1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to equipments used in the electrical treatment and monitoring of human bodies. More specifically, the present invention relates to a defibrillator using impedance-compensated defibrillation pulses to apply treatment by contact with the surface of a patient's skin, which is most conveniently accessible to the rescuer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sudden cardiac arrest is often caused by ventricular fibrillation (VF) in which abnormal and very fast electrical activity occurs in the heart. During VF, the heart cannot pump blood effectively as it causes the individual muscle fibers within the heart to contract in an unsynchronized way. In treating victims of cardiac arrest with a defibrillator, it is important that the treatment be performed very rapidly as their chances of surviving the cardiac arrest decrease drastically over time following the cardiac arrest. Studies have shown that defibrillation shocks delivered within one minute after VF achieve up to 100% survival rate. However, the survival rate falls to approximately 30% if 6 minutes elapse before the defibrillation shock is delivered. Beyond 12 minutes, the survival rate is almost zero. Therefore, a quick response to cardiac arrest in administering a defibrillation shock at the rescue scene is critical.
Medical equipment manufacturers have developed Automated Electronic Defibrillators (AEDs) to provide early defibrillation. AEDs deliver a high-amplitude current pulse, waveform, or shock to the heart in order to restore the patient's heart rhythm to a normal level. AEDs are widely deployed in both medical and non-medical settings, including private residences, public buildings, public transportation vehicles, airplanes, businesses, etc. AEDs are equipped with a pair of electrodes to deliver a series of shocks to a patient as needed. An electrode may include a conductive foil layer that resides upon a conductive adhesive layer, a lead wire electrically connected to the conductive foil layer to the AED, and an insulation layer for covering the conductive foil layer. The adhesive layer serves to physically and electrically displace the conductive foil layer to a patient's skin. Electrodes tend to deteriorate in time; thus, it is necessary to know their operating condition when they are used in a life-threatening situation. To this end, AEDs rely on a release liner with multiple openings to determine whether the electrodes are in a proper operating condition. When manufacturing electrodes, new electrodes are detachably mounted on a release liner in a package. Prior to use, an impedance is measured through the release layer disposed between a pair of electrodes; if the measurement is higher than the threshold impedance, the electrode is considered to be damaged, deteriorated, unfit for use.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved defibrillator that is easy to use and that enables a minimally trained user to easily, rapidly, and effectively deploy the defibrillator to treat the patient, with no or minimal clothing and hair removal.
The present invention is directed to a method and system for quickly and accurately applying the defibrillating shock to a victim of sudden cardiac arrest.
According to an aspect of the invention, the apparatus may include a pair of electrodes having an opening adapted to make electrical contact with a patient, where one electrode is disposed on a neck region of the patient and the other electrode is disposed on the patient's body; a switch coupled to the pair of electrodes; an energy storage for providing a plurality of energy level outputs across the electrodes to the patient; and, a controller coupled to the switch and the energy storage for determining the need to apply the defibrillation shock to the patient and for determining the desired energy level output based on a patient impedance. The electrodes are coupled to an ECO front end for obtaining the patient impedance. The apparatus may further include a voltage charger coupled to the energy storage for charging a plurality of capacitors therein; a power source for supplying electrical power to the voltage charger; a timer associated with the controller; and, an LCD display. The energy storage may include a plurality of capacitors and a plurality of resistors that are arranged in series or parallel arrangement, or a combination of series and parallel arrangement. The defibrillation shock may be an impedance-compensated defibrillation shock that can be generated by setting the switch according to one of the energy level outputs in response to the patient impedance. Furthermore, the defibrillation shock may comprise one of monophasic, biphasic, and multiphasic. The electrodes according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a conductive adhesive layer and a conductive layer having an opening coupled to the conductive adhesive layer. A release liner, which may include a moisture permeable membrane and a moisture absorbent membrane, is disposed between the electrodes for testing whether the electrodes are operable. The electrode may include a date by which the electrodes should be used. One side of the electrode may further include an image of the human anatomy showing the actual placement of the electrode on the patient.
According to another aspect of the invention, the method for externally delivering an impedance-compensated defibrillation shock to the heart of a patient may include the steps of: charging a defibrillator having a pair of electrodes to a predefined level prior to detecting the need to apply the defibrillation shock to the patient; coupling the first electrode on a neck region of the patient and the second electrode on the patient's body; detecting a patient impedance if there is a need to apply the defibrillation shock; adjusting the energy level of the defibrillator according to predetermined criteria based on the detected patient impedance; and, discharging the energy source across the pair of electrodes to deliver the defibrillation shock to the patient. The placement of the electrodes according to the invention enables the discharge of the defibrillation shock across the electrodes without removing any body hair or clothing from the patient. The duration of the impedance-compensated defibrillation shock is controlled based on the patient impedance.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the method for externally delivering an impedance-compensated defibrillation shock to the heart of a patient without removing body hair or clothing from the patient may include the steps of: providing a pair of electrodes with an opening therein; providing the electrodes to make electrical contact to the patient, where the pair of electrodes is adapted to determine the need to apply the defibrillation shock to the patient; providing a switch coupled to the electrodes; providing an energy storage coupled to the switch capable of supplying a plurality of energy level outputs across the pair of electrodes; providing a controller to select one of the energy level outputs to deliver the impedance-compensated defibrillation shock to the patient based on the patient impedance; and, discharging the impedance-compensated defibrillation shock across the pair of electrodes to the patient. The method may further include monitoring the heart rate of the patient to determine if a subsequent defibrillation shock is needed, and if so, discharging according to one of the voltage level outputs responsive to the patient impedance.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following, more detailed description of preferred embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the various views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, the emphasis instead is placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.
