A non-invasive spinal cord nerve function detection method and system

Abstract

The present invention provides a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection method and system, the system includes: multiple atomic magnetometers and a carrier; the carrier includes: a main body and a belt; the main body is used to carry multiple atomic magnetometers; the belt is connected to the main body, and is used to control the curved surface state of the main body when it is worn, so that the main body can fit the curved surface of the wearer's back when it is worn; the multiple atomic magnetometers are used to measure the magnetic field of the wearer's back when the carrier is worn, so as to obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the wearer's spinal nerve current. The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of invasive spinal nerve activity measurement methods in clinical operations, and provides a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection system based on magnetic measurement. According to the above system, the time-varying characteristics of the magnetic field signals of different segments of the subject's spinal nerves are obtained, and compared with the healthy sample data, so as to determine whether the corresponding nerve function is normal.

Description

[0001] The present invention claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed with the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office of China on August 4, 2023, with application number 2023109824699 and invention name “A non-invasive spinal nerve current measurement system realized by magnetic field measurement”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present invention belongs to the field of neurological diagnosis and treatment equipment, and more specifically, relates to a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection method and system. Background Art

[0003] Since the spinal cord is densely distributed with sensory, motor, and visceral neurons and conduction bundles related to various physiological functions of the body and limbs, even a small focal injury to the spinal cord can have a serious impact on human life and health. However, due to the physical properties of the nerve tissue itself, existing imaging methods such as CT and MRI are insensitive to small lesions of the spinal cord and abnormal functional changes. This has led to a lack of effective means to detect functional lesions of the spinal cord, which has brought great obstacles to the diagnosis and treatment of related diseases. Since nerves transmit information through the current flowing through them, the detection of neural electrical signals is the most direct way to study neural activity.

[0004] However, currently, spinal nerve electrical measurements are mainly obtained through implanted electrodes, which inevitably cause damage to the human body. How to achieve non-invasive nerve activity measurement is of great significance for neurological function research and neuro-related clinical diagnosis. Summary of the invention

[0005] In view of the defects of the prior art, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection method and system, aiming to solve the problem that the existing spinal nerve electrical measurement needs to be implanted in the user's body for measurement, which may cause unnecessary damage to the user.

[0006] To achieve the above-mentioned object, in a first aspect, the present invention provides a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection system, comprising: a plurality of atomic magnetometers and a carrier;

[0007] The carrier comprises: a main body and a belt; the main body is used to carry a plurality of atomic magnetometers; the belt is connected to the main body and is used to control the curved surface state of the main body when it is worn, so that the main body can fit the curved surface of the wearer's back when it is worn;

[0008] The multiple atomic magnetometers are used to measure the magnetic field on the back of the wearer when the carrier is worn, and obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current of the wearer; the magnetic field signal reflects the change of the spinal nerve current of the wearer, so as to judge the relevant situation of the spinal nerve function of the wearer.

[0009] It should be noted that the measuring device provided by the present invention can indirectly determine the spinal nerve current, spinal nerve signal or spinal nerve function by acquiring the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current. The user's health condition can be diagnosed through the spinal nerve current or spinal nerve signal, or the user's health condition can be directly diagnosed through the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve. Technical personnel in this field can choose the subsequent diagnostic method according to the actual situation, and the present invention does not make any further limitations on this.

[0010] In an optional example, the measurement system further includes: a plurality of marking components and a signal processing device;

[0011] The multiple marking components are carried by the carrier and are used to obtain the position and posture of each atomic magnetometer while the wearer wears the carrier;

[0012] The signal processing device is used to fit the time-varying background magnetic field at the location of each atomic magnetometer based on the measurement values ​​of multiple marking components, and eliminate the low-frequency drift caused by the time-varying background magnetic field from the measurement results of multiple atomic magnetometers, then filter and denoise the magnetic field measurement values ​​after eliminating the low-frequency drift, and finally separate the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current based on the denoised multi-channel magnetic field data to obtain at least one of the spinal nerve current, spinal nerve signal and spinal nerve function of the wearer.

