APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTINUOUS NONINVASIVE MEASUREMENT OF RESPIRATORY FUNCTION AND EVENTS
First Claim
1. An apparatus for determining a change in the spatial configuration of a lung by interrogating the lung with electromagnetic energy, comprising:
- at least one antenna adapted to be located adjacent a portion of the lung; and
a sensing unit capable of resolving a change in reflected signals, wherein said sensing unit of the apparatus is capable of resolving a change in reflected signals that are functionally related to a change in respiratory volume.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for non-invasive and continuous measurement of respiratory chamber volume and associated parameters including respiratory rate, respiratory rhythm, tidal volume, dielectric variability and respiratory congestion. In particular, a non-invasive apparatus and method for determining dynamic and structural physiologic data from a living subject including a change in the spatial configuration of a respiratory chamber, a lung or a lobe of a lung to determine overall respiratory health comprising an ultra wide-band radar system having at least one transmitting and receiving antenna for applying ultra wide-band radio signals to a target area of the subject'"'"'s anatomy wherein the receiving antenna collects and transmits signal returns from the target area.
352 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus for determining a change in the spatial configuration of a lung by interrogating the lung with electromagnetic energy, comprising:
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at least one antenna adapted to be located adjacent a portion of the lung; and a sensing unit capable of resolving a change in reflected signals, wherein said sensing unit of the apparatus is capable of resolving a change in reflected signals that are functionally related to a change in respiratory volume. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A medical device for assessing pulmonary functionality, comprising:
- a sensing unit including a control unit, a radar transceiver, and at least one antenna, said at least one antenna being adapted to be located adjacent a portion of a lung to measure dynamic motion of a targeted portion of the lung.
- View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for determining changes in respiratory volume in a body wherein an ultra wide-band medical radar transceiver, including a transmitter and a receiver and a signal processor integrated with software elements in conjunction with a central processing unit are used according to the following steps:
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said transceiver transmits a series of extremely short duration electromagnetic pulses into a body, said electromagnetic impulses encounter a boundary between different biological substances in the body, small amounts of incident energy encountering the boundary are reflected back towards said receiver as raw reflections where said raw reflections are captured and pre-processed by said receiver, said receiver captures a plurality of said raw reflections using a high speed sample and hold circuit where capture time for a sample of said raw reflections is set equal to a round trip time of flight from said transmitter to a depth range of interest and back to said receiver, said plurality of sampled reflections from said depth ranges of interest are integrated to form an integrated signal to minimize high frequency noise so as to avoid corruption of desired data related to tracking instantaneous respiratory chamber volume, said integrated signal is amplified and passed through a low-pass filter to prevent signal aliasing prior to digitization, a predetermined number of reflections for a first range of interest are collected and integrated, said receiver sample timing is changed and reflections from a next range of interest are captured, said above steps are repeated until reflections from an entire range of interest across the respiratory chamber are collected, said above step is then continually repeated to deliver an updated instantaneous measure of respiratory volumetric changes. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification