Electroencephalograph instrument for mass screening
First Claim
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1. An electroencephalographic (EEG) system comprising:
- (a) a plurality of EEG electrodes, including a fiducial electrode, adapted to be removably secured to the scalp of the patient, each EEG electrode being a portion of a brain wave signal channel;
(b) an amplifier means to amplify the analog microvolt level brain wave signals from the EEG electrodes in each brain wave channel, the amplifier means consisting of a plurality of fewer amplifiers than two-thirds the number of the EEG electrodes;
(c) electronic switching means to sample the larger number of electrodes by the smaller number of amplifiers;
(d) an analog/digital converter connected to the amplifiers to produce therefrom EEG data consisting of amplified and digitized brain wave signals;
(e) a micro-processor based computer system means connected to the analog/digital converter to analyze the EEG data;
(f) a patient stimulator means connected to and controlled by the computer system means to provide a selected pattern of stimulation to the patient to evoke the patient'"'"'s brain wave responses in a set of evoked potential tests, each test being the brain wave evoked responses at a selected frequency range and at a selected electrode to a selected simulation;
g) a computer memory means connected to the computer system means to store the test scores of normal groups to a set of evoked potential tests corresponding to the evoked potential tests given to the patient;
(h) test score pair comparison means in the computer system means to form at least 24 pairs of test scores, each pair comprising two test scores from duplicated tests;
to compare one test score of each pair with the other test score of the same pair, and to accept for further analysis only those pairs in which the two test scores of the pair are sufficiently alike within a predetermined definition;
(i) normal comparison means in the computer system to compare accepted pairs of test scores with the normal group test scores of (g) and to identify, as being abnormal, those accepted pairs of test sources which are significantly deviant from the normal group test scores of (g);
(j) signal means to signal the finding by (i) of abnormal test scores of the patient.
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Abstract
In an electroencephalographic (EEG) system the number of EEG electrodes is greater than the number of amplification channels. A switching system switches the EEG electrodes to the amplification channels to provide a sequence of segments of data from each EEG electrode. The segments are compared to each other and with normal data to provide statistically reliable information regarding the normality of the patient'"'"'s brain waves. In one embodiment, both EEG and EKG electrodes are alternatively connected to EKG amplifiers.
106 Citations
48 Claims
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1. An electroencephalographic (EEG) system comprising:
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(a) a plurality of EEG electrodes, including a fiducial electrode, adapted to be removably secured to the scalp of the patient, each EEG electrode being a portion of a brain wave signal channel; (b) an amplifier means to amplify the analog microvolt level brain wave signals from the EEG electrodes in each brain wave channel, the amplifier means consisting of a plurality of fewer amplifiers than two-thirds the number of the EEG electrodes; (c) electronic switching means to sample the larger number of electrodes by the smaller number of amplifiers; (d) an analog/digital converter connected to the amplifiers to produce therefrom EEG data consisting of amplified and digitized brain wave signals; (e) a micro-processor based computer system means connected to the analog/digital converter to analyze the EEG data; (f) a patient stimulator means connected to and controlled by the computer system means to provide a selected pattern of stimulation to the patient to evoke the patient'"'"'s brain wave responses in a set of evoked potential tests, each test being the brain wave evoked responses at a selected frequency range and at a selected electrode to a selected simulation; g) a computer memory means connected to the computer system means to store the test scores of normal groups to a set of evoked potential tests corresponding to the evoked potential tests given to the patient; (h) test score pair comparison means in the computer system means to form at least 24 pairs of test scores, each pair comprising two test scores from duplicated tests;
to compare one test score of each pair with the other test score of the same pair, and to accept for further analysis only those pairs in which the two test scores of the pair are sufficiently alike within a predetermined definition;(i) normal comparison means in the computer system to compare accepted pairs of test scores with the normal group test scores of (g) and to identify, as being abnormal, those accepted pairs of test sources which are significantly deviant from the normal group test scores of (g); (j) signal means to signal the finding by (i) of abnormal test scores of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13)
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10. A system as in claim I wherein the computer system of (e) includes means to perform a spectral analysis of the EEG data using FFT (Fast Fourier Transform).
