Epileptic seizure prevention or treatment via heart rate clamping
AssigneeFlint Hills Scientific, L.L.C.
InventorIvan Osorio
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
We report a method of treating an epileptic seizure in a patient, comprising: detecting said epileptic seizure, based on body data from said patient; and reducing a flow of blood to a brain of said patient in response to said detected seizure; wherein said reducing is effected by: increasing the parasympathetic input to said patient's heart, such as by electrically stimulating a parasympathetic nervous structure, applying cooling energy to a sympathetic nervous structure, or administering a cholinergic or a sympatho-blocking agent to said patient. We also report a medical device system configured to implement the method. We also report a non-transitory computer readable program storage unit encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform the method.
Claims22
A non-transitory computer readable program storage unit encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method of treating an epileptic seizure in a patient, comprising:
- detecting said epileptic seizure, based on body data from said patient;
- and
- reducing a flow of blood to a brain of said patient in response to said detected seizure;
- wherein said reducing is effected by increasing the parasympathetic input to the heart, by performing at least one of
- administering electrical stimulation to a parasympathetic nervous structure;
- delivering a cholinergic drug or a drug with sympatho-blocking actions;
- or
- applying a cooling to a sympathetic nervous structure.
A non-transitory computer readable program storage unit encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method of treating an epileptic seizure in a patient, comprising:
- detecting said epileptic seizure, based on body data from said patient;
- and
- decreasing parasympathetic input to the heart of said patient in response to said detected seizure;
- wherein said decreasing is performed by at least one of electrically stimulating a parasympathetic nervous structure, chemically stimulating a parasympathetic nervous structure, thermally blocking a sympathetic nervous structure, or chemically blocking a sympathetic nervous structure.
A medical device system, comprising:
- a therapy device selected from
- a) an electrical signal generator configured to apply electrical pulses to at least a portion of a parasympathetic structure innervating the heart of a patient,
- b) a cooling device configured to cool at least a portion of a sympathetic structure innervating the heart of said patient, or
- c) a drug delivery device configured to administer at least one of a cholinergic agent or a sympatho-blocking agent to said patient;
- and
- an epileptic seizure detection module configured to detect an occurrence of an epileptic seizure, based on body data from a patient;
- and
- a controller for controlling said therapy device to deliver a therapy in response to detecting the occurrence of an epileptic seizure or to stop or modify said therapy in response to an adverse event or a request from the patient to terminate said therapy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.