Patent Application
20060241384
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The present invention relates generally to electronic patient monitors, and in particular, to a wireless patient monitor suitable for use in the severe electromagnetic environment of a magnetic resonance imaging machine.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows images to be created of soft tissue from faint electrical resonance signals (NMR signals) emitted by nuclei of the tissue. The resonance signals are generated when the tissue is subjected to a strong magnetic field and excited by a radio frequency pulse.
The quality of the MRI image is in part dependent on the quality of the magnetic field which must be strong and extremely homogenous. Ferromagnetic materials are normally excluded from the MRI environment to prevent unwanted forces of magnetic attraction on these materials and distortion of the homogenous field by these materials.
A patient undergoing an MRI “scan” may be received into a relatively narrow bore or cavity in the MRI magnet. During this time, the patient may be remotely monitored to determine, for example, heartbeat, respiration, temperature, and blood oxygen. A typical remote monitoring system provides “in-bore” sensors on the patient connected by electrical or optical cables to a monitoring unit outside of the bore. Standard patient monitors normally cannot be used in the MRI environment both because of the strong magnetic fields from the MRI magnet, which may affect ferromagnetic components of such monitors, and because such monitors often produce electromagnetic noise that can interfere with the sensitive MRI measurements.
Connecting a patient to a special monitor suitable for use in the MRI room can delay the MRI scan as sensors are applied to the patient, tested for proper operation, and then removed upon completion of the scan. This delay reduces the efficiency in use of the MRI equipment, and for critically ill patients being monitored before the MRI scan, creates a period when the patient is unmonitored and at increased risk. Long runs of cables used in connecting special MRI-safe monitors are cumbersome and can interfere with access to the patient and free movement of personnel about the magnet itself.
The present invention provides an electronic patient monitor placed on or near the patient during an MRI scan. A display on the monitor provides information about sensor signals allowing the patient to be connected to the sensors well in advance of the MRI scan for seamless monitoring from the patient's room through the scan and back to the patient's room again. In one embodiment, a sophisticated display on the monitor allows routine use of the monitor, not simply during the MRI scan. The patient monitor may include wireless capabilities which together with the monitor's ability to be placed near or on the patient, eliminates cabling passing into the MRI magnet and reduces the length of the sensor leads to the patient.
Specifically, the present invention provides a patient sensor system for use in MRI imaging including an electronic patient monitor positionable adjacent to the patient and operable during an MRI scan to receive a patient signal from the patient. An optical display on the electronic patient monitor communicates with the sensor to provide information to a human operator about the patient signal.
It is one object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a patient monitor that promotes more efficient use of an MRI machine by allowing the monitor to be preconfigured, tested, and used without delaying the MRI scan while cables and remote monitors are connected within the MRI room.
It is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to allow the patient to be continuously monitored from the moment they enter the MRI room.
The sensor system may provide a wireless transmitter and include a receiving unit having a wireless receiver system receiving data from outside a bore of the MRI magnet for outputting information about the patient signal on a second optical display.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide the ability to transmit patient data to a convenient location for the MRI operator and to provide more sophisticated signal display and processing than can be provided on a display associated with the portable monitor.
The optical display may be an LED providing information indicating that the electronic patient monitor is correctly receiving the patient signal.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide an extremely simple embodiment that allows the patient monitor to be connected without access to the wireless receiver unit.
It is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a simple optical display that is compatible with the extreme electrical environment of the MRI machine.
The LED may be mounted for viewing outside the bore when the electronic patient monitor is inside the bore.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a human readable indication of correct operation of the electronic patient monitor to help in ascertaining the source of problems when electrical interference may prevent wireless communication.
The LED may be a bicolor LED that may change color and blink to convey multiple distinguishable visual signals.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a range of information that can be read at a distance, for example, by an operator standing outside of the MRI machine.
Alternatively, the optical display may provide a quantitative display of the patient signal suitable for discerning the patient's condition. For example, the optical display may provide a graphical display of the patient signal.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a patient monitor suitable for monitoring the patient not only during the MRI scan, but also before and after the MRI scan or in situations where a standalone receiver unit is not available.
The patient signal sense may be ECG data, blood oxygen data, respiration data, patient temperature data, anesthetic gas monitoring, capnometry, and blood pressure data.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a patient monitor suitable for a wide variety of monitoring tasks.
