Physiological Signal Threshold Adaptation for Stimulation Therapy
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical devices for stimulation therapy face issues with local field potential drift, causing continuous alteration of stimulation characteristics beyond thresholds, leading to unresponsiveness to fluctuations in physiological signals.
Innovation Solution
Adapting physiological signal thresholds by calculating average values over time to determine new upper and lower thresholds, allowing stimulation characteristics to remain within adjustable limits and respond to signal fluctuations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If fixed thresholds are used to control stimulation therapy, then the control system is simple to implement, but the system becomes unresponsive to physiological signal drift
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic threshold adjustment by continuously updating thresholds based on the average of recent physiological signal measurements. Instead of using fixed thresholds, the system adapts thresholds over time to track signal drift, ensuring the control system remains responsive to genuine fluctuations while accommodating gradual drift.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where the measured physiological signal is used to update the threshold values. By calculating the average of recent signal values and using this to set new thresholds, the system creates a closed-loop control that automatically adapts to signal drift while maintaining responsiveness to therapeutic adjustments.
2Reliability
If stimulation characteristics are continuously altered to respond to threshold exceedance, then the system responds to signal changes, but the stimulation gets stuck at limits and loses responsiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamic threshold adjustment to prevent stimulation from getting stuck at limits. By continuously adapting thresholds based on signal averages, the system maintains the stimulation characteristic within the adjustable range, ensuring continuous responsiveness without hitting upper or lower limits.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary threshold adaptation by calculating average signal values and updating thresholds before stimulation adjustments are needed. This proactive approach ensures that when stimulation adjustments are made, the thresholds are already positioned to allow continued adjustability in both directions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If single mode or dual mode thresholds are used, then the control logic is straightforward, but the system cannot handle signal drift beyond the threshold range
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from static single-mode or dual-mode thresholds to dynamic adaptive thresholds. The system continuously updates thresholds based on the average of recent physiological signal measurements, enabling the thresholds to drift with the signal and maintain their effectiveness over time without requiring complex multi-threshold systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the threshold parameter over time by calculating new threshold values based on signal averages. This parameter adaptation allows the thresholds to evolve with the physiological signal, handling drift effectively while maintaining relatively simple control logic compared to implementing multiple fixed threshold levels.
Data Source
AI summary
Medical devices that provide stimulation therapy that is adjusted based on sensed physiological signals compensate for drifting of those physiological signal values that can lead to stimulation control reaching limits and becoming less effective. The medical devices determine average values of the physiological signals and use those average values to compute adjusted physiological signal threshold(s). The adjusted threshold(s) bring the physiological signals closer to or within the threshold(s) to allow the stimulation adjustments to be made within stimulation limits that can influence the physiological signal to continue to be within the threshold(s) and provide more effective therapy.