158 results about "Swallowing" patented technology

Hypertonic sugar compositions administered by other than ingestion and swallowing or intravascular injection, such as by intranasal spray or drops, intraocular drops or ointment, oral spray, intraotic spray or drops, lozenges, chewable tablet, chewing gum, or gargle, pulmonary inhalation, vaginal or rectal suppositories, or transdermal creams, ointments, lotions, or patches, are effective to open the blood-brain barrier to permit entry into the central nervous system of a co-administered chemical compound, such as a nutrient or a therapeutic or diagnostic agent. In this way, the compositions and methods of the invention increase the therapeutic or diagnostic efficacy of such chemical compounds.

A swallow challenge medium (10) is thixotropic for easy swallowing and to provide enough viscosity for effective challenge to peristalsis (20) and has high ionic density for effective impedance measurements by contact with electrodes (41–48) positioned in a person's esophagus (E) or oropharynx during swallow testing. The medium (10) also has a high surface tension so as not to adhere to or coat the electrodes (41–48) or probe (12) surfaces. These physical characteristics are stabilized and consistent enough to provide standard for esophageal and/or oropharyngeal function testing and diagnostics.

An oral device for use with a person in which at least one non-toxic gas pulse is delivered to a predetermined location in the mouth via a device conduit. The oral device may be provided as a kit with at least one device for measuring the subject's responses and representing them as feedback to the subject/clinician. A method of creating a gas bolus pulse train, delivering it to a predetermined mouth area, and monitoring the subject's responses to it, is also shown. The oral device and method may be used as a diagnostic tool, or a therapeutic tool, in swallowing or speech rehabilitation of children and adults who have swallowing, speech, salivary, and/or oral sensorimotor impairments.

A device for volitional swallowing with a substitute sensory system comprises a band 101 wrapped around the neck with a vibrator 102 positioned over the larynx. Upon activation by a button 103 on a spoon 104 held by an operator, such as the subject 105, the vibrator 102 moves and vibrates the larynx. The patient 105 initiates the sensory stimulation immediately prior to the patient's own initiation of a swallow by viewing on a display screen 106 a movement feedback signal 107, possibly from a piezo-electric sensor 108 also contained in the band 101 which will also be displayed on the display screen 106. The signal 109 from the switch device initiating sensory stimulation will be presented on the same display screen 106 for the patient 105 and trainer to observe when the button or switch 103 is activated for sensory stimulation in relation to the onset of the swallow.

A method and a system for generating physiological signals with fabric capacitive sensors are provided. The system uses at least one fabric, and at least one conduction region is provided on the fabric. A capacitance is formed between the conduction region and the region in contact with human body. In a case that a signal is provided externally, when a pressure,a pull or a tension between the human body and the fabric makes the capacitance change, or the changes of the medium constants between the human body and the fabric makes the capacitance change, the changes of capacitance can be detected. The changes of capacitance are shown as frequency, voltage or current, and therefore the changes of resonance frequency, voltage or current are generated. The physiological parameters of human body, such as gesture, swallowing, coughing, respiration, perspiring, even heartbeat and the like, are reflected by the changes of resonance frequency, voltage or current. The signal range of the frequency, voltage or current are changed by the fabric capacitive sensors connected in series or in parallel with a switch, a resistance R, a capacitance C or an inductance L.

The invention relates to an eating habit monitoring device, which comprises a sound sensor, a sensor interface circuit module, a microprocessor and a display hardware module. The microprocessor comprises a sound signal acquiring module, a signal pretreating module, a signal feature extracting module, a signal feature classifying module, an eating habit analyzing and calculating module and a display software module, and is implemented by the following steps of: when a person eats, continuously acquiring a sound signal in an external auditory canal by using the sound sensor arranged in the external auditory canal; pretreating the sound signal; performing feature extraction on the pretreated sound signal; classifying feature values, and distinguishing swallowing signals and chewing signals and time corresponding to the swallowing signals and the chewing signals; calculating eating habit index values of the person, including total swallowing times, average swallowing times in unit time, and the average chewing time and average chewing times of each time of swallowing; and displaying the habit index values. By the eating habit monitoring device, the eating habit of the person can be analyzed, calculated and displayed, and body health is benefited.