The electronic patient monitor may include a battery for powering the wireless transmitter system and optical display.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a system that may operate unencumbered by additional cabling to power supplies or the like.
The optical display may be an LCD display.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a display that can communicate complex clinical information collected from the sensor, and yet may operate within the electrically extreme environment of an MRI machine.
The LCD may be backlit by an LED backlight.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide improved readability of the LCD display by backlighting while avoiding the electrical interference produced by a typical cold cathode fluorescent backlight.
The LED backlight may be powered by a direct current.
Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to minimize electrical interference caused by the operation of the LCD display.
The electronic patient monitor may include a surrounding Faraday shield and the LCD display may be contained within a mesh portion of the Faraday shield through which the LCD display may be viewed.
It is thus another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a sophisticated display that may operate without interference in the MRI environment.
These particular objects and advantages may apply to only some embodiments falling within the claims and thus do not define the scope of the invention.
Referring now to
During the MRI scan, the patient is held within the bore 16 and may be monitored via wireless patient unit 20 attached to the patient or patient table 18 and within the bore 16 during the scan. The patient unit 20 transmits via radio waves 22 physiological patient data and status data (as will be described) to processing unit 24 outside the bore 16 useable by personnel within the magnet room 10. The processing unit 24 typically will include controls 26 and a display 28 providing an interface for the operator, and may be usefully attached to an IV pole 30. The IV pole 30 may have hooks 32 for holding IV bags (not shown) and a rolling, weighted base 34 that may be freely positioned as appropriate without the concern for wires between the patient unit 20 and processing unit 24.
Referring now to
When used to sense ECG signals, the interface circuit 35 may receive two or more ECG leads 36, being connected to, for example, the right arm, the right leg, the left arm and the left leg. The signals from these ECG leads 36 are connected to electrode amplifier and lead selector 39 which provides signals I, II and V, in a normal lead mode to be described below, or signals X, Y and Z in a vector lead mode (not shown), each attached to a corresponding electrode providing the sensor 37. The leads 36 may be high impedance leads so as to reduce the induction of eddy currents within those leads during the MRI process. The electrode amplifier and lead selector 39 provides the signals to an interface circuit 35 which controls signal offset and amplification, provides a gradient filter having variable filter settings to reduce interference from the MRI gradient fields, and converts the signals to digital words that may be transmitted to a contained processor 38. In a preferred embodiment, the ECG signals are sampled and digitized at a rate of 1,000 samples per second or faster so that they may be used for gating purposes. Other signals, such as those of blood oxygen may be sampled at a slower rate, for example, 250 samples per second.
The processor 38 communicates with flash memory 41 which may be used to buffer and store data from ECG leads 36 and which may have a stored program controlling the operation of the patient unit 20 as will be described below.
The processor 38 may communicate with an operator indicator 40, in this case a bi-colored LED, which may display operating information according to the following states:
The operator indicator 40 has a lens which protrudes from a housing of the patient unit 20 so that it can be viewed by an operator sighting along the bore from a variety of attitudes. Importantly, the operator indicator 40 may be used during preparation of the patient outside of the bore, even in the absence of the processing unit 24 in the patient's hospital room.
The processor 38 of the patient unit 20 may also communicate with a transceiver 42. A suitable transceiver 42 provides multi-band Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and is capable of operating on battery power levels to produce powers of 0 dBm such as a type commercially available from Nordic Semiconductors of Norway under the trade name nRF24E1.
The transceiver 42 provides for transmission and reception of digital data packets holding samples of the ECG data with calculated error-correction codes over radio channels that may be selected by processor 38. Preferably the radio channels are selected to provide a substantial frequency difference between the channels to reduce the possibility of any interfering source of radio frequency from blocking both channels at the same time. The selection of channels 1 and 9 provide for an 8 MHz separation between channels.
The transceiver 42 connects to a microstrip antenna 44 which may be wholly contained within an insulating plastic housing 46 of the patient unit 20 outside of Faraday shield 83 to be described in more detail below. A polymer battery 48 having no ferromagnetic terminal or other components is used to provide power to each of the interface circuit 35, processor 38, transceiver 42 and operator indicator 40, all held within the Faraday shield 83.
