System for pancreatic stimulation and glucose measurement
First Claim
1. A system for sensing insulin demand of a patient, comprising:
- stimulating means for delivering stimulating pulses to the pancreas of said patient;
sensing means for sensing the electrical responses of said pancreas to said stimulating pulses and obtaining signals representative of said responses; and
processing means for processing said signals and deriving therefrom a measure of the insulin demand of said patient.
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Abstract
There is provided an implantable system and method for monitoring pancreatic beta cell electrical activity in a patient in order to obtain a measure of a patient'"'"'s insulin demand and blood glucose level. A stimulus generator is controlled to deliver stimulus pulses so as to synchronize pancreatic beta cell depolarization, thereby producing an enhanced electrical signal which is sensed and processed. In a specific embodiment, the signal is processed to determine the start and end of beta cell depolarization, from which the depolarization duration is obtained. In order to reduce cardiac interference, each stimulus pulse is timed to be offset from the QRS signal which can interfere with the pancreas sensing. Additionally, the beta cell signals are processed by a correction circuit, e.g., an adaptive filter, to remove QRS artifacts, as well as artifacts from other sources, such as respiration. The thus obtained insulin demand signal is used either to control delivery of insulin from an implanted insulin pump, or to control ongoing pancreatic stimulation of a form to enhance insulin production.
167 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A system for sensing insulin demand of a patient, comprising:
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stimulating means for delivering stimulating pulses to the pancreas of said patient;
sensing means for sensing the electrical responses of said pancreas to said stimulating pulses and obtaining signals representative of said responses; and
processing means for processing said signals and deriving therefrom a measure of the insulin demand of said patient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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14. An implantable closed loop insulin delivery system for delivering insulin to a patient, comprising:
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stimulus means for stimulating pancreatic beta cells within a predetermined location of said patient;
sensing means for sensing electrical activity of said beta cells following a said stimulating;
measure means for determining from said sensed electrical activity a measure of the patient'"'"'s blood glucose level; and
insulin delivery means for delivering insulin to said patient in response to a determined said measure greater than a predetermined level.
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20. A method of obtaining a measure of blood glucose in a patient, comprising:
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(a) delivering at least one stimulus pulse to a location of said patient containing pancreatic beta cells;
(b) sensing the electrical response of said pancreatic beta cells to said stimulus pulse and obtaining a signal representative of said response; and
(c) processing said at least one signal and deriving therefrom a measure of patient blood glucose level. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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26. A system for providing improved sensing of pancreatic beta cells, whereby to obtain information representative of patient insulin demand, comprising:
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stimulating means for generating and delivering stimulus pulses to a predetermined patient location;
sensing means for sensing electrical activity of pancreatic beta cells within said patient, said sensing means being operatively coordinated with said stimulating means so as to sense beta cell responses following said stimulus pulses, and processing means for processing said signals and deriving therefrom a measure of the insulin demand of said patient.
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Specification