The present invention is a safe, inexpensive, easy to use and effective anti-snoring and anti-sleep apnea treatment device. The device has a vertical and horizontal bar. The horizontal bar is placed inside the mouth, behind or between the molar teeth with palatine and tongue shelves to prevent snoring and movement of the tongue backwards. The device is tethered to the hard palate by vacuum cups to prevent the movement of the tongue backwards during sleep to prevent sleep apnea. The proximal end of the vertical bar is anchored to string at the distal end with hook and loop fabric closure adhesive attachment and to the lips outside the mouth to prevent the accidental swallowing and aspiration of the device; and at the same time holds the tongue and device firmly in the mouth. The device is provided with canula with three way stopcocks to deliver supplemental oxygen and therapeutic agents.

A continuous swallowing movement measuring device includes pressure sensors placed in a line along a direction of an up and down movement of a thyroid cartilage when a food is swallowed, a first one of the pressure sensors placed at a top position of the thyroid cartilage, a second one of the pressure sensors placed along the direction to measure swallows included in a continuous swallowing movement. The device also includes a tool for wearing the pressure sensors and for fixing the pressure sensors to touch an anterior region of a neck of a subject. The tool includes a fixing unit fixes the pressure sensors. The tool also includes a supporter of the pressure sensors supports the fixing unit. Further, the tool includes a holding band holds the supporter of the pressure sensors on the anterior region of the neck of the subject.

The invention relates to a Rabeprazole sodium enteric-coated orally disintegrating tablet and a method for preparing the same. The Rabeprazole sodium enteric-coated orally disintegrating tablet comprises the following components in percentage by weight: 1 to 5 percent of Rabeprazole sodium, 8 to 10 percent of blank pill core, 2 to 5 percent of stabilizer, 10 to 15 percent of isolation layer, 15 to 20 percent of enteric coating, 35 to 70 percent of filling agent and 10 to 20 percent of disintegrating agent. The invention provides the Rabeprazole sodium enteric-coated orally disintegrating tablet having the advantages of small grain size, quick absorption, high bioavailability, good taste, easy swallowing, good disintegrated effect, strong compressibility, and convenient use for patients and the method for preparing the same.

A bladder assembly is provided in order to maintain the pressure in the balloon portion of a gastric band in a range corresponding to a so-called Green Zone. Multiple bladders are connected by flexible tubing which is connected at a distal end to the balloon portion of a gastric band. The elastically expandable bladders provide fluid pressure on the balloon portion of the gastric band in order to maintain the intra-luminal pressure within a desired range over a prescribed fill volume. A flow restrictor is positioned between the balloon portion and the bladders to restrict fluid flow from the balloon to the bladders during patient swallowing.

Improved pacifiers are provided. Certain embodiments better accommodate the anatomy of the human oral cavity and throat, and can provide for improved airway patency, healthy jaw development, correct swallowing, and/or satisfy a user's inclination to suck and nibble. Certain embodiments include an upper ridge groove configured to receive a user's upper anterior ridge, and a lower ridge groove configured to receive the user's lower anterior ridge. The ridge grooves can be substantially vertically aligned, can span a user's anterior ridges, and can maintain vertical spacing between the user's anterior ridges. Certain embodiments include an anterior flange and a posterior flange, the upper ridge groove configured to receive the upper anterior ridge between the posterior flange and anterior flange, and the lower ridge groove configured to receive the lower anterior ridge between the posterior flange and anterior flange. Certain embodiments include a nipple projecting substantially vertically from the posterior flange.