Referring now to
Antennas 52 and 54 are both spatially diverse and have different polarizations. Ideally, antennas 52a and 54a are vertically polarized and antennas 52b and 54b are horizontally polarized. Further, the antennas 52 and 54 are spaced from each other by approximately an odd multiple of a quarter wavelength of the frequencies of transmission by the patient unit 20 representing an expected separation of nodal points. This spacing will be an odd multiple of approximately 3 cm in the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band.
With these diverse antennas 52a, 52b, 54a, and 54b, drop-off or adverse polarization of the waves at the processing unit 24, may be accommodated by switching of the antennas 52 and 54. Generally, this switching may be triggered when the signal from a given transceiver 50a or 50b is indicated to be corrupted by the error-correction code attached to data packets received by the given transceiver 50a or 50b as detected by program executed by the controller 58. Alternatively, the signal quality, for example, the signal strength or the length of time that the signal has been above a predetermined threshold, may be used to trigger the switching to the better of the two antennas 52 and 54.
The controller 58 communicates with a memory 60 such as may be used to store data and a program controlling operation of the processing unit 24. The controller 58 may also communicates with the display 28 that may display the physiological data collected by the patient unit 20 and user controls 26 that allow programming of that processing unit 24 and control of the display 28 according to methods well-known in the art.
Referring now to
At time frame 66b, forward data packet 65, being physiological data from the patient, is transmitted from patient unit 20 to processing unit 24. This forward data packet will include a header 68a which generally provides data needed to synchronize communication between transceivers 42 and 50a and 50b, and which identifies the particular data packet as a forward data packet 65 and identifies the type of physiological data, e.g.: ECG, SPO2, etc.
Following the header 68a, data 68b may be transmitted providing current samples in 16 bit digital form for the ECG signals at the current sampling time (e.g., LI0, LII0, LV0). This is followed by data 68c providing corresponding samples in 16 bit digital form for the ECG signals at the next earlier sampling time (e.g., LI−1, LII−1, LV−1) as buffered in the patient unit 20. This in turn is followed by data 68d providing corresponding samples in 16 bit digital form for the ECG signals at the next earlier sampling time before data 68d (e.g., LI−2, LII−2, LV−2) again as buffered in the patient unit 20. In the vector mode, the samples may be Xn, Yn, and Zn.
Thus, a rolling window of three successive sample periods (one new sample and the two previous samples for each lead) is provided for each forward data packet 65. This time diversity allows data to be transmitted even if two successive forward data packets 65 are corrupted by interference.
Status data 68e follows data 68c and provides non-physiological data from the patient unit 20 indicating generally the status of the patient unit 20 including, for the example of ECG data, measurements of lead impedance, device temperature, operating time, battery status, test information, information about the lead types selected, the gradient filter settings selected, and the next or last radio channel to be used to coordinate the transceivers 42 and 50a and 50b. The status data 68e may also include a sequence number allowing the detection of lost forward data packet 65. Different status data 68e is sent in each forward data packet 65 as indexed by all or a portion of the bits of the sequence number. This minimized the length of each forward data packets 65.
Finally status data 68e includes an error detection code 68f, for example, a cyclic redundancy code of a type well known in the art, computed over the total forward data packet 65 of header 68a, data 68b, data 68c, data 68d, and status data 68e that allows detection of corruption of the data during its transmission process by the controller 58. Detection of a corrupted forward data packet 65 using this error detection code 68f causes the controller to first see if an uncorrupted packet is available form the other transceiver 50a or 50b, and second to see if an uncorrupted packet is available from the following two forward packets. The antenna of the transceiver 50a or 50b is in any event switched to see if reception can be improved. Alternatively, signal quality, as described above, may be used to select among packets.
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The screen elements 84 providing radio frequency shielding for each face of the box forming the Faraday shield 83 may be insulated from each other with respect to direct currents, but yet joined by capacitors 86 at the corner edges of the box to allow the passage of a radio frequency current. The effect of these capacitors is to block the flow of lower frequency eddy currents induced by the magnetic gradients such as can vibrate the patient unit 20 when it is positioned on the patient.
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It is specifically intended that the present invention not be limited to the embodiments and illustrations contained herein, but include modified forms of those embodiments including portions of the embodiments and combinations of elements of different embodiments as come within the scope of the following claims. For example, the diversity techniques as described herein may be applicable to optical and other wireless transmission methods. In the case of optical transmission, for example, different frequencies of light, modulation types, modulation frequencies, polarizations, orientations may be used to provide diversity.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. ______ filed ______.
