Back to results
US 12,539,077 B1Granted
Apparatus and method for using a portable thermal device to quantify pain perception
AssigneeWR Medical Electronics Co.
InventorsKyle A. Maloney, E. Paul Maloney, Christian M. Darling
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A portable heat stimulation device that can generate a heat stimulus and deliver the heat stimulus to a patient in a manner that may be useful in quantifying the patient's perception of pain.
Claims38
A hand-held device for assessing a patient's perception of pain, the device comprising:
- a housing portion configured to be held in a user's hand;
- and
- a stimulus portion coupled to the housing portion, the stimulus portion configured to deliver a thermal stimulus to a skin surface of a patient, the stimulus portion comprising:
- a thermoelectric unit (“TEU”) having a first side and a second side, the TEU configured to receive an electrical current signal and to vary a temperature of the first side of the TEU in response to the received electrical current signal, the first side of the TEU being configured to be placed in proximity to the skin surface of the patient to deliver the thermal stimulus;
- a temperature sensor disposed in proximity to one of the first side and the second side of the TEU and configured to generate a sensed temperature signal;
- a heat sink comprising a first material and a second material, a first side of the first material in thermal contact with the second side of the TEU, a second side of the first material in thermal contact with a first side of the second material, the first material of the heat sink comprising copper forming a copper heat sink, the second material of the heat sink comprising aluminum forming an aluminum heat sink, the second side of the copper heat sink having a copper surface area, the first side of the aluminum heat sink having an aluminum surface area that is larger than the copper surface area, and wherein the heat sink does not comprise a flow of a cooling fluid;
- the housing portion comprising:
- a source of electrical power;
- a switching circuit configured to deliver the electrical current signal from the source of electrical power to the TEU;
- and
- a processor, the processor configured to:
- receive electrical power from the source of electrical power;
- receive the sensed temperature signal from the temperature sensor;
- and
- cause the electrical current signal to be delivered to the TEU to cause the thermal stimulus to be delivered to the skin surface of the patient, the processor causing the switching circuit to vary the electrical current signal to produce the thermal stimulus, the thermal stimulus comprising a rapidly increasing temperature portion followed by a rapidly decreasing temperature portion.
12 more elements
A hand-held device for assessing a patient's perception of pain, the device comprising:
- a housing portion configured to be held in a user's hand;
- and
- a stimulus portion coupled to the housing portion, the stimulus portion configured to deliver a thermal stimulus to a skin surface of a patient, the stimulus portion comprising:
- a thermoelectric unit (“TEU”) having a first side and a second side, the TEU configured to receive an electrical current signal and to vary a temperature of the first side of the TEU in response to the received electrical current signal, the first side of the TEU being configured to be placed in proximity to the skin surface of the patient to deliver the thermal stimulus;
- a temperature sensor disposed in proximity to one of the first side and the second side of the TEU and configured to generate a sensed temperature signal;
- and
- a heat sink comprising a first material, a first side of the first material in thermal contact with the second side of the TEU, wherein the heat sink does not comprise a flow of a cooling fluid;
- the housing portion comprising:
- a source of electrical power;
- a switching circuit configured to deliver the electrical current signal from the source of electrical power to the TEU;
- and
- a processor, the processor configured to:
- receive electrical power from the source of electrical power;
- receive the sensed temperature signal from the temperature sensor;
- and
- cause the electrical current signal to be delivered to the TEU to cause the thermal stimulus to be delivered to the skin surface of the patient, the processor causing the switching circuit to vary the electrical current signal to produce the thermal stimulus, the thermal stimulus comprising a rapidly increasing temperature portion followed by a rapidly decreasing temperature portion,
- wherein the hand-held device is configured to operably couple to a docking station to perform an assessment of the stimulus portion of the hand-held device.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.