The invention discloses a tri-combination compound mini-pill tablet co-prepared by disoproxil fumarate DF coated mini-pills, lamivudine coated mini-pills and efavirenz mini-pills and a preparation method thereof. The invention solves the problems that effective component degradation and dissolution delaying phenomena are generated due to interaction among the tri-combination compound components, tabletting is not facilitated during preparation and patient swallowing is not facilitated; and the single-layer tablet having the three component drugs without mutual contact is prepared by a mini-pill tabletting method, so as to obtain good stability and fast dissolving rate.

A method and apparatus are provided for changing the form of the jaw and facial bones of an adult patient that did not develop fully during childhood. The method utilizes a device having a plate body with an expansion screw device that fits within the mouth of the patient, flap springs that project from the plate body and an overlay extending from the plate body. The device is placed within the mouth of the patient so that the overlay is in a position between at least two opposing teeth. In this position the flap springs press against selected teeth that are out of alignment in order to urge those teeth back into place. This force on the teeth causes the jawbone to expand to accept the teeth in their proper position(s). Also, the device is arranged such that the opposing teeth contact the overlay during swallowing, which causes the patient's facial muscles to intermittently pull on the facial bones. This intermittent application of force to the facial bones causes these bones to further develop toward a symmetrical appearance of the face and the positioning of out of place teeth/tooth into proper position. The device can be adjusted by small motors under the control of a microprocessor located on the body plate based on readings from sensors on the flap springs.

The invention relates to an encircling swallowing type navel orange picking actuator, and belongs to the technical field of agricultural picking robots. The whole design concept is based on the bionics principle, motors are adopted for driving, picking and collecting are integrated through the force transmission between a plurality of pairs of bevel gears, and the underactuation of peduncle cutting, fixing and collecting driving is realized; the whole structure is symmetrically arranged, an encircling mode is adopted for fixing and limiting navel oranges to be picked, a swallowing mode is adopted for colleting picked navel oranges, a collecting net formed by the reasonable combination of elastic ropes and non-elastic ropes is used for ensuring that the whole actuator has only one continuous collecting channel in the picking process, and it is ensured that navel oranges can be continuously picked and collected. The actuator is novel in collecting mode, high in picking efficiency, simplein structure, convenient to control and high in expansibility and universality and causes less damage to navel oranges; multiple identical collecting units of the actuator can be connected together in series without increasing drives, and the requirement for a larger picking capacity is met.

The eating and drinking action detection apparatus: acquires vibration produced from inside of a body of a subject and generates a vibration signal corresponding to the vibration; divides the vibration signal into each frame to calculate power of the vibration signal for each frame; determines, for each frame, whether the frame is a stationary signal having a periodicity or a non-stationary signal having no periodicity; detects, based on the power of each frame and a determination result for each frame whether the frame is the stationary signal or the non-stationary signal, a period of the non-stationary signal being continued while the power of the vibration signal is equal to or larger than a power threshold, acquires a continuation time of the period; and determines, based on the continuation time, whether the subject performed swallowing or mastication in the period of the non-stationary signal being continued.

The invention specifically discloses a cefpodoxime proxetil taste-masking granule and a preparation method thereof, belonging to the field of medicinal preparations. The taste-masking granule is prepared through mixing of a coated cefpodoxime proxetil pellet and a taste-masking particle, wherein the coated cefpodoxime proxetil pellet is of a structure composed of three layers, i.e., a drug-loadedpellet, a separating layer and a smoothing layer from interior to exterior. The main objective of the invention is to overcome the problems that current commercially-available cefpodoxime proxetil products immediately produce unpleasant bitter taste when child patients take the products; the taste of the cefpodoxime proxetil products is bad, which leads to poor medication compliance of child patients; and the cefpodoxime proxetil products have to be dissolved in water before taking, which leads to inconvenience in administration. To improve the medication compliance of children, the inherent bitter taste of cefpodoxime proxetil is totally masked, and components like a sweetener applicable to children are increased, so the bitter taste of the chemical drug is eliminated and fragrant smell is increased; and thus, child patients easily accept the granule and are pleasant to the fragrant smell, so the medication compliance of children is improved. Besides improvement of the medication compliance of children, the granule provided by the invention also overcomes the problem of inconvenience in administration of children by adding special adjuvants which allow children to take the granulethrough direct swallowing without dissolving in water into a prescription.

