Detection of congestion from monitoring patient response to a recumbent position

A system for obtaining information related to congestion of a patient, comprising:

• a reclination sensor that produces a reclination signal indicative of the reclination of the patient;
• detection circuitry that produces reclination data from the reclination signal;
• a respiration sensor that produces a respiration signal indicative of respiration patterns of the patient;
• respiration circuitry that produces respiration data from the respiration signal;
• and
• a processing device that monitors the respiration pattern data and the reclination data, detects whether the patient is in a recumbent position by comparing the reclination data to a threshold, and associates the respiration pattern data obtained at a point in time with the reclination data obtained at the point in time.

A system for obtaining information related to congestion of a patient, comprising:

• a reclination sensor that produces a signal indicative of the reclination of the patient;
• reclination circuitry that produces reclination data from the reclination signal;
• a clock that produces timing signals;
• a memory;
• and
• a processing device that communicates with the reclination circuitry and clock to determine from the reclination data and timing signals an amount of time that the patient is in a recumbent position and that stores the amount of time in memory.

A system for obtaining information related to congestion of a patient, comprising:

• a reclination sensor that produces a signal indicative of the reclination of the patient;
• reclination circuitry that produces reclination data from the reclination signal;
• and
• a processing device that communicates with the reclination circuitry to determining a recumbent angle of the patient from the reclination data and that compares the recumbent angle to a recumbent angle threshold that is related to a congestive condition.

A system for obtaining information related to congestion of a patient, comprising:

• means for tracking time;
• means for detecting whether the patient is in a recumbent position;
• and
• means for storing the amount of time that the patient is in a recumbent position.