Apparatus for the non-invasive measurement of the blood flow
AssigneeFresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH
InventorsPascal Kopperschmidt, Carsten Mueller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for the non-invasive measurement of the blood flow through a shunt of a patient has at least one bandage which can be worn by the patient, as well as a plurality of sensors which are arranged in or at the bandage, which are arranged in at least one multidimensional matrix, and which are configured such that they create a multidimensional matrix of measured values of at least one parameter detected by the sensors.
Claims11
An apparatus for non-invasive measurement of blood flow through a shunt of a patient, said apparatus comprising:
- a bandage configured to be worn by the patient;
- a plurality of skin stretching sensors arranged at the bandage, the skin stretching sensors being arranged in a multidimensional matrix, and being configured to measure values resulting from a multidimensional pattern of skin stretching that is associated with oscillating variations in blood pressure and ultimately the blood flow through the shunt;
- an evaluation unit configured to process the measured values including generating a spatio-temporal pattern of the spatial stretching of a surface of the skin which reproduces the measured values of the skin stretching sensors simultaneously, and comparing the measured stretching values with reference values so as to generate a pattern providing a comparison of the measured stretching values relative to the reference values, the generated pattern including white and black boxes, with each white box corresponding to a pressure value which lies below a reference value and each black box corresponding to a pressure value which lies above a reference value;
- a transmission unit configured to be in communication with the evaluation unit and to transmit the generated pattern therefrom;
- and
- a receiver configured to receive the generated pattern transmitted by the transmission unit so as to facilitate treatment of the patient based on the non-invasive measurement.
A method of non-invasive measurement of blood flow through a shunt of a patient, said method comprising:
- providing an apparatus for the non-invasive measurement of the blood flow through the shunt, the apparatus including
- a bandage configured to be worn by the patient and having a plurality of skin stretching sensors arranged at the bandage, the skin stretching sensors being arranged in a multidimensional matrix, and being configured to measure values resulting from a multidimensional pattern of skin stretching that is associated with oscillating variations in blood pressure and ultimately the blood flow through the shunt,
- An evaluation unit,
- a transmission unit in communication with the evaluation unit, and
- a receiver,
- applying the bandage to the patient;
- with the evaluation unit, processing the measured values, including generating a spatio-temporal pattern of the spatial stretching of a surface of the skin which reproduces the measured values of the skin stretching sensors simultaneously, and comparing the measured stretching values with reference values so as to generate a pattern providing a comparison of the measured stretching values relative to the reference values, the generated pattern including white and black boxes, with each white box corresponding to a pressure value which lies below a reference value and each black box corresponding to a pressure value which lies above a reference value;
- with the transmission unit, transmitting the generated pattern therefrom;
- and
- with the receiver, receiving the generated pattern transmitted by the transmission unit so as to facilitate treatment of the patient based on the non-invasive measurement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.