57 results about "Normal heart" patented technology

A cardiac arrest monitor and alarm system including an implantable medical device having at least three electrodes, preferably but not necessarily subcutaneous, positioned with respect to a heart organ and forming an orthogonal lead configuration to continuously monitor an electrocardiographic signal of the heart organ. A microdevice, preferably but not necessarily operatively connected to the medical device, detects a deviation from a normal heart electrical activity and emits a signal to an external receiver. Upon verification of the signal from the microdevice, the external receiver activates a programmed annunciator circuit to alert bystanders to deploy an AED and/or activate a communication link automatically transmitting an alarm and the electrocardiographic signal to a remote transceiver.

Among >300 miRNAs known to date, miR-1 is considered muscle-specific. Here we show that that miR-1 overexpressed in individuals with coronary artery disease, and when overexpressed, it exacerbated arrhythmogenesis in both infarcted and normal hearts of rats whereas elimination of miR-1 by its antisense inhibitor relieved it. MiR-1 rendered slowed conduction and depolarized membrane by post-transcriptionally repressing KCNJ2 and GJA1 genes, likely accounting for its arrhythmogenic potential. Thus, miR-1 may have important pathophysiological functions in heart, being a novel antiarrhythmic target useful in the treatment and prevention of various cardiac pathologies.

The present invention describes a device and system for simulating normal and disease state cardiovascular functioning, including an anatomically accurate left cardiac simulator for training and medical device testing. The system and device uses pneumatically pressurized chambers to generate ventricle and atrium contractions. In conjunction with the interaction of synthetic valves which simulate mitral and aortic valves, the system is designed to generate pumping action that produces accurate volume fractions and pressure gradients of pulsatile flow, duplicating that of a human heart. Through the use of a control unit and sensors, one or more parameters such as flow rates, fluidic pressure, and heart rate may be automatically controlled, using feedback loop mechanisms to adjust parameters of the hydraulic system simulate a wide variety of cardiovascular conditions including normal heart function, severely diseased or injured heart conditions, and compressed vasculature, such as hardening of the arteries.

A software app for a mobile device is disclosed for alerting a custodian of a person to be protected of an emergency situation involving the person to be protected. The app includes software instructions for carrying out a method including: establishing a range of normal heart rates for the person using a heart rate monitor; detecting a heart rate for the person that is outside of the established range; activating at least one of a camera, a microphone, an accelerometer, and a location indicator on the mobile device carried by the person; establishing a wireless data connection between the mobile device and a communication network; and transmitting data to the custodian from the activated camera, microphone, accelerometer, or location indicator via the communication network. The app can notify a custodian of a medical or safety emergency as it is happening, giving that custodian the ability to immediately notify emergency personnel.

A method of determining a likelihood of an occurrence of a cardiac arrhythmia in a patient includes receiving three-dimensional imaging data of said patient's heart, constructing a whole-heart model for simulating at least one of electrophysiological activity or electromechanical activity of the patient's heart using the three-dimensional imaging data, simulating a response of the patient's heart to each of a plurality of stimulations to a corresponding plurality of different locations within the patient's heart using the whole-heart model, classifying each simulation outcome for each stimulation as one of a normal heart rhythm or a cardiac arrhythmia, calculating a likelihood index based on results of the classifying, and determining the likelihood of the occurrence of the cardiac arrhythmia in the patient based on the likelihood index. Software and data processing systems that implement the above methods are also provided.

A device is configured to monitor a cardiovascular property of a subject. The device obtains measurement data from a primary pressure wave sensor arranged to detect pressure waves in an extracorporeal fluid circuit in fluid communication with the cardiovascular system of the subject. The device has a signal processor configured to generate a time-dependent monitoring signal based on the measurement data, such that the monitoring signal comprises a sequence of heart pulses, wherein each heart pulse represents a pressure wave originating from a heart beat in the subject; determine beat classification data for each heart pulse in the monitoring signal; and calculate, based at least partly on the beat classification data, a parameter value indicative of the cardiovascular property. The beat classification data may distinguish between heart pulses originating from normal heart beats and heart pulses originating from ectopic heart beats. The cardiovascular property may be an arterial status of the cardiovascular system, a degree of calcification in the cardiovascular system, a status of a blood vessel access used for connecting the extracorporeal fluid circuit to the cardiovascular system, a heart rate variability, a heart rate, a heart rate turbulence, an ectopic beat count, or an origin of ectopic beats. The device may be attached to or part of a dialysis machine.

