least one measurand indicative of an x-ray radiation exposure during an integration period of the x-ray radiation sensor device.

29. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, further comprising:

an interrogation interface operably coupled to the exposure determination device, the exposure determination device configured to provide potential exposure status information or cumulative exposure information in response to interrogation of the interrogation interface.

30. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, further comprising:

a transceiver operable to concurrently or sequentially transmit or receive cumulative exposure information; and

an interrogation interface operably coupled to the exposure determination device, the exposure determination device configured to provide cumulative exposure information in response to interrogation of the interrogation interface.

31. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, further comprising:

a transceiver operable to concurrently or sequentially transmit or receive one or more of radiation intensity data, radiation energy data, radiation exposure time data, rate of radiation energy deposition, depth of radiation energy deposition data, absorbed dose data, absorbed dose rate data, committed effective dose data, cumulative dose data, effective dose data, equivalent dose data, or exposure data based on the at least one measurand output.

32. The implantable radiation sensing device of claim 23, further comprising:

an interrogation-selective interface operably coupled to the exposure determination device, the interrogation-selective interface operable to provide cumulative potential exposure status information in response to at least one of electromagnetic interrogation or acoustic interrogation of the interrogation-selective interface that satisfies interrogation-selective criteria.

33. A method, comprising:

eliciting proposed dose information from an x-ray radiation-emitting system via an indwelling x-ray radiation sensing device; and

determining a potential exposure status of a user in response to one or more transcutaneously received signals associated with the elicited proposed dose information.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

generating at least one of a visual representation, an audio representation, a haptic representation, or a tactile representation indicative of the potential exposure status of the user.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

updating a stored radiation treatment protocol based on the potential exposure status of the user.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

determining an actual exposure status of the user based on a comparison of an in vivo detected x-ray radiation measurand from the indwelling implant to the proposed dose information.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

generating at least one of a visual representation, an audio representation, a haptic representation, or a tactile representation indicative of the actual exposure status of the user.

38. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

modifying a user-specific radiation treatment regimen based on the actual exposure status of the user.

39. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

initiating a radiation treatment protocol based on the actual exposure status of the user.