[0013] In an optional example, the carrier is worn by the wearer in a magnetic shielding environment, and the multiple atomic magnetometers measure the magnetic field signals corresponding to the spinal nerve current of the wearer in the magnetic shielding environment.

[0014] In an optional example, the measurement system further includes: a magnetic shielding device;

[0015] The magnetic shielding device is used to provide a magnetic shielding environment.

[0016] In an optional example, the belt body is a plurality of elastic belts.

[0017] In an optional example, the signal processing device filters out the narrowband alternating magnetic field caused by the electricity used by the measurement system through a narrowband notch filter, filters out the low-frequency noise that is not completely eliminated in the process of shielding the background magnetic field through a high-pass filter, and filters out the high-frequency noise that is not completely eliminated in the process of narrowband notch filtering through a low-pass filter. Finally, the magnetic field signals other than the spinal nerve current are separated and discarded according to the spatial position characteristics of the source of the magnetic field signal and the original waveform characteristics, so as to obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current.

[0018] In an optional example, the multiple atomic magnetometers are dispersedly carried by the main body; when worn through the carrier, the multiple atomic magnetometers are respectively close to various regions of the wearer's spinal cord to detect the magnetic fields of various regions of the spinal cord.

[0019] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection method, comprising:

[0020] When the carrier is worn, a plurality of atomic magnetometers are used to measure the magnetic field on the back of the wearer, and a magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current of the wearer is obtained; the magnetic field signal reflects the change of the spinal nerve current of the wearer, so as to judge the relevant conditions of the spinal nerve function of the wearer; the carrier comprises: a main body and a belt; the main body is used to carry a plurality of atomic magnetometers; the belt is connected to the main body, and is used to control the curved surface state of the main body when it is worn, so that the main body can fit the curved surface of the wearer's back when it is worn.

[0021] In an optional example, the method further includes:

[0022] Based on a plurality of marking components, the position and posture of each atomic magnetometer during the period when the wearer wears the carrier are obtained; the plurality of marking components are carried by the carrier;

[0023] The time-varying background magnetic field at the location of each atomic magnetometer is fitted based on the measurement values ​​of multiple marking components, and the low-frequency drift caused by the time-varying background magnetic field is eliminated from the measurement results of multiple atomic magnetometers. The magnetic field measurement values ​​after eliminating the low-frequency drift are then filtered and denoised. Finally, the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current is separated based on the denoised multi-channel magnetic field data to obtain at least one of the spinal nerve current, spinal nerve signal and spinal nerve function of the wearer.

[0024] In general, the above technical solution conceived by the present invention has the following beneficial effects compared with the prior art:

[0025] The present invention provides a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection method and system, which uses an ultra-high precision magnetic field sensor to non-invasively measure the magnetic field generated by the electrical signals in the human spinal nerves outside the human body. By analyzing the magnetic field signal, the change of the electrical signal of the human spinal nerve is obtained, and the spinal nerve tissue and its function are diagnosed. Since the magnetic field generated by the human nerve current is very weak, the measurement is easily affected by the earth's magnetic field and other environmental magnetic fields, so the measurement needs to be carried out in a magnetic shielding environment. At the same time, the measurement signal also needs to be filtered, independent component analysis and other processes, so as to trace the change of the magnetic field caused by different nerve currents from the measurement signal. According to the above method, the time-varying characteristics of the magnetic field signals of different segments of the spinal nerves of the subject are obtained, and compared with the healthy sample data, so as to determine whether the corresponding nerve function is normal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 A diagram of the overall system for detecting spinal nerve function provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 2 A flowchart of spinal nerve weak magnetic signal processing provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] In all the drawings, the same reference numerals are used to represent the same elements or structures, wherein: 1 is an atomic magnetometer, 2 is a marking component, 3 is a wearable measurement carrier, 4 is a magnetic shielding device, 5 is a real-time tracking system, and 6 is a reference magnetometer. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] For ease of understanding, the English abbreviations and related technical terms involved in the embodiments of the present invention are explained and described below.

[0030] The embodiments of the present invention are described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

[0031] The purpose of the present invention is to break through the limitations of existing medical imaging in spinal nerve function detection and overcome the drawbacks of invasive spinal nerve activity measurement methods in clinical operations, and to propose a non-invasive spinal nerve function detection system based on magnetic measurement.

