Monitoring pressure in a body cavity

Apparatus for recording and storing pressure recordings from a pressure sensor applied to a patient, comprising

• a first connector for connecting the apparatus to a pressure sensor,
• an analog-to-digital converter for converting received pressure measurements to digital form,
• processing means in communication with the analog-to-digital converter, capable of reading out samples of the digitally converted pressure measurements and storing said measurements in a data memory connected to said processing means,
• input/output interface in communication with the processing means and connected to a second connector for connecting the apparatus to external computing means, and
• a power source for supplying the apparatus with power.

System for the analysis of recorded pressure data, comprising

• communication interface for receiving a set of digital pressure sample values;
• data memory for storing the received sample values;
• processing means with access to said data memory, capable of analyzing said sample values in order to determine at least one of the following:
• number of pressure elevations with any selected combination of level and duration,
• number of pressure changes with any selected combination of level difference and duration of change,
• number of single pulse pressure waves with preselected characteristics regarding minimum, maximum, amplitude, latency and rise time;
• video interface in communication with said processing means and capable of, in combination with the processor means, generating a visual presentation of the result of any analysis performed on the pressure sample values together with a graphical user interface;
• a display for displaying the generated visual presentation;
• and
• input means allowing a user of the system to enter and change parameters on which said analysis should be based.

Computer program product for controlling a computer on which is stored a set of values representing pressure samples with a time reference, comprising program instructions for causing the computer to perform the steps of

• receiving from a user interface or as pre stored default values a set of parameters on which an analysis of said set of samples should be based;
• analyzing said sample values in order to determine at least one of the following:
• number of pressure elevations with any selected combination of level and duration,
• number of pressure changes with any selected combination of level difference and duration of change,
• number of single pulse pressure waves with pre-selected characteristics regarding minimum, maximum, amplitude, latency and rise time;
• generating a visual presentation of said analysis.