US 7,079,888 B2 · Method and apparatus for monitoring the autonomic nervous system using non-stationary spectral analysis of heart rate and respiratory activity

Abstract

A method and apparatus for non-invasive, real-time monitoring of the autonomic nervous systems using non-stationary spectral analysis of both heart rate and respiratory signals. Continuous wavelet transformation is used in real-time so that the dynamic interactions between the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system can be independently monitored in the frequency domain. The method in accordance with the present invention allows spectral analysis, formerly limited to the study of stationary data, to be applied to time-varying biological data such as heart rate variability and respiratory activity. In addition, the same techniques are used to monitor other biological or physiological data, including blood pressure.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A method for measuring activity of the autonomous nervous system of a patient comprising the steps of:

1) obtaining instantaneous heart rate signals of said patient;
2) computing a first power spectrum from said instantaneous heart rate signals using non-stationary signal analysis;
3) determining a level of sympathetic activity and parasympathetic activity from said power spectrum;
4) obtaining respiratory activity signals of said patient;
5) computing a second power spectrum from said respiratory signals using non-stationary signal analysis;
and,
6) determining the instantaneous respiration frequency from the said second power spectrum.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and apparatus for monitoring the autonomic nervous system using non-stationary spectral analysis of heart rate and respiratory activity

Life of this patent

Method and apparatus for monitoring the autonomic nervous system using non-stationary spectral analysis of heart rate and respiratory activity

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims28