# US 2006/0100517 A1 · Integrated pressure and volume measurement methods and apparatus

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- Number: US 2006/0100517 A1
- Document ID: US20060100517A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 10/544,332
- Filed: 2003-06-26
- Published: 2006-05-11
- Earliest claimed: 2002-07-03
- Assignees: USCOM Pty Ltd.
- Inventors: Robert Phillips
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20060100517A1

## CPC

- A61B 5/022: by applying pressure to close blood vessels, e.g. against the skin; Ophthalmodynamometers
- A61B 8/06: Measuring blood flow
- A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D)

## Abstract

An apparatus for measuring pressure volume loop parameters of a patient (10), the apparatus comprising: an intra cardiac blood flow measurement device (11) for producing at least a first output indicative of the blood flow of a patient (10); a pressure sensor means (14) producing at least a second output indicative of the blood flow pressure of a patient (10); and a processing element (12) for combining at least the first and second outputs to produce at least one third output indicative of the operation of the pressure volume loop of the patient (10).

## Claims

### Claim 1

An apparatus for measuring pressure volume loop parameters of a patient, said apparatus comprising:
an intra cardiac blood flow measurement device for producing at least a first output indicative of the blood flow of a patient;
a pressure sensor means producing at least a second output indicative of the blood flow pressure of a patient; and
a processing element for combining at least said first and second outputs to produce at least one third output indicative of the operation of the pressure volume loop of the patient.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said intra cardiac blood flow measurement device comprises a CW Doppler measure measurement transducer device of emitting and receiving a CW Doppler signal and a signal processing means for extracting blood flow information from said received signal.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said pressure sensor means produces continuous repetitive pressure measurements.

### Claim 4

A method of measuring pressure volume loop parameters of a patient comprising the steps of:
obtaining at least one measure of blood flow within the heart of a patient utilising CW Doppler methods;
obtaining at least one measure of blood flow pressure within the vessels of the patient;
combining the measures of step (a) and step (b) to produce said pressure volume loop parameters,

### Claim 5

A method of creating a pressure volume loop parameter index comprising the steps of:
(a) obtaining measures of blood flow within the heart of a patient utilising CW Doppler methods;
(b) obtaining at least one measure of blood flow pressure within the vessels of the patient;
(c) combining the measures of step (a) and step (b) to produce said pressure volume loop parameters;
(d) repeating the step (c) for a plurality of patients to obtain a set of calculations;
(e) processing said set of calculations to obtain a statistically averaged index across a population.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

A method as claimed in claim 5 her comprising the step of utilizing said statistically averaged index to correlate subsequent measurement of pressure volume loop parameters to determine health characteristics of a patient.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein said method is separately carried out for patients of similar age, weight, sex or ethnic background.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein said method is separately carried out for patients whilst the patient undertakes different levels of physical activity.

### Claim 9

A method of measuring pressure volume loop parameters of a patient comprising the steps of:
(a) utilising CW Doppler methods to obtain at least one measure of blood flow within vessels in a first predetermined volume of the body of a patient;
(b) obtaining at least one measure of blood flow pressure within the vessels of said first predetermined volume of the body of the patient;
(c) combining the measures of step (a) and step (b) to produce said pressure volume loop parameters for blood flow within said vessels.

### Claim 10

(canceled)