The present invention relates to a calcium carbonate vitamin D3 composition and water-free-swallowing granules thereof, and belongs to the field of pharmaceutical preparations. According to the present invention, in the calcium carbonate vitamin D3 composition and the calcium carbonate vitamin D3 water-free-swallowing granules containing the composition or prepared from the composition, vitamin D3is fed in a vitamin D3 carrier manner; compared to the granules in the prior art, the granules of the present invention have the following advantages that the rapid water-free swallowing of the granules in the oral cavity cam be achieved, the taste is good, and the compliance of the user can be improved, such that the problems of poor content uniformity and poor stability of vitamin D3 in the preparation can be solved; and particularly compared to the existing calcium carbonate vitamin D3 preparation, the preparation of the present invention has the following advantages that the calcium carbonate content in the unit preparation is increased while the loading is lower than the loading of the traditional dosage form.

Nutritional products having improved cohesiveness for promoting safer swallowing of food boluses for patients having swallowing conditions are provided as well as methods of making and using such products. The nutritional products may include nutritional compositions and high molecular weight, water-soluble polymers such that the nutritional products have extensional viscosities that provide improved cohesiveness to the nutritional products. Methods of administering such nutritional products to patients having impaired swallowing ability and/or dysphagia are also provided.

The invention relates to a lateral pharyngeal wall traction device. The lateral pharyngeal wall traction device comprises a bone fixator, a traction mechanism and a lateral pharyngeal wall fixator. The lateral pharyngeal wall fixator is fixed on palatopharyngeus muscle or other lateral pharyngeal wall tela submucosa; with the bone fixator fixed on alveolar process or pterygoid hamulus or pterygoid process as a fulcrum, one end of the traction mechanism is connected to the bone fixator, and the other end of the traction mechanism is connected to the lateral pharyngeal wall fixator to drag the lateral pharyngeal wall tela submucosa outwards. The elastic drag force generated by the traction mechanism is greater than the collapse force of the lateral pharyngeal wall generated by negative pressure during air suction and is smaller than the shrink force generated by muscles of the lateral pharyngeal wall during swallowing. Therefore, the obstruction formed by collapse of the lateral pharyngeal wall generated by negative pressure during air suction is prevented to achieve the purpose of treating OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea); meanwhile, the affect on the swallowing function is reduced as much as possible, and a favorable swallowing function is kept.

The invention discloses a method for symbiotic rotational culture of rice, crayfishes, ducks and crabs, and relates to the field of agricultural ecological cultivation. The method comprises the following steps: in the middle ten days of January, digging cultivation ditches around a rice field, planting waterweed and typha angustifolia, arranging an anti-escape net around the rice field, placing juvenile crayfishes into the rice field in the first ten days of April, artificially cultivating rice seedlings in a greenhouse in the middle ten days of May, transplanting the seedlings into the rice field, irrigating water into the rice field, adding a nutrient into the water, placing juvenile crabs into the cultivation ditches and the rice field in the middle ten days of July, feeding ducks in abreeding shed in the last ten days of August, arranging fences on the periphery of a rice stubble field in the first ten days of November, and breeding the ducks in the rice field. The ducks, the crayfishes and the crabs are cultured alternately, the utilization rate of the rice field is increased, furthermore, mutual swallowing of the cultured products can be prevented, the rice and the culturedproducts mutually provide nutrients for each other, effective circulation of an ecological system is realized, resources are reasonably utilized, and the culture cost is saved.