Non-intrusive fault detection for sensor cables of physiological monitors
AssigneeDrägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA
InventorVijaya K. Aiyawar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A compact, economical circuit assembly may detect and diagnose a variety of sensor cable faults in medical monitoring systems. The fault detection may continuously provide real-time information while consuming only minimal extra power. A dedicated local processor in the circuit assembly may communicate with a main processor of the medical monitor for more detailed analysis, long-term logging, and optional adaptive prediction, of short circuits, open circuits, and ground faults. The fault detector is suitable for adding on to existing medical monitors as well as building into new ones. A programmable portion of the circuit may be updated over a network to support new test algorithms and new types of cables and sensors.
Claims21
A physiological monitor, comprising:
- a programmable digital logic block including a state machine programmed to select a fault test and to transmit a corresponding test signal;
- a programmable analog logic block including:
- an analog switch matrix programmed to receive a test signal from the state machine, to apply the test signal to a cable coupling a sensor to the physiological monitor, and to receive a response;
- and
- a programmable load programmed to receive the test signal and the response and to transmit a corresponding voltage;
- a comparator on the programmable digital logic block, receiving the voltage from the programmable load, to convert the voltage to a test result, and to transmit the test result to the state machine;
- and
- a communication interface on the programmable digital logic block to transmit the test result from the programmable digital logic block to at least one of a monitor processor and a monitor memory.
A method, comprising:
- coupling a cable to a sensor and a physiological monitor;
- positioning the sensor to measure a physiological parameter of a patient;
- and
- measuring the physiological parameter while:
- activating a first circuit in a programmable switch matrix;
- performing a first cable test using the first circuit;
- receiving a first test result from the cable;
- generating a first fault flag corresponding to the first test result;
- and
- transmitting the first test result to at least one of a fault register, a state machine, or a monitor processor.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed, cause a physiological monitor processor to:
- detect whether a sensor is coupled by a cable to a physiological monitor that includes the physiological monitor processor;
- decide to test the cable for faults if predetermined conditions are present;
- activate a cable fault detector;
- select a cable test from a group of tests stored in a memory;
- command the cable fault detector to perform the cable test;
- receive a pass-or-fail result of the cable test from the cable fault detector;
- and
- add the pass-or-fail result, an identifier of the cable test, and the date and time to a record of cable tests;
- and
- if the pass-or-fail result is a fail, trigger an alert to a user.
21-25. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.