Medical device comprising an impedance measurement means to measure visceral fat
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A medical device comprising:
- an impedance measurement circuit comprising at least three measurement electrodes, configured to interact in vivo with intracorporeal tissue of a patient said at least three measurement electrodes of said impedance measurement circuit being configurable into at least two different measurement electrode configurations;
said impedance measurement circuit being configured to apply a measurement signal, selected from the group consisting of a measurement current and a measurement voltage, to each of said at least two different electrode configurations and to measure and calculate an impedance of the tissue therefrom, impedance measurement circuit being configured to measure said impedance of said tissue using each of said at least two different measurement electrode configurations and to calculate said impedance values from respective impedance measurements obtained with said at least three measurement electrodes in said at least two different measurement electrode configurations, respectively;
a storage unit connected to said impedance measurement circuit in which a plurality of respective impedance values, respectively representing impedance measured over time by said impedance measurement circuit, are stored; and
an analyzing unit, having access to said storage unit configured to calculate an amount of visceral fat in said tissue by comparing the respective impedance measurements obtained with said at least two electrode configurations to each other, wherein said at least two different measurement electrode configurations include one configuration wherein the impedance is essentially not influenced by visceral fat of said tissue.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A medical device having an impedance measurement circuit connected to at least two intracorporeal measurement electrodes arranged to measure the impedance of tissue inside the body of a patient. The impedance measurement circuit is adapted to apply a measurement current/voltage signal to the electrodes to measure and calculate the impedance of the measurement tissue, and to apply the calculated impedance value to a storage unit. The stored impedance values are used, by an analysis unit, to measure the amount of visceral fat of the tissue object inside the body of the patient.
-
Citations
13 Claims
-
1. A medical device comprising:
-
an impedance measurement circuit comprising at least three measurement electrodes, configured to interact in vivo with intracorporeal tissue of a patient said at least three measurement electrodes of said impedance measurement circuit being configurable into at least two different measurement electrode configurations; said impedance measurement circuit being configured to apply a measurement signal, selected from the group consisting of a measurement current and a measurement voltage, to each of said at least two different electrode configurations and to measure and calculate an impedance of the tissue therefrom, impedance measurement circuit being configured to measure said impedance of said tissue using each of said at least two different measurement electrode configurations and to calculate said impedance values from respective impedance measurements obtained with said at least three measurement electrodes in said at least two different measurement electrode configurations, respectively; a storage unit connected to said impedance measurement circuit in which a plurality of respective impedance values, respectively representing impedance measured over time by said impedance measurement circuit, are stored; and an analyzing unit, having access to said storage unit configured to calculate an amount of visceral fat in said tissue by comparing the respective impedance measurements obtained with said at least two electrode configurations to each other, wherein said at least two different measurement electrode configurations include one configuration wherein the impedance is essentially not influenced by visceral fat of said tissue. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A medical device comprising:
-
an impedance measurement circuit comprising a plurality of measurement electrodes, configured to interact in vivo with intracorporeal tissue of a patient, said plurality of electrodes of said impedance measurement circuit being configurable into at least a first measurement electrode configuration that is influenced by visceral fat of said tissue and a second measurement electrode configuration that is not influenced by said visceral fat of said tissue; said impedance measurement circuit being configured to apply a measurement signal to said electrodes in each of said first and second different measurement electrode configurations based on the applied measurement signal to the electrode in each of said first and second different measurement electrode configurations, and to measure and calculate a first impedance value with said electrodes in said first measurement electrode configuration and to measure and calculate a second impedance value with said electrodes in said second measurement electrode configuration; a storage unit connected to said impedance measurement circuit in which at least said first and second impedance values are stored; and an analyzing unit, having access to said storage unit, configured to calculate an amount of visceral fat in said tissue by comparing the first impedance value with the second impedance value to obtain a comparison result indicative of said amount of visceral fat in said tissue.
-
Specification