[0032] Since nerve currents will generate an induced magnetic field in the surrounding space, non-contact magnetic measurement to obtain changes in spinal nerve electrical signals and then deduce nerve activity is an ideal way to achieve non-invasive measurement of spinal nerves. The magnetic field generated by spinal nerve currents around the spine is generally in the order of fT (10 -15 T, which is about 10 orders of magnitude lower than the Earth's magnetic field), so measurements need to be made in a magnetically shielded environment. In addition, since the magnetic field decays as the square of the distance in space, the magnetometer that measures the changes in the electromagnetic field caused by neural activity needs to be as close to the nerve as possible.

[0033] Figure 1 The overall system diagram of spinal nerve function detection provided by the embodiment of the present invention; Figure 1 As shown, the system mainly includes: an atomic magnetometer 1, a marking component 2, a wearable measurement carrier 3, a magnetic shielding device 4, a real-time tracking system 5, a reference magnetometer 6 and a signal processing device.

[0034] like Figure 1 As shown, the carrier 3 includes: a main body and a belt; the main body is used to carry multiple atomic magnetometers 1; the belt is connected to the main body, and is used to control the curved surface state of the main body when it is worn, so that the main body can fit the curved surface of the wearer's back when it is worn; the multiple atomic magnetometers 1 are used to measure the magnetic field of the wearer's back when the carrier 3 is worn, so as to obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal cord nerve current of the wearer.

[0035] A plurality of marking components 2 are carried by a carrier 3 and are used to obtain the position and posture of each atomic magnetometer 1 while the wearer wears the carrier 3;

[0036] The real-time tracking system 5 is used to track the position of the marking component 2 in real time, so as to determine the position of each atomic magnetometer through the position of the marking component 2.

[0037] For example, the marking component may be a light marking point, or other components used to mark a position, and the present invention does not impose any limitation on this.

[0038] The signal processing device is used to fit the background magnetic field at the location of each atomic magnetometer 1 based on the measurement values ​​of multiple marking components 2, and subtract the background magnetic field from the measurement results of multiple atomic magnetometers 1 to obtain corresponding magnetic field measurement values, then filter and denoise the magnetic field measurement values, and discard the magnetic field signals other than the spinal nerve current to obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current.

[0039] In addition, the reference magnetometer 6 is used to measure the magnetic field at the location, so as to use the linear regression method to fit the time-varying background magnetic field of each magnetometer position at the spinal cord.

[0040] Furthermore, the carrier 3 needs to be worn by the wearer in a magnetic shielding environment, and the polyatomic magnetometer 1 measures the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current of the wearer in the magnetic shielding environment. The magnetic shielding device 4 is used to provide a magnetic shielding environment.

[0041] The following example illustrates the measurement process after the measuring device is worn. Figure 2 The flowchart of the spinal cord nerve weak magnetic signal processing provided by the embodiment of the present invention is as follows: Figure 2 As shown, the following steps are included:

[0042] First, the body area innervated by the spinal nerves to be tested is physically stimulated to induce the conduction of electrical signals in the spinal nerves, and the magnetic field generated by the neural electrical signals is measured using an atomic magnetometer that can measure in the fT range.

[0043] Specifically, the measurement array including multiple atomic magnetometers is fixed by a wearable measurement carrier that conforms to the back curve. By adjusting the multiple elastic bands on the wearable measurement carrier, the magnetometers on the array can always be close to the spinal curve, so that the atomic magnetometer measurement point is as close to the measured nerve as possible. Secondly, in order to ensure that the measurement is not interfered by the environmental magnetic field (including the earth's magnetism and the magnetic field generated by electrical equipment), the object being measured and the atomic magnetometer need to be performed in a magnetic shielding environment.

[0044] Furthermore, since there is still an uneven residual magnetic field and a magnetic field gradient in the magnetic shielding environment, when the subject wearing the detection system moves, the measurement value of the magnetometer will change with the displacement. This change in magnetic measurement value is called motion artifact. To this end, by installing a marker component on the magnetometer mounting structure, a real-time tracking system is used to obtain the real-time position and posture of the magnetometer array to compensate for the motion artifact caused by body movement in the magnetic field measurement signal.

