US 6,014,587 A · Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) system with enhanced safety features

Abstract

An electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) system includes both hardware and software safety detectors and monitors generator that generates a pulse train of a plurality of pulses with parameters specified by the user. The safety monitors monitor these user-specified parameters as well as other important pulse parameters both during treatment of a patient and prior to treatment in order to ensure that the system is operating according to specification and, therefore, will not injure the patient. The pulse generator is responsive to the safety monitors in that if any of the safety detectors detect a parameter that is out of tolerance, the safety monitor disables the pulse generator so that no further pulses are delivered to the patient. The safety detectors detect the plurality of pulse characteristics including pulse width, frequency, voltage, current, treatment duration, as well as energy. In addition to these real time safety checks, the system includes a pre-treatment arming routine that applies a pre-treatment ECT pulse train to an internal load and monitors these same parameters during this internal test. If all of these parameters are within tolerance, the system moves to an armed state in which the user can proceed to apply an ECT treatment pulse train. If any one of these safety checks fails, however, the system does not arm and, therefore, prohibits treatment.

Claims34

Dependent claims

An electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) system comprising:

means for applying a train of ECT treatment pulses to a patient, each treatment pulse having a pulse width, the elapsed time of the pulse train defining a pulse train duration, and the time between adjacent pulses defining a frequency;
a pulse width detector that measures the pulse width of each applied ECT treatment pulse;
and
a pulse width monitor coupled to the pulse width detector that disables the applying means if a detected pulse width exceeds a predetermined maximum pulse width.

1 more element

An electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) system comprising:

means for applying a train of ECT treatment pulses to a patient, each treatment pulse having a pulse width, the elapsed time of the pulse train defining a pulse train duration, and the time between adjacent pulses defining a frequency;
a pulse train energy detector coupled to the applying means that measures the energy in the applied ECT treatment pulse train;
and
a pulse train energy monitor coupled to the pulse train energy detector that disables the applying means if the detected pulse train energy exceeds a predetermined limit.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) system with enhanced safety features

Life of this patent

Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) system with enhanced safety features

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims34