System, devices, and methods for detecting occlusions in a biological subject

• US 8,280,484 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonavex, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Boyden, Edward S., Leuthardt, Eric C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Tse
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brutus, Joel F
• Application Number:
  US12/387,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20090318802A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• Field of Search: 600/407, 600409-410, 600/437, 600/473, 600/476, 600480-485, 382/128, 382224-225
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02007 Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/412 Detecting or monitoring sepsis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/56 Details of data transmission or power supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2005/1726 the body parameters being measured at, or proximate to, the infusion site
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2039/2413 designed to reduce and or shut-off the flow when a certain maximum flow limit is exceeded
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2039/242 designed to open when a predetermined pressure or flow rate has been reached, e.g. check valve actuated by fluid
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2039/248 Ball-valve
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/04 implanted
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3561 local, e.g. within room or hospital
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3592 using telemetric means, e.g. radio or optical transmission
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 39/24 Check- or non-return valves
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/14276 specially adapted for implantation

Abstract

Systems, devices, and methods are described for detecting an embolus, thrombus, or a deep vein thrombus in a biological subject.

Claims

1. An occlusion monitoring device, comprising:

an interrogation energy emitter component;

a sensor component, the sensor component configured to detect at least one of an emitted energy or a remitted energy,

determine at least one spatial dependence and at least one temporal dependence associated with an occlusion in an artery, a blood clot formation in a blood vessel, an embolus, or a blood clot formation in a deep vein within the biological subject under test,

predict the onset of an obstruction in blood vessel, and

generate a first response based on a detected at least one of the emitted energy or the remitted energy, the first response indicative of at least one physical parameter associated with the at least one spatial dependence and the at least one temporal dependence of the occlusion in an artery, the blood clot formation in a blood vessel, the embolus, or the blood clot formation in a deep vein within the biological subject under test; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable memory media having blood vessel spectral occlusion information configured as a data structure, the data structure including a spectral signature information section having at least one of

embolus spectral information,

arterial embolus spectral information,

thrombus spectral information,

deep vein thrombus spectral information, or

blood component spectral information;

the sensor component including one or more computing devices configured to determine the at least one spatial dependence and the at least one temporal dependence associated with the occlusion in an artery, the blood clot formation in a blood vessel, the embolus, or the blood clot formation in a deep vein within the biological subject under test based on the comparison of the detected emitted energy or a remitted energy and the blood vessel spectral occlusion information configured as the data structure.

2. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver at least one of an electromagnetic interrogation energy, an electrical interrogation energy, an ultrasonic interrogation energy, or a thermal interrogation energy to at least one region within a biological subject.

3. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver an electromagnetic interrogation energy to at least one region within a biological subject, the electromagnetic interrogation energy having at least a first peak emission wavelength ranging from about 600 nm to about 850 nm, and a second peak emission wavelength ranging from about 850 nm to about 1000 nm.

4. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver an electromagnetic interrogation energy to at least one region within a biological subject, the electromagnetic interrogation energy having at least a first peak emission wavelength ranging from about 630 nm to about 660 nm, and a second peak emission wavelength ranging from about 660 nm to about 990 nm.

5. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to concurrently or sequentially deliver at least a first interrogation energy and a second interrogation energy, the second interrogation energy different than the first interrogation energy;

wherein the first interrogation energy comprises an electromagnetic interrogation energy, an electrical interrogation energy, an ultrasonic interrogation energy, or a thermal interrogation energy, and the second interrogation energy comprises a different one of an electromagnetic interrogation energy, an electrical interrogation energy, an ultrasonic interrogation energy, or a thermal interrogation energy.

6. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver an illumination pattern comprising at least a first region and a second region, the second region having at least one of an illumination intensity, an energy-emitting pattern, a peak emission wavelength, an ON-pulse duration, an OFF-pulse duration, or a pulse frequency different than the first region.

7. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to concurrently or sequentially deliver one or more of an electromagnetic interrogation energy, an electrical interrogation energy, an ultrasonic interrogation energy, or a thermal interrogation energy.

8. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver electromagnetic interrogation energy to a region with a biological subject.

9. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver electrical interrogation energy to a region with a biological subject.

10. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver ultrasonic interrogation energy to a region with a biological subject.

11. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the interrogation energy emitter component is configured to deliver thermal interrogation energy to a region with a biological subject.

12. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more computer-readable memory media having inflammation marker spectral information configured as a data structure, the data structure including a spectral signature information section having at least one of infection marker spectral information, inflammation marker spectral information, infective stress marker spectral information, or sepsis marker spectral information.

13. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the sensor component is configured to detect at least one of an emitted electromagnetic energy, an emitted electrical energy, an emitted ultrasonic energy, or an emitted thermal energy.

14. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the sensor component is configured to detect at least one of a remitted electromagnetic energy, a remitted electrical energy, a remitted ultrasonic energy, or a remitted thermal energy.

15. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the blood vessel spectral occlusion information includes spectral information cluster according to one or more Fuzzy C-Means Clustering protocols, Graph-Theoretic protocols, Hierarchical Clustering protocols, K-Means Clustering protocols, Locality-Sensitive Hashing protocols, Mixture of Gaussians protocols, Model-Based Clustering protocols, a Cluster-Weighted Modeling protocol, an Expectations-Maximization protocol, a Principal Components Analysis protocol, or Partitional protocols.

16. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the blood vessel spectral occlusion information includes one or more heuristically determined parameters associated with at least one in vivo or in vitro determined metric.

17. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 16, wherein the one or more heuristically determined parameters include at least one of a threshold level or a target parameter.

18. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 16, wherein the one or more heuristically determined parameters include threshold information.

19. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 16, wherein the one or more heuristically determined parameters include at least one of threshold embolus spectral signature information, threshold arterial embolus spectral signature information, threshold thrombus spectral signature information, or threshold deep vein thrombus spectral signature information.

20. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 16, wherein the one or more heuristically determined parameters include at least one of a heuristic protocol determined parameter or a heuristic algorithm determined parameter.

21. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 16, wherein the one or more heuristically determined parameters include at least one occlusion formation model seed parameter.

22. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 16, wherein the one or more heuristically determined parameters include one or more seed parameters for at least one of an occlusion spectral model, a blood spectral model, a fat spectral model, a muscle spectral model, or a bone spectral model.

23. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, further comprising:

a controller configured to cluster at least one of a detected emitted energy or detected remitted energy, into two or more information subsets using one or more Fuzzy C-Means Clustering protocols, Graph-Theoretic protocols, Hierarchical Clustering protocols, K-Means Clustering protocols, Locality-Sensitive Hashing protocols, Mixture of Gaussians protocols, Model-Based Clustering protocols, Cluster-Weighted Modeling protocols, Expectations-Maximization protocols, Principal Components Analysis protocols, or Partitional protocols.

24. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the embolus spectral information includes at least one of an embolus absorption value indicative of an embolus absorption coefficient, an embolus extinction value indicative of an embolus extinction coefficient, or an embolus scattering value indicative of an embolus scattering coefficient.

25. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the embolus spectral information includes at least one of embolus absorption coefficient data, embolus extinction coefficient data, or embolus scattering coefficient data.

26. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the arterial embolus spectral information includes at least one of a arterial embolus absorption value indicative of an arterial embolus absorption coefficient, a arterial embolus extinction value indicative of an arterial embolus extinction coefficient, or a arterial embolus scattering value indicative of an arterial embolus scattering coefficient.

27. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein arterial embolus spectral information includes at least one of arterial embolus absorption coefficient data, arterial embolus extinction coefficient data, or arterial embolus scattering coefficient data.

28. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the arterial embolus spectral information includes at least one spectral parameter associated with a peripheral artery occlusion.

29. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the thrombus spectral information includes at least one of a thrombus absorption value indicative of a thrombus absorption coefficient, a thrombus extinction value indicative of a thrombus extinction coefficient, or a thrombus scattering value indicative of a thrombus scattering coefficient.

30. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the thrombus spectral information includes at least one of thrombus absorption coefficient data, thrombus extinction coefficient data, or thrombus scattering coefficient data.

31. The occlusion monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the deep vein thrombus spectral information includes at least one of a deep vein thrombus absorption value indicative of a deep vein thrombus absorption coefficient, a deep vein thrombus extinction value indicative of a deep vein thrombus extinction coefficient, or a deep vein thrombus scattering value indicative of a deep vein thrombus scattering coefficient.

32. The occlusion-monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the deep vein thrombus spectral information includes at least one of deep vein thrombus absorption coefficient data, deep vein thrombus extinction coefficient data, or deep vein thrombus scattering coefficient data.