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14. An electroencephalographic (EEG) system comprising:
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(a) a plurality of EEG electrodes adapted to be removably secured to the scalp of a patient, including a fiducial electrode, each EEG electrode being a portion of a brain wave signal channel; (b) an amplifier means to amplify the analog microvolt level brain wave signals form the EEG electrodes in each channel, the amplifier means consisting of a plurality of amplifiers which are fewer amplifiers than two-thirds the number of electrodes; (c) switching means to sample the larger number of EEG electrodes by the smaller number of amplifiers; (d) an analog/digital converter connected to the amplifiers to produce therefrom EEG data consisting of amplified and digitized brain wave signals; (e) a micro-processor based computer system connected to the analog/digital converter to analyze the EEG data; (f) a patient stimulator means connected to and controlled by the computer system to provide a selected pattern of stimulation to the patient to evoke the patient'"'"'s brain wave responses in a set of evoked potential tests, each test being the brain wave evoked responses at a selected frequency range and at a selected electrode to a selected simulation; (g) a computer memory means connected to the computer system to store the test scores of normal groups to a set of evoked potential tests corresponding to the evoked potential tests given to the patient; (h) an EOG (electro-oculogram) electrode adapted to be removably attached to the patient'"'"'s skin proximate the patient'"'"'s eye and EOG amplification means to amplify the signals from the EOG electrode, the EOG amplification means connected to the analog/digital converter and the EOG electrode and EOG amplification means constituting an EOG channel; (i) quantification means in the computer system of (e) to quantify the EEG data by spectral analysis using FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) and to detect artifact by regressing out the EOG channel from every EEG channel by comparison of the EOG channel and each EEG channel; and
to reject any of the intervals in which the voltage exceeds a multiple of the r m s voltage equal to 6×
the standard deviation of means amplitude;(j) test score pair comparison means in the computer system to form at least 24 pairs of test scores, each pair comprising two test scores from duplicated tests, to compare one test score of each pair with the other test score of the same pair to arrange the test scores of each pair into respective odd and even matrices each matrix consisting of rows and columns of test scores with the test scores of each pair being at the corresponding location in each matrix; and
to accept for further analysis only those pairs in which the two test scores of the pair are sufficiently alike within a predetermined definition;(k) normal comparison means in the computer system to compare accepted pairs of test scores with the normal group test scores of (g) and to identify, as being abnormal, those accepted pairs of test scores which are significantly deviant from the normal group test scores of (g); and (1) signal means to signal the finding by (k) of abnormal test scores of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An eletroencephalographic (EEG) and electrocardiographic (EKG) system comprising:
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(a) a plurality of EEG electrodes adapted to be removably secured to the scalp of the patient, including a fiducial electrode, each EEG electrode being a portion of a brain wave signal channel, and a plurality of EKG electrodes adapted to be removably secured to the skin of the patient to detect heart beats; (b) a preamplifier means connected to the EEG electrodes to amplify the analog microvolt level brain wave signals from the EEG electrodes in each of the channels; (c) a plurality of EKG amplifiers adapted at times to be removably connected to the plurality of EEG electrodes and adapted to be removably connected at other times to the EKG electrodes, the number of EKG amplifiers being less than two-thirds the number of EEG electrodes; (d) switching means to sample the larger number of EEG electrodes by the smaller number of EKG amplifiers; (e) an analog/digital converter means connected to the EKG amplifiers to produce EEG data consisting of amplified and digitized brain wave signals; (f) a micro-processor based computer system means connected to the analog/digital converter to analyze the EEG data; (g) a patient stimulator means connected to and controlled by the compute system means to provide a selected pattern of stimulation to the patient to evoke the patient'"'"'s brain wave responses in a set of evoked potential tests, each test being the brain wave evoked responses at a selected frequency range and at a selected electrode to a selected simulation; (h) a computer memory means connected to the computer system means to store the test scores of normal groups to a set of evoked potential tests corresponding to the tests given to the patient; (i) means in the computer system means to compare the test scores of each patient with normal group mean test scores stored in the computer memory means; and (j) display means to display the results of the test score comparisons and EKG heartbeat waveshapes. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. An electroencephalographic (EEG) method comprising the steps of:
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(a) removably attaching a plurality of EEG electrodes including a fiducial electrode to the scalp of the patient, each EEG electrode being a portion of a brain wave signal channel; (b) connecting the EEG electrodes to an amplifier means to amplify the analog microvolt level brain wave signals from the EEG electrodes in each brain wave signal channel, the amplifier means consisting of a plurality of fewer amplifiers than two-thirds the number of the EEG electrodes; (c) switching the amplifiers to the EEG electrodes to sample the larger number of electrodes by the smaller number of amplifiers; (d) producing EEG data using an analog/digital converter connected to the amplifiers, the EEG data consisting of amplified and digitized brain wave signals; (e) analyzing the EEG data in a micro-processor based computer system connected to the analog/digital converter; (f) stimulating the patient in a preselected pattern of stimulations using a patient stimulator means connected to and controlled by the computer system means, the selected pattern of stimulation to the patient evoking the patient'"'"'s brain wave responses to provide a set of evoked potential tests, each test being the brain wave evoked responses at a selected frequency range and at a selected electrode to a selected simulation; (g) storing the test scores of normal groups to a set of evoked potential tests corresponding to the evoked potential tests given to the patient in a computer memory means connected to the computer system means; (h) comparing pairs of test scores in the computer system from at least 24 pairs of different test scores, each pair comprising two test scores from duplicated tests by comparing one test score of each pair with the other test score of the same pair; and
accepting for further analysis only those pairs in which the two test scores of the pair are sufficiently alike within a predetermined definition;(i) comparing accepted pairs of test scores with the normal group test scores of (g) and identifying, as being abnormal, those accepted pairs of test sources which are significantly deviant from the normal group test scores of (g); and (j) signaling the finding by (i) of abnormal test scores of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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Specification