Monitoring a condition of a subject

• US 8,942,779 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2014
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Early Sense Limited
• Inventors: Halperin, Avner, Averboukh, Arkadi, Karasik, Roman, Meger, Guy
• Primary Examiner(s): Lavert, Nicole F
• Application Number:
  US14/454,300
• Publication Number:
  US 20140350360A1
• Time in Patent Office: 173 Days
• Field of Search: 600/347, 607/22
• US Class Current: 600/347
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse, heart rate, blood pressure or blood flow; Combined pulse/heart-rate/blood pressure determination; Evaluating a cardiovascular condition not otherwise provided for, e.g. using combinations of techniques provided for in this group with electrocardiography or electroauscultation; Heart catheters for measuring blood pressure
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/08 Detecting, measuring or recording devices for evaluating the respiratory organs A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0816 Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0823 Detecting or evaluating cough events
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1107 Measuring contraction of parts of the body, e.g. organ, muscle apparatus for measuring work or force in general G01L
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4343 Pregnancy and labour monitoring, e.g. for labour onset detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4356 Assessing uterine contractions A61B5/033 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4806 Sleep evaluation A61B5/4821 takes precedence; devices for inducing sleep A61M21/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4818 Sleep apnoea
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4836 Diagnosis combined with treatment in closed-loop systems or methods A61B5/0036 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4839 combined with drug delivery
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6892 Mats
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7278 : Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 : Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 : Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/60 : for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 : for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are described, including a method for detecting an onset of a hypoglycemia episode in a subject. One or more critical parameters for hypoglycemia are monitored without contacting the subject. A variation of at least one of the critical parameters is detected, and an alarm is activated when at least one of the critical parameters deviates from an accepted value. Other applications are also described.

Claims

1. A method for detecting an onset of a hypoglycemia episode in a subject, the method comprising:

monitoring one or more critical parameters for hypoglycemia without contacting the subject;

detecting a variation of at least one of the critical parameters; and

activating an alarm when at least one of the critical parameters deviates from an accepted value.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises determining a baseline level of at least one of the critical parameters, and wherein detecting the variation comprises detecting the variation of said at least one of the critical parameters from said baseline level.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method is practiced while the subject is asleep.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method is practiced without requiring compliance of the subject.

5. Apparatus for detecting an onset of a hypoglycemia episode in a subject, the apparatus comprising:

at least one sensor configured to monitor one or more critical parameters for hypoglycemia without contacting or viewing the subject, and to generate a signal in response thereto; and

a control unit configured to;

by analyzing the signal, detect the onset of the hypoglycemia episode by detecting a variation of at least one of the critical parameters from a baseline level, and

activate an alarm in response thereto.

6. The apparatus as recited in claim 5,

wherein the control unit is further configured to determine the baseline level of the at least one of the critical parameters.

7. The apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein the critical parameters include at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of:

respiration rate, heart rate, occurrence of palpitations, restlessness, and tremor, the control unit being configured to detect a variation of the at least one selected parameter.

8. The apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein the apparatus is configured to be used while the subject is asleep.

9. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the apparatus is configured to be used without requiring compliance of the subject.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the critical parameters include tremor, the control unit being configured to detect the variation of the tremor.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the control unit is configured to detect the variation of the tremor by monitoring body motion of the subject at between 3 and 18 Hz.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the control unit is configured to detect the variation of the tremor by monitoring body motion of the subject at between 8 and 12 Hz.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the control unit is configured to:

identify a tremor signal by subtracting a heart rate signal and a respiration rate signal from the generated signal, and

detect the variation of the tremor by analyzing the tremor signal.

14. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the control unit is configured to detect the variation by:

calculating a hypoglycemia score that is an average of (a) a ratio of a current respiration rate to a baseline respiration rate, (b) a ratio of a current heart rate to a baseline heart rate, (c) a ratio of a current tremor level to a baseline tremor level, and (d) a ratio of a current restlessness level to a baseline restlessness level, and

comparing the hypoglycemia score to a threshold.

15. The apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a drug administration device, wherein the control unit is configured to drive the drug administration device to deliver glucose to the subject upon detecting the onset of the hypoglycemia episode.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the drug administration device comprises a spray dispenser.