Apparatus and methods for detecting increase in brain swelling and/or shifting
AssigneeNihon Kohden Corporation
InventorMitsuhiro Oura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosed subject matter related to methods and apparatus for determining brain swelling and brain shifting in a patient as well as predicting a possible resultant increase in intracranial pressure in the patient. The apparatus can include a transducer such as an ultrasound transducer communicatively connected to a controller via wires or via wireless communications device(s). A monitor and/or alarm device can be provided to notify a practitioner when the controller has determined brain swelling is occurring and/or when an imminent increase in intracranial pressure is likely to occur.
Claims19
An apparatus for determining at least one of brain swelling and shifting in a patient, comprising:
- an attachment structure configured to attach an ultrasound transducer to a head, with skull, adjacent the brain of the patient;
- and
- a controller configured to receive information indicating location of a first brain tissue portion relative to a second brain tissue portion by the ultrasound transducer and to determine whether an intracranial pressure of the patient increases based on change over time of the information, the change over time of the information representing a displacement of position over time of the first brain tissue portion relative to the second brain tissue portion,
- wherein the controller is configured to determine whether the at least one of brain swelling and shifting has occurred based on a determination of whether the change over time of the information is within a predetermined target amount;
- at least one of position and orientation of the skull of the patient monitored by an accelerometer and represented by data from such monitoring,
- the controller is configured to determine variance of (a) the at least one of position and orientation of the skull as represented by the data from the monitoring performed by the accelerometer, relative to (b) the change over time of the information;
- and
- the controller is configured to calculate the displacement of position over time, of the first brain tissue portion relative to the second brain tissue portion, based on IQ data, the IQ data included in the information.
An apparatus for determining at least one of brain swelling and shifting in a patient, comprising:
- an attachment structure configured to attach an ultrasound transducer to a head adjacent the brain of the patient;
- and
- a controller configured to receive information indicating location of a first brain tissue portion relative to a second brain tissue portion by the ultrasound transducer and to determine whether an intracranial pressure of the patient increases based on change over time of the information, the change over time of the information representing a displacement of position over time of the first brain tissue portion relative to the second brain tissue portion,
- movement of the head and chest monitored by an accelerometer and represented by data, the accelerometer attached to the head and the chest of the patient;
- the controller is configured to use the data, from such monitoring performed by the accelerometer, to calculate positional relationship between the first brain tissue portion and the second brain tissue portion, and
- the controller is configured to calculate the displacement of position over time, of the first brain tissue portion relative to the second brain tissue portion, based on IQ data, and the IQ data included in the information.
A measuring apparatus configured to measure a brain tissue displacement of a patient, the measuring apparatus comprising:
- a circuitry, provided in a controller, the circuitry:
- configured to input a signal received from an ultrasound transducer, the ultrasound transducer communicatively connected to the controller via wires or via a wireless communication device;
- configured to separate the signal received from the ultrasound transducer attached to a head of the patient by quadrature detection into a first signal component and a second signal component;
- configured to determine a center point of an arc-shaped trajectory formed by change over time of the first and second signal components on a coordinate plane in which a first coordinate axis corresponds to the first signal component and a second coordinate axis corresponds to the second signal component;
- configured to calculate a displacement amount of a brain tissue of the patient based on change over time of a phase angle between the first and second signal components, which is determined based on the center point;
- configured to create at least one of brain swelling and brain shifting data;
- and
- configured to output the at least one of brain swelling and brain shifting data to a video display, so as to be displayed on the video display.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.