A more complete understanding of the method and apparatus of the present invention is available by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
a) is a perspective view of electrodes mounted upon the release liner according to an embodiment of the present invention;
b) depicts the actual site of electrode placement on one side of the electrode to facilitate installation according to an embodiment of the present invention;
In the following description, for purposes of explanation rather than limitation, specific details are set forth such as the particular architecture, interfaces, techniques, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. For purposes of simplicity and clarity, detailed descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail.
Now, a description will be made in detail in regards to this invention with reference to the drawings.
Referring to
In contrast, the present invention provides the placement of the electrodes in specific regions of the victim's body to optimize the defibrillator's effectiveness. As shown in
In addition, the present invention renders the placement of the electrodes 22 and 24 for defibrillation without violating the privacy of women as the patient's chest does not have to be completely bared. In the prior art system, the patient's bra has to be removed, especially bras with wires embedded therein, as they interfere with administering the defibrillating shock. These wires impose fewer problems in the present invention as the necktrode 22 is placed so that the wire orientation is relatively normal to the current pathway. Hence, the placement of the electrodes 22 and 24 according to the present invention allows defibrillating a female patient without removing her bra. This in turn eliminates the reluctance of a rescuer when removing a stranger's clothing.
The timer 34 is connected to the controller 40 for providing a defibrillation pulse interval or duration when delivering the defibrillation pulse across the electrode pair 22 and 24. The activation button 36 is connected to the controller 40 to enable the user to activate the delivery of a defibrillation pulse across the electrodes 22 and 24 when the VF or other shockable rhythm is detected. The activation button 36 can function in both AED and manual modes in the preferred embodiment. The display 42, connected to the controller 40, is preferably a liquid crystal display (LCD) and provides audio and visible feedback to the user.
The battery 48 provides power for the defibrillator 20 and in particular for the voltage charger 46, which charges the capacitors in the energy storage capacitor network 44. The capacitors in the energy storage capacitor network 44 may be charged to 2300 volts or more. The energy storage capacitor network 44 includes a plurality of capacitors and resistors that are arranged in series or parallel arrangement, or a combination of series and parallel arrangement to supply a plurality of voltage level outputs across the electrodes 22 and 24. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of RC arrangements can be implemented to generate different voltage levels. For example, a series resistance of approximately 20 ohms may be inserted in series to deliver electrical power from the battery 48 to the patient. For very high impedance patients, this resistor is shorted during discharge in order to deliver high currents for effective defibrillation. Using lower total delivered energies enables the present system to operate safely for adults and children without requiring the operator to differentiate between the two. Therefore, by selecting an appropriate energy level according to the patient-impedance and the desired energy level determined by the controller 44, a wider range of energy levels can be generated from low to high, without exceeding the maximum threshold value that may be harmful to the patient.
Additional parallel capacitors and resistors may be added as needed to the energy storage capacitor network 44 to increase the total delivered energy of the waveform to the patient. It should be noted that various hardware configurations readily apparent to those skilled in the art can be used for the energy storage capacitor network 44. Alternatively, the function of the energy storage capacitor network 44 can be performed by functionally equivalent circuits, such as a digital processor circuit or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
The energy storage capacitor network 44 is connected to the HV switch 38. Under the control of the controller 40, the HV switch 38 is configured to sequentially deliver the defibrillation pulse across the pair of electrodes 22 and 24 to the patient in the desired polarity and duration. It should be noted that the HV switch 38 could be adapted to deliver a single polarity (monophasic), both negative and positive polarities (biphasic) or multiple negative and positive polarities (multiphasic) in the preferred embodiment.
In operation, the controller 40 uses the information received from the ECG front end 32 and/or the timer 34 to control the shape of the waveform of the defibrillation pulse delivered to the patient in real time. That is, the total delivered energy of the waveform can be controlled by selecting an appropriate pulse parameter in response to the information received from the ECG front end 32. Here, the defibrillation pulse delivered to the patient may be a fixed level, or a number of defibrillation pulses at different energy levels. This can be achieved by selecting the appropriate voltage level of the energy storage capacitor network 44 from the set of configurations to deliver the desired impedance-compensated defibrillation pulse to the patient. To achieve this, the controller 40 sends a voltage control signal to adjust the charge voltage on each capacitor in the energy storage capacitor network 44 for a subsequent discharge. After each discharge, the patient's heart is monitored simultaneously using the ECG front end 32 to determine if more defibrillation pulses are needed. If so, another set of defibrillation shocks is administered to the patient.
a) is a perspective view of a release liner 100 and a pair of electrodes 22 and 24 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The electrodes and release liner operating in accordance with the present invention may include various embodiments of medically packaged electrodes described in U.S. patent Ser. No. 09/954,750, filed on Sep. 14, 2001, entitled “Medical Electrode and Release Liner Configurations Facilitating Packaged Electrode Characterization,” assigned to the same assignee, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Briefly, the release layer 100 may comprise silicon-coated paper, polyester, polypropylene, polyethylene, and/or other non-stick materials, in a manner well understood by those skilled in the art. The opening 120 of the release layer 100 may be cut, stamped, or punched out using conventional techniques, so it can be performed in a variety of ways. The release layer 100 may further include a nonconductive, moisture-permeable and/or moisture-absorbent membrane 140. The electrodes 22 and 24 having at least one opening 22a and 24a, respectively, may comprise a conductive foil layer that resides in a conductive adhesive layer. The conductive adhesive layer may include a conductive gel layer, such as a hydrogel layer, or other layer having electrical properties. One electrode 22 may be place or positioned upon the release layer 100 so that the electrode's hydrogel layer covers the release layer's opening 120. Similarly, the other electrode 24 may be place or positioned upon the release layer. The placement of the electrodes 22 and 24 upon the release layer allows the electrodes' hydrogel layers to contact the moisture-permeable membrane 140 via the release layer's opening 120. When the electrodes 22 and 24 have been mounted upon the release liner 100, the defibrillator 20 may test the electrical path between the electrodes 22 and 24 by measuring the impedance level. If the measured impedance level is greater than a predefined threshold or range, the defibrillator 20 will indicate that the electrodes 22 and 24 may be unfit for use. The electrodes 22 and 24 may also be handheld paddle electrodes that are used with a manual defibrillator. The total surface of the electrodes is approximately 70 square centimeters for the necktrode 22 and 80 square centimeter for the other electrode 24, meaning that a circular electrode 22 as shown in
It should be noted that packaged electrodes according to the present invention may include a wrapper, covering, label, or the like that includes an expiration date by which electrodes must be used. An illustrative drawing showing the actual site of electrode placement also may be included on one side of the electrode to facilitate installation, as shown in
In step 340, the patient impedance is considered by the controller 40 to select the appropriate energy level output from the set of configurations in the energy storage capacitor network 44. For example, it may be desirable to deliver a higher energy level to a high patient impedance and a lower energy level to a low patient impedance. Here, the controller 40 also determines the polarity and duration of the defibrillation shock. After determining the desired energy level output, the controller 40 sends a signal to the energy storage capacitor network 44 to implement the desired configuration to discharge the desired energy level of defibrillation shock. Thereafter, the controller 40 sends a signal to the HV switch 38 to actuate the switches to discharge the desired defibrillation shock to the patient in step 360. Alternatively, the controller 40 may notify the operator via the display 42 to press the shock button 36 to actuate manually the delivery of the defibrillation shock to the patient. After the discharge of defibrillation shock, the patient's heart is monitored to determine whether a subsequent defibrillation shock is necessary. If so, the above steps may be repeated to deliver the subsequent defibrillation shock.
Having thus described the preferred embodiment of a system and method for delivering an electric pulse, waveform, or shock to the patient's heart, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that certain advantages have been achieved. In particular, the present invention saves the time previously needed to struggle with clothing removal, thus improving survival odds. The attachment areas in accordance with the present invention minimize the effects of excessive body hair, which prevents effective electrode contact with the patient's skin by eliminating the need to shave a patient's chest prior to the attachment of electrodes. The inventive electrodes are smaller in size and thus easier to store, deploy, and attach to both children and adults. As a result, the same defibrillation protocol may be used on children or adults. The smaller electrode also enables additional miniaturization of the entire defibrillation system. Also, the present invention overcomes or minimizes a rescuer's reluctance in removing clothing from unconscious patients, especially from female patients in fear of violating their privacy.
Furthermore, the inventive system reduces the artifact in the ECG signal caused by movement due to the cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) operation. During the rescue attempt, electrodes are used to gather ECG signals for analysis from the patient's heart. When a rescuer performs chest compressions as part of doing CPR on the patient, the resulting chest movement tends to disturb the electrodes placed on the chest area in the prior art system. This is undesirable as the movement of the electrodes on the chest skin area generates interfering electrical noise or artifacts, which corrupts the ECG signal. Therefore, the placement of the electrodes according to the embodiment of the present invention minimizes such artifact and thus enhances the analysis of the ECG signal during a CPR operation. The ability to analyze the ECO more accurately during a CPR operation reduces the time that CPR must be interrupted during the resuscitation, thereby increasing the chances of a successful rescue attempt.
While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made, and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the true scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt to a particular situation and the teaching of the present invention without departing from the central scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention, but that the present invention include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
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5197479 | Hubelbank et al. | Mar 1993 | A |
5951598 | Bishay et al. | Sep 1999 | A |
6234985 | Lurie et al. | May 2001 | B1 |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20030199929 A1 | Oct 2003 | US |