Apparatus and Method for Treating Obstructive Sleep Apnea
OwnerDavid Goldfarbinventor
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Abstract
There is disclosed a method and apparatus for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using either one or both of transcutaneous electrical stimulation (“TES”) and/or a continuous positive airway pressure (“CPAP”), and more specifically to an apparatus and method that uses blood oxygen data to control TES applied to certain nerves and muscles in a person's upper airway and/or to control a CPAP machine to treat OSA. A controller is adapted to receive blood oxygen data from a device such as a pulse oximeter and is programmed to apply TES and/or CPAP when the blood oxygen indicates that the person's blood oxygen is below a predetermined threshold.
Claims19
A controller comprising an input adapted to receive data indicative of a person's blood oxygen level and one or more outputs adapted to communicate with at least one of (i) a source for non-invasively stimulating one or more nerves or muscles only in the person's upper airway and (ii) a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, the controller further comprising program code that, when executed, regulates via the one or more outputs, at least one of the source of the stimulation and the CPAP machine based solely on the data indicative of blood oxygen level, the controller being adapted to receive instructions from a device equipped with an app for specifying at least one of (iii) characteristics of the stimulation and (iv) air pressure to be supplied to a mask of the CPAP machine, such that one or more of the characteristics of the stimulation or air pressure supplied to the mask may be adjusted via the app.
A system comprising a pulse oximeter for providing data indicative of a person's blood oxygen level, a controller, and at least one of (i) a source of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TES) for non-invasive application of TES via electrodes attached to a surface of a person's skin adjacent the person's upper airway to non-invasively stimulate one or more nerves or muscles only in the person's upper airway and (ii) a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, the controller being programmed to regulate at least one of the TES and the CPAP machine based solely on the data indicative of blood oxygen level, so as to control at least one of the source of TES and the CPAP machine based solely upon the data indicative of person's blood oxygen level, the controller being adapted to receive program instructions from a device equipped with an app for specifying at least one of (iii) characteristics of the TES including at least one of burst rate, voltage polarity, wave shape and inversion of a TES signal and (iv) air pressure to be supplied to a mask of the CPAP machine, such that one or more of the characteristics may be adjusted via the app.
A system comprising a pulse oximeter for providing data indicative of a person's blood oxygen level, a controller, and at least one of (i) a source of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TES) for non-invasive application of TES via electrodes attached to a surface of a person's skin adjacent the person's upper airway to non-invasively stimulate one or more nerves or muscles only in the person's upper airway and (ii) a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, the controller being programmed to regulate at least one of the TES and the CPAP machine based solely on the data indicative of blood oxygen level, so as to control at least one of the source of TES and the CPAP machine based solely upon the data indicative of person's blood oxygen level, the controller being adapted to receive program instructions from a device equipped with an app for specifying at least one of (iii) characteristics of the TES including at least one of burst rate, voltage polarity, wave shape and inversion of a TES signal and (iv) air pressure to be supplied to a mask of the CPAP machine, such that one or more of the characteristics may be adjusted via the app, the controller being programmed to apply at least one of TES and CPAP when the data indictive of a person's blood oxygen level indicates that the person's blood oxygen is below a predetermined threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.