A device used to treat heart disease by decreasing the size of a diseased heart, or to prevent further enlargement of a diseased heart. The device works by limiting the volume of blood entering the heart during each cardiac cycle. The device partitions blood within the heart, and protects the heart from excessive volume and pressure of blood. The device is placed within the interior of the heart, particularly within a ventricular cavity. The device is a hollow sac, with two openings, which simulates the shape and size of the interior lining of a ventricle of a normal heart. It allows the ventricle to fill through one opening juxtaposed to the annulus of the inflow valve to a predetermined, normal volume, and limits filling of the heart beyond that volume. It then allows blood to be easily ejected through the second opening through the outflow valve. By limiting the amount of blood entering the ventricle, the ventricle is not subjected to the harmful effect of excessive volume and pressure of blood during diastole, the period of the cardiac cycle when the heart is at rest. This allows the heart to decrease in size, or to reverse remodel, and to recover lost function. In some applications, a second device may be simultaneously placed inside the heart to take up excessive space between the heart and the primary device.

Miniature defibrillators and cardioverters detect abnormal heart rhythms and automatically apply electrical therapy to restore normal heart function. Critical to this function, aluminum-electrolytic capacitors store and deliver life-saving bursts of electric charge to the heart. This type of capacitor requires regular “reform” to preserve its charging efficiency over time. Because reform expends valuable battery energy, manufacturers developed wet-tantalum capacitors, which are generally understood not to require reform. Yet, the present inventors discovered through extensive study that wet-tantalum capacitors exhibit progressively worse charging efficiency over time. Accordingly, to address this problem, the inventors devised unique reform techniques for wet-tantalum capacitors. One exemplary technique entails charging wet-tantalum capacitors to a voltage equal to about 90% of their rated voltage and allowing the charge to dissipate through system leakage for a period of time, before discharging through a non-therapeutic load.

Embodiments of the invention include systems, protective casings for smartphones, and associated methods to enhance use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) device before arrival of emergency medical personnel. A system can include a smartphone and a protective casing abuttingly contacting one or more side portions of the smartphone and retaining the smartphone positioned therein. The smartphone can include a defibrillation control module to control defibrillation of a victim of sudden cardiac arrest. The protective casing can include sensors, capacitors, and extendable electrode pads. The protective casing further can include a check module to determine whether the victim's heart rhythm requires an electrical shock to reestablish a normal heart rhythm, a space module to measure presence and amount of preselected materials relatively near the system, and a shock module to activate the one or more capacitors and generate an electrical current to deliver an electrical shock to the victim's chest.

Miniature defibrillators and cardioverters detect abnormal heart rhythms and automatically apply electrical therapy to restore normal heart function. Critical components in these devices are aluminum electrolytic capacitors, which store and deliver one or more life-saving bursts of electric charge to a heart of a patient. This type of capacitor requires regular “reform” to preserve its charging efficiency over time. Because reform expends valuable battery life, manufacturers developed wet-tantalum capacitors, which are generally understood not to require reform. Yet, the present inventors discovered through extensive study that wet-tantalum capacitors exhibit progressively worse charging efficiency over time. Accordingly, to address this problem, the inventors devised unique reform techniques for wet-tantalum capacitors. One exemplary technique entails charging wet-tantalum capacitors to a voltage equal to about 90% of their rated voltage and maintaining this voltage for about five minutes before discharging them.

A method of diagnosing pathologic heart conditions in which a time series of heart sounds is filtered and parsed into a sequence of individual heart cycles. A systolic interval as well as systolic sub-intervals are identified for each heart cycle. An energy value is computed for the systolic sub-interval of one or more heart cycles. The energy value computed is proportional to the energy level associated with the filtered series of heart sounds. A composite energy value is then computed for the systolic sub-intervals of one or more heart cycles and compared to a threshold level in order to distinguish between a normal heart and a pathologic heart. The system corresponding to the method is comprised of a portable computing device that manages data collection and stores data collected from new patients, and analyzes data.

