Implantable Heart Sound Sensor Circuit for Physiologic Trending
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current implantable medical devices lack effective methods for monitoring heart sounds to detect physiologic perturbations and trending changes in a patient's condition, which are crucial for diagnosing heart diseases and responding to therapy impacts.
Innovation Solution
An implantable medical device with a heart sound sensor circuit and processor circuit that detects physiologic perturbations, identifies heart sound features, and trends them over time to declare changes in a patient's condition, using additional sensors for cardiovascular events, activity, posture, and respiration to correlate heart sounds with various physiological changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If implantable medical devices include heart sound monitoring capability, then diagnostic accuracy and patient condition monitoring improve, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines heart sound monitoring functionality with existing implantable medical devices such as pacemakers and ICDs. The heart sound sensor is integrated into the device housing or lead system, allowing the device to perform both its primary electrical therapy function and heart sound monitoring without requiring a completely separate implantable device.
Solution Approach 2:
The implantable device is designed to serve multiple functions: delivering electrical therapy (pacing, defibrillation) and simultaneously monitoring heart sounds. The processor analyzes heart sound signals to detect various cardiac conditions, making the device universal in its diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities.
2Loss of information
If multiple sensors are integrated to monitor cardiovascular events, activity, posture, and respiration, then comprehensive patient monitoring improves, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the monitoring system into distinct sensor modules, each dedicated to a specific physiologic parameter (cardiovascular events, physical activity, posture, respiration). This modular approach allows for targeted sensing and processing of different physiologic signals, making the overall system more manageable and analyzable.
Solution Approach 2:
The device incorporates feedback mechanisms where sensor data from multiple sources is continuously processed and used to adjust device operation. For example, activity sensor data may trigger changes in pacing parameters, and heart sound analysis may influence defibrillation thresholds, creating a closed-loop system that responds dynamically to patient needs.
3Reliability
If continuous heart sound trending is performed, then early detection of physiologic changes improves, but processing requirements and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The device performs heart sound analysis periodically rather than continuously, triggering analysis based on specific cardiac events such as PVCs or changes in heart rate. This periodic approach allows the device to capture critical information at key moments while conserving energy during intervals between analyses.
Solution Approach 2:
The device stores heart sound data in memory for later analysis, allowing preliminary capture of all heart sounds without immediate processing. The processor then analyzes stored data during low-power modes or when triggered by specific events, separating the data capture function from the computationally intensive analysis function.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate monitoring of heart sounds to detect progression of heart disease, respond to therapy, and assess hemodynamic stability by correlating heart sounds with physiological changes, providing timely and effective clinical insights.
Implementation Method 1
an implantable heart sound sensor circuit configured to produce an electrical heart sound signal representative of a heart sound of a subject
Data Source
AI summary
This document discusses, among other things, a system comprising an implantable medical device (IMD) including an implantable heart sound sensor circuit configured to produce an electrical heart sound signal representative of a heart sound of a subject and a processor circuit. The processor circuit is coupled to the heart sound sensor circuit and includes a detection circuit, a heart sound feature circuit and a trending circuit. The detection circuit configured to detect a physiologic perturbation and the heart sound feature circuit is configured to identify a heart sound feature in the electrical signal. The processor circuit is configured to trigger the heart sound feature circuit in relation to a detected physiologic perturbation. The trending circuit is configured to trend the heart sound feature in relation to a recurrence of the physiologic perturbation. The processor circuit is configured to declare a change in a physiologic condition of the patient according to the trending.