Esophageal stethoscope and vital signs monitor system

A patient vital signs monitoring system comprising:

• an elongated flexible esophageal catheter having a near end having detachable connecting means and a closed distal end and for placement in a patient's esophagus;
• temperature sensing means in said catheter for sensing temperature and generating a first electrical signal corresponding thereto;
• a single sound sensing means in said catheter for sensing heart sounds and breath sounds and generating a second electrical signal corresponding to said sounds;
• amplifying means in said catheter for amplifying said second electrical signals;
• conductor means connected to said temperature sensing means and said sound sensing means for conducting said signals away from a patient's body;
• a remote monitoring unit connected to said conductor means for receiving and processing said first and second electrical signals and separating said second signal for separately determining patient heart and respiration rate and comparing said rates to predetermined reference rates, said monitoring unit including alarm means responsive to a predetermined critical difference between said compared rates for generating an alarm signal, temperature signal processing means for comparing said temperature signal to a predetermined reference signal, temperature alarm means responsive to a critical difference between said temperature signal and said reference signal for generating a temperature alarm signal;
• an infrared transmitter for transmitting said heart sound signals and said breathing sound signals;
• and
• a remote portable infrared receiver worn by an operator for receiving and reproducing said sound signals for enabling remote monitoring of said heart sounds and said breathing sounds.

A remote portable patient vital signs monitoring system comprising:

• an elongated esophageal catheter having a near end detachably connectable to a remote monitoring unit and a closed distal end for insertion into the esophagus of a patient;
• temperature sensing means in the said catheter for sensing a temperature and generating a first electrical signal representative of temperature sensed;
• sound sensing means mounted in the said catheter for sensing both heart sounds and chest breathing sounds and generating a second electrical signal representative of said sounds;
• amplifying means in said catheter for amplifying said second signals;
• conductor means connected to said temperature sensing means and said sound sensing means for conducting said signals away from the patient's body;
• a remote portable monitoring unit connected to said conductor means, including means for processing said second signal and separating said signal into heart sounds and chest sounds and proving a separate audible representation of heart sounds and breathing sounds,
• said signal monitoring and processing means responsive to said temperature signal for providing a visual indication of the temperature sensed by said temperature sensing means;
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• programmable means for establishing a reference heart sound, and heart sound alarm means for providing an alarm signal in response to a deviation in said heart sound from said reference heart sounds;
• programmable means for establishing a reference breathing sound, and breathing sound alarm means for providing an alarm signal in response to a critical deviation of said breathing sound from said reference sound;
• and
• said monitoring means comprising an infrared transmitter for converting and transmitting said heart sound signals and said breathing sound signals via infrared waves, and remote portable infrared receiving means worn by an operator for receiving and converting said infrared waves to sound signals for enabling remote monitoring of said heart sounds and said breathing sounds.