The invention provides a server fan redundancy control method, which comprises the following steps that: in response to the startup of a server, a programmable logic device controls to output a corresponding pulse width modulation signal according to the coding information of a dial switch so as to control the rotating speed of a fan, and monitors a heartbeat signal of a BMC (Baseboard ManagementController); in response to the monitored normal heartbeat signal, the programmable logic device enables a pulse width modulation signal controlled and output by the BMC to be input into the fan to control the rotating speed of the fan; and in response to monitoring that the heartbeat signal is abnormal, the programmable logic device controls to output a corresponding pulse width modulation signalaccording to the encoding information of the dial switch so as to control the rotating speed of the fan. According to the method, energy consumption and noise in the starting process of the server can be reduced, it can be ensured that the fan maintains a certain rotating speed under the condition that the BMC is hung up, and the reliability of the system is improved.

The present invention deals with a simple device to aid in cardiac compression to assist in reestablishing normal heart rhythm. The design and size of the device is particularly useful in morbidly obese individuals that require cardiac compressions in order to optimize resuscitation efforts.

A cardiac rhythm management system provides both a safe maximum pacing rate limit and a physiological maximum pacing rate limit. The present subject matter provides a solution to problems associated with the use of a single maximum tracking rate (MTR). In one embodiment, the present subject matter utilizes two MTRs, where the first is a normal MTR and the second is a hysteresis MTR. In one embodiment, the hysteresis MTR is set higher than the normal MTR. The hysteresis MTR functions as a maximum pacing rate limit while tracking an atrial rate until the atrial rate exceeds the hysteresis MTR limit. When the atrial rate exceeds the hysteresis MTR limit, the maximum pacing rate limit is set to the normal MTR. Once the atrial rate falls below a predetermined threshold, the maximum pacing rate limit is set to the hysteresis MTR. The predetermined threshold may be set to the normal MTR, the hysteresis MTR, or other rates. In one embodiment, changing the maximum pacing rate limit in this fashion allows for uninterrupted pacing treatment for patients, such as congestive heart failure (CHF) patients, who may display fast but physiologically normal heart rates and need cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) at such fast heart rates. Such a pacing treatment provides for a more rapid and natural maximum pacing rate limit for the patient, while still protecting the patient from being paced at abnormally high rates.

The invention belongs to the field of biomedical engineering, and relates to a human tissue-engineered cardiac muscle tissue and a preparation method thereof. The human tissue-engineered cardiac muscle tissue disclosed by the invention is prepared by inoculating all kinds of cell components of a normal heart differentiated from human induced multipotential stem cells by taking a natural decellularized heart substrate as the scaffold. The human tissue-engineered cardiac muscle tissue has cell components, extracellular matrixes and biological functions similar to that of a normal human cardiac muscle tissue; testing and screening of in-vitro drugs, initial in-vivo transplantation researches of clinical earlier-stage small animals and observation of treatment effects can be carried out; and helps can be finally offered for realizing individualized treatment of human cardiovascular diseases.

A device and system for simulating normal and disease state cardiovascular functioning, including an anatomically accurate cardiac simulator for training and medical device testing. The system and device uses pneumatically pressurized chambers to generate ventricle and atrium contractions. In conjunction with the interaction of synthetic valves, which simulate mitral and aortic valves, the system is designed to generate pumping action that produces accurate volume fractions and pressure gradients of pulsatile flow, duplicating that of a human heart. Through the use of a control unit and sensors, one or more parameters, such as flow rates, fluidic pressure, and heart rate, may be automatically controlled, using feedback loop mechanisms to adjust parameters of the hydraulic system to simulate a wide variety of cardiovascular conditions including normal heart function, severely diseased or injured heart conditions, and compressed vasculature, such as hardening of the arteries.

The present invention describes a device and system for simulating normal and disease state cardiovascular functioning, including an anatomically accurate left cardiac simulator for training and medical device testing. The system and device uses pneumatically pressurized chambers to generate ventricle and atrium contractions. In conjunction with the interaction of synthetic valves, which simulate mitral and aortic valves, the system is designed to generate pumping action that produces accurate volume fractions and pressure gradients of pulsatile flow, duplicating that of a human heart. Through the use of a control unit and sensors, one or more parameters, such as flow rates, fluidic pressure, and heart rate, may be automatically controlled, using feedback loop mechanisms to adjust parameters of the hydraulic system to simulate a wide variety of cardiovascular conditions including normal heart function, severely diseased or injured heart conditions, and compressed vasculature, such as hardening of the arteries.