[0045] Specifically, since the background magnetic field of the environment, motion artifacts, and mains power is several orders of magnitude larger than the neural magnetic field, if the common filtering method is directly used on the raw data, it is impossible to effectively extract the neural magnetic field information. Therefore, the magnetic field data is processed and analyzed here based on the measured multi-channel magnetic field signal and magnetometer posture information.

[0046] In the first step, based on the measurements of the reference magnetometer, a linear regression method is used to fit the time-varying background magnetic field at each magnetometer position at the spinal cord. The fitted background magnetic field value is subtracted from the original measurement value of the magnetometer at the spinal cord to eliminate the motion artifact caused by the movement of the patient.

[0047] The second step is to design a narrowband notch filter specifically for these frequencies based on the AC power frequency and the electrical frequency of the motion tracking system, and filter out the narrowband alternating magnetic field caused by the AC power and experimental instruments from the output magnetic field signal of the previous step.

[0048] The third step is to design a suitable high-pass filter to filter out the low-frequency noise that was not eliminated in the first step according to the frequency band of motion artifacts and the sensor's own zero-point drift. The fourth step is to design a suitable low-pass filter to filter out the high-frequency noise that was not eliminated in the second step according to the frequency of magnetic noise from the mains, motion tracking system and other sources. Finally, according to the spatial position characteristics and original waveform characteristics of the source of the magnetic field signal (such as the heart and spinal nerves), the independent components in the signal are separated according to the denoised multi-channel magnetic field data, and irrelevant heart magnetic signals are discarded to extract the signal transmission conditions of each nerve channel in the spinal cord. Finally, the spinal cord nerve magnetic field signals of the subjects are compared with the healthy sample data, and the corresponding organic and functional neurological lesions are diagnosed in combination with the physical symptoms of the subjects.

[0049] It should be understood that expressions such as "include" and "may include" that can be used in the present invention indicate the existence of the disclosed functions, operations or constituent elements, and do not limit one or more additional functions, operations and constituent elements. In the present invention, terms such as "include" and / or "have" can be interpreted as indicating specific characteristics, numbers, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof, but cannot be interpreted as excluding the existence or possibility of adding one or more other characteristics, numbers, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

[0050] In addition, in the present invention, the expression "and / or" includes any and all combinations of the associated listed words. For example, the expression "A and / or B" may include A, may include B, or may include both A and B.

[0051] In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the term "connection" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, "connection" can be a detachable connection or a non-detachable connection; it can be a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium. Among them, "fixed connection" means that the relative position relationship after connection remains unchanged. "Rotational connection" means that the two are connected to each other and can rotate relative to each other after connection. "Sliding connection" means that the two are connected to each other and can slide relative to each other after connection. The directional terms mentioned in the embodiments of the present invention, such as "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", "left", "right", etc., are only reference directions of the accompanying drawings. Therefore, the directional terms used are for better and clearer explanation and understanding of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation on the embodiments of the present invention.

[0052] In addition, in the embodiments of the present invention, the mathematical concepts mentioned are symmetry, equality, parallelism, and perpendicularity. These limitations are all for the current technological level, rather than an absolutely strict definition in the mathematical sense, and a small amount of deviation is allowed, and approximate symmetry, approximate equality, approximate parallelism, and approximate perpendicularity are all acceptable. For example, A and B are parallel, which means that A and B are parallel or approximately parallel, and the angle between A and B can be between 0 and 10 degrees. A and B are perpendicular, which means that A and B are perpendicular or approximately perpendicular, and the angle between A and B can be between 80 and 100 degrees.

