Systems and methods for monitoring a patient's neurological disease state

• US 20060224191A1
• Filed: 09/23/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cyberonics, Inc
• Original Assignee: Cyberonics, Inc
• Inventors: Dilorenzo, Daniel John
• Granted Patent: US 9,375,573 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/3
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0529 Electrodes for brain stimulation
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3605 Implantable neurostimulators for stimulating central or peripheral nerve system
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36064 Epilepsy
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36067 Movement disorders, e.g. tremor or Parkinson disease stimulating motor muscle A61N1/36003
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36082 Cognitive or psychiatric applications, e.g. dementia or Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The present invention provides a system for providing neurological disease state information to a patient. The system comprises one or more sensors that sense at least one signal that comprise feature(s) that are indicative of a neurological disease state. A signal processing assembly is in communication with the one or more sensors and processes the at least one signal to estimate the neurological disease state. A patient interface module is in communication with the signal processing assembly and communicates with a patient an output that is indicative of the patient'"'"'s estimated neurological disease state.

Claims

1. A system for providing neurological disease state information to a patient, the system comprising:

one or more sensors that sense at least one signal that comprise feature(s) that are indicative of a neurological disease state;

a signal processing assembly in communication with the one or more sensors that processes the at least one signal to estimate the neurological disease state; and

a patient interface module in communication with the signal processing assembly that communicates with a patient an output that is indicative of the estimated neurological disease state.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the output from the patient interface module facilitates monitoring of a time history of the estimated disease state.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the output from the patient interface module facilitates monitoring of an estimated future disease state.

4. The system of claim 1 comprising a treatment assembly in communication with the signal processing assembly, wherein the signal processing assembly is configured to deliver a therapy to the patient through the treatment assembly that is based at least in part on the estimated neurological disease state.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the treatment assembly comprises at least one electrode that is configured to deliver neurostimulation to a nervous system component.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the at least one electrode is configured to be coupled to a peripheral nerve.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the peripheral nerve comprises a vagus nerve.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the electrode is configured to be placed in an intracranial location.

9. The system of claim 4 wherein the treatment assembly comprises a medication dispenser.

10. The system of claim 4 wherein the signal processing assembly is configured to compare the estimated neurological disease state with a reference neurological disease state, wherein the comparison of the estimated neurological disease state with the reference neurological disease state is used at least in part to generate parameters of the therapy.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the signal processing assembly comprises a module for calculating a control law.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the signal processing assembly and patient interface module comprises a memory for storing the estimated neurological disease state.

13. A method of estimating a patient'"'"'s neurological disease state, the method comprising:

sensing at least one neurological signal from the patient;

processing the at least one signal to estimate the patient'"'"'s neurological disease state; and

communicating to the patient a patient output that is indicative of the estimated neurological disease state.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein communicating facilitates monitoring of a time history of the estimated neurological disease state.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein communicating facilitates monitoring of an estimated future neurological disease state.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein processing and communicating to the patient are performed by an implanted device.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein processing is carried out in an implanted signal processing assembly and communicating to the patient is carried out with an external patient interface module, the method further comprising percutaneously transmitting the processed signal(s) from the signal processing assembly to the patient interface module.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising communicating an output to a supervisory module.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the patient output is provided to the patient in real-time.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the patient output is indicative of a patient'"'"'s response to therapy.

21. The method of claim 13 comprising delivering a therapy to the patient that is based at least in part on the estimated neurological disease state.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the therapy comprises delivery of a neuromodulation signal.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the therapy comprises delivery of a medication.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the therapy comprises delivery of an electrical signal.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the neuromodulation signal is delivered to a nervous system component.

26. The method of claim 22 wherein the neuromodulation signal is delivered to one or more peripheral nerves.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the peripheral nerve comprises the vagus nerve.

28. The method of claim 13 wherein sensing is carried out by coupling one or more sensors to a nervous system component.

29. The method of claim 13 comprising storing the estimated neurological disease state in a memory.

30. A system for providing epilepsy disease state information to a patient, the system comprising:

one or more sensors coupled to a nervous system component that sense at least one signal that comprise characteristic(s) that are indicative of an epilepsy disease state;

an implanted digital signal processing assembly in communication with the one or more sensors that generates an estimated epilepsy disease state based at least on part on the at least one signal from the one or more sensors; and

a patient interface module that is external to the patient'"'"'s body in wireless communication with the implanted signal processing assembly,

wherein the patient interface module communicates to the patient an output that allows the patient to monitor their epilepsy disease state.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the output is performed substantially continuously.

32. A system for providing neurological disease state information to a patient, the system comprising:

one or more sensors that sense at least one signal that comprise characteristic(s) that are indicative of a neurological disease state;

a signal processing assembly in communication with the one or more sensors that processes the at least one signal to estimate the neurological disease state; and

a patient interface module in communication with the signal processing assembly that is configured to allow the patient to query the signal processing assembly to communicate the estimated neurological disease state to the patient.

33. A method of communicating a patient'"'"'s neurological disease state to the patient, the method comprising:

sensing at least one neurological signal from the patient;

processing the at least one signal with a signal processor to estimate the patient'"'"'s neurological disease state;

querying the signal processor with a patient interface module; and

communicating to the patient interface module an output that is indicative of the estimated neurological disease state.