Multi-Sensor Cardiac Monitoring for Non-Invasive Fluid Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional implantable cardiac devices for managing chronic conditions like congestive heart failure (CHF) often lead to false positives due to limited sensing modalities, increasing unnecessary hospital readmissions and costs, and pose surgical risks and infection hazards.
Innovation Solution
A non-invasive multi-sensor device employing multiple sensing modalities, including thoracic impedance, electrocardiogram, breath rate, and heart sounds, to gather and analyze data, perform data fusion, and transmit it to the cloud for further analysis, reducing false positives and enabling remote monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If implantable cardiac devices are used for monitoring fluid retention, then monitoring capability is provided, but surgical risks and infection hazards increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces implantable mechanical/electronic devices with a non-invasive external monitoring system that uses acoustic sensors and impedance measurement to detect fluid retention, eliminating the need for surgical implantation while maintaining monitoring capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an external monitoring device as an intermediary between the patient and the monitoring function, using acoustic waves and electrical impedance as mediators to detect thoracic fluid accumulation without direct implantation in the body
2Device complexity
If single-modality sensors are used for monitoring, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision decreases due to false positives
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple sensing modalities (acoustic sensor for heart sounds, impedance measurement module for thoracic fluid impedance, and optionally ECG electrodes) into a single integrated monitoring system, allowing cross-validation of measurements to reduce false positives while maintaining manageable device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The external monitoring device performs multiple functions using different sensing principles - acoustic sensing for heart sounds, impedance measurement for fluid detection, and optional ECG for cardiac rhythm monitoring - enabling comprehensive monitoring through a single device
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
The device enhances the detection of chronic conditions, decreases hospital readmissions, and reduces costs by providing accurate, non-invasive monitoring with reduced surgical risks.
Implementation Method 1
an acoustic sensor for detecting and measuring a heart sound from the acoustic sensor
Implementation Method 2
a thoracic impedance measurement module connected to the at least two electrodes for measuring a first impedance between the at least two electrodes
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to methods for marking positions for or for positioning of six ECG chest electrodes based on a subject's body height, which allows a reproducible placement of the electrodes in serial independent ECG measurements. The present invention further relates to a device for placement of ECG electrodes which implements said method, and methods and uses applying said device. Hence, the present invention provides an accurate and reproducible, easy to use and low-cost method and device for ECG chest electrode positioning, especially in serial examinations and in obese subjects by minimizing the mistakes in ECG chest electrode placement depending on the subjective and inaccurate defining of anatomic remarks for electrode positions.