[0053] The above is only a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed by the present invention, which should be included in the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A non-invasive spinal cord nerve function detection system, characterized in that: include: multiple atomic magnetometers, carriers, multiple marker components, real-time tracking systems, and signal processing units; The carrier comprises: a main body and a belt; the main body is used to carry a plurality of atomic magnetometers, and the plurality of atomic magnetometers are arranged on the main body in an array arrangement manner; the belt is connected to the main body, and is used to control the curved surface state of the main body when it is worn, so that the main body can fit the curved surface of the wearer's back when it is worn; The multiple atomic magnetometers are used to measure the magnetic field on the back of the wearer when the carrier is worn, and obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current of the wearer; the magnetic field signal reflects the change of the spinal nerve current of the wearer, so as to judge the relevant situation of the spinal nerve function of the wearer; The plurality of marking components are carried by a carrier and arranged on the main body in an array arrangement, and the plurality of marking components are cross-arranged with the plurality of atomic magnetometers for marking positions; A real-time tracking system, used for tracking the positions of multiple marker components in real time, so as to determine the positions and postures of each atomic magnetometer during the wearer wearing the carrier through the positions of the marker components; The signal processing unit is used to fit the time-varying background magnetic field at the location of each atomic magnetometer using a linear regression method based on the position and posture of each atomic magnetometer, so as to subtract the fitted time-varying background magnetic field value from the original measurement value of the atomic magnetometer, thereby eliminating motion artifacts caused by the wearer's movement.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that The signal processing unit is also used to filter and denoise the magnetic field measurement values ​​after eliminating low-frequency drift, and finally separate the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current based on the denoised multi-channel magnetic field data to obtain at least one of the wearer's spinal nerve current, spinal nerve signal and spinal nerve function information.

3. The system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The carrier is worn by a wearer in a magnetic shielding environment, and the multiple atomic magnetometers measure magnetic field signals corresponding to spinal nerve currents of the wearer in the magnetic shielding environment.

4. The system according to claim 3, characterized in that Also includes: Magnetic shielding device; The magnetic shielding device is used to provide a magnetic shielding environment.

5. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that The belt body is a plurality of elastic belts.

6. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that The signal processing unit filters out the narrowband alternating magnetic field caused by the electricity used in the measurement system through a narrowband notch filter, filters out the low-frequency noise that is not completely eliminated in the process of shielding the background magnetic field through a high-pass filter, and filters out the high-frequency noise that is not completely eliminated in the process of narrowband notch filtering through a low-pass filter. Finally, the magnetic field signals other than the spinal nerve current are separated and discarded according to the spatial position characteristics of the source of the magnetic field signal and the original waveform characteristics, so as to obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current.

7. The system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The multiple atomic magnetometers are dispersedly carried by the main body; when worn through the carrier, the multiple atomic magnetometers are respectively close to various areas of the wearer's spinal cord to detect the magnetic fields of various areas of the spinal cord.

8. A non-invasive spinal cord nerve function detection method, characterized in that: include: When the carrier is worn, the magnetic field on the back of the wearer is measured by multiple atomic magnetometers to obtain the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current of the wearer; The magnetic field signal reflects the change of the wearer's spinal nerve current, so as to judge the relevant condition of the wearer's spinal nerve function; The carrier comprises: a main body and a belt; the main body is used to carry a plurality of atomic magnetometers, and the plurality of atomic magnetometers are arranged on the main body in an array arrangement manner; the belt is connected to the main body, and is used to control the curved surface state of the main body when it is worn, so that the main body can fit the curved surface of the wearer's back when it is worn; Tracking the positions of the plurality of marking components in real time, so as to determine the positions and postures of the respective atomic magnetometers during the period when the wearer wears the carrier through the positions of the marking components; the plurality of marking components are carried by the carrier and arranged on the main body in an array arrangement, and the plurality of marking components and the plurality of atomic magnetometers are arranged crosswise for marking positions; Based on the position and posture of each atomic magnetometer, a linear regression method is used to fit the time-varying background magnetic field at the location of each atomic magnetometer, so as to subtract the fitted time-varying background magnetic field value from the original measurement value of the atomic magnetometer, thereby eliminating the motion artifacts caused by the wearer's movement.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that Also includes: The magnetic field measurement values ​​after eliminating low-frequency drift are filtered and denoised, and finally the magnetic field signal corresponding to the spinal nerve current is separated based on the denoised multi-channel magnetic field data to obtain at least one of the spinal nerve current, spinal nerve signal and spinal nerve function of the wearer.

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