1. A system for detecting and monitoring congestive heart failure in a patient, comprising:
a body-implantable device comprising a circuit module having surface electrodes on the device arranged and adapted, when the device is implanted, for exposure to tissue in a portion of the patient’s body generally occupied by the lungs, to perform ongoing measurements of impedance of said body portion;
a radio-frequency transceiver within the body-implantable device in data communication with the circuit module for transmitting the measurements of impedance; and,
a base station comprising a radio-frequency transceiver for receiving data from the body-implantable device and sending instructions to the body-implantable device, and an interface for sending data received from the body-implantable device to a remote location and for receiving instructions from a remote location.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a telephone modem.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a computer network interface.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the computer network interface is an Ethernet interface.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a radio transceiver.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a modem and a cellular telephone.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data comprises digitized impedance values.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data represents information related to the performance of the body-implantable device.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions determine the interval between measurements.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions set a threshold value for a patient-sensed alarm.
11. The system of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency transceivers operate at a frequency between 402 MHz and 405 MHz.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein said body-implantable medical device is shaped to be implanted at a site on the left lower anterior lateral hemithorax of the patient’s body.
13. A system for monitoring the condition of a patient suffering from congestive heart failure, comprising:
a body-implantable medical device having circuitry including plural surface electrodes on the device for measuring impedance between a measurement pair of said electrodes from a predetermined electrical parameter injected in a circuit path between an excitation pair of said electrodes, such that when said device is implanted at a site where said circuit path includes the patient’s heart and lungs said impedance measurement is indicative of lung congestion;
a radio transmitter within the body-implantable device in data communication with the circuitry for measuring impedance said transmitter adapted to transmit data representing the measured impedance; and,
a base station comprising a radio receiver for receiving data from the body-implantable medical device and an interface for sending the data to a remote location.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the telecommunications interface in the base station comprises a telephone modem.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the telecommunications interface in the base station comprises a cellular telephone and a modem.
16. The system of claim 13, wherein the telecommunications interface in the base station comprises a two-way radio.
17. A device-implemented method of detecting and monitoring congestive heart failure in a patient, comprising:
performing ongoing measurements of impedance of a portion of the patient’s body generally occupied by the lungs;
transmitting said measurements of impedance to a base station using a radio transmitter; and,
sending data relating to said measurements of impedance from the base station to a remote location via a telecommunications network.
18. The device-implemented method of claim 17, including injecting said electrical current in the form of a biphasic pulse wave.
19. The device-implemented method of claim 17, including performing said impedance measurements outside the patient’s thoracic cage.
20. The device-implemented method of claim 17, including performing said impedance measurements using electrodes of the device outside the patient’s vascular system.
21. The device-implemented method of claim 17, including using said surface electrodes of the device additionally to monitor the patient’s ECG.
22. The device-implemented method of claim 17, including performing said impedance measurements with the device implanted on the lower left anterior lateral hemithorax.
23. The device-implemented method of claim 17, wherein said body portion further encompasses the patient’s heart, including performing said impedance measurements by means of a signal injected into said body portion from the device and retrieved as a signal subdivided into a cardiac portion, a pulmonary portion, and a total impedance portion.
24. A method for communicating with an implantable device, comprising:
transmitting data from the implantable device via the Medical Implant Communication Service band to a base station; and
transmitting modifications to the implantable device from the base station via the Medical Implant Communication Service band to the implantable device, whereby the modifications are implemented at the implantable device.
25. The method of claim 24, wherein the modification comprise modifications to settings, function, characteristics or parameters of the implantable device.
26. The method of claim 24, where the base station further communicates the data andor modification to a network.
27. The method of claim 26, wherein the network comprises a telephone land line network, a wireless telephone network, andor the Internet.
28. The method of claim 24, wherein the base station comprises a wireless telephone.
29. The method of claim 24, wherein the implantable device comprises a congestive heart failure monitoring device, a cardiac pacemaker, a defibrillator, a neurostimulator, a muscle stimulator, a gastric stimulator, or a diagnostic implantable device for monitoring CO2, blood pressure, oxygen, glucose, ventilation, heart rate, activity, posture, hormones, cytokines, or neurofunctions.
30. The method of claim 24, wherein the base station is proximate to the implantable device.
31. The method of claim 24, wherein the implantable device is implanted in the chest of a patient.
32. The method of claim 24, wherein the data is indicative of a patient’s health, and wherein the modifications are achieved through an assessment of the data at the base station.
33. A base station for communicating with an implantable device, wherein the base station is capable of bi-directional communication with the implanatable device via the Medical Implant Communication Service band when the implantable device is in proximity to the base station, and wherein the base can both control the implantable device, and receive data from the implantable device.
34. The base station of claim 33, wherein the base station can control the implantable device by providing instructions to change the implantable device’s settings, functions, characteristics or parameters.
35. The base station of claim 33, where the base station is further capable of communicating the data to a network.
36. The base station of claim 35, wherein the network comprises a telephone land line network, a wireless telephone network, andor the Internet.
37. The base station of claim 33, wherein the base station comprises a wireless telephone.
38. The base station of claim 33, wherein the received data comprises data received from a congestive heart failure monitoring device, a cardiac pacemaker, a defibrillator, a neurostimulator, a muscle stimulator, a gastric stimulator, or a diagnostic implantable device for monitoring CO2, blood pressure, oxygen, glucose, ventilation, heart rate, activity, posture, hormones, cytokines, or neurofunctions.
39. The base station of claim 33, wherein the data is indicative of a patient’s health, and wherein controlling the implantable device occurs as a result of analysis of the data by the base station.
40. An implantable device, comprising:
a metallic can containing electronics;
two pairs of electrodes coupled to the electronics, a first pair for providing electrical energy to a portion of a patient’s body, and a second pair for detecting a health parameter of patient’s body in response to the electrical energy;
an antenna coupled to the electronics for broadcasting data indicative of the health parameter to outside of the patient’s body,
wherein the pairs of electrodes and the antenna are encased in a polymer header coupled to the can.
41. The device of claim 40, wherein the electrode pairs and the antenna are coupled to the electronics via a feedthrough between the can and the header.
42. The device of claim 40, wherein the polymer header comprises a resin.
43. The device of claim 40, wherein the antenna further receives data from outside the patient to program the device.
44. The device of claim 40, wherein the antenna communicates via the Medical Implant Communication Service band.
45. The device of claim 40, wherein the electronics comprises a memory for storing the data indicative of the health parameter.
46. The device of claim 45, wherein the electronics is programmed to broadcast the data indicative of the health parameter to outside of the patient’s body from the memory at intermittent intervals.
47. The device of claim 45, wherein the health parameter comprises fluidic impedance.
48. A method for communicating with an implantable device, comprising:
transmitting data from the implantable device via the Medical Implant Communication Service band to a base station in proximity to the implantable device; and
further transmitting the data from the base station to a health care provider via a network.
49. The method of claim 48, wherein the network comprises a telephone land line network, a wireless telephone network, andor the Internet.
50. The method of claim 48, wherein the base station comprises a wireless telephone.
51. The method of claim 48, wherein the implantable device comprises a congestive heart failure monitoring device, a cardiac pacemaker, a defibrillator, a neurostimulator, a muscle stimulator, a gastric stimulator, or a diagnostic implantable device for monitoring CO2, blood pressure, oxygen, glucose, ventilation, heart rate, activity, posture, hormones, cytokines, or neurofunctions.
52. The method of claim 48, wherein the implantable device is implanted in the chest of a patient.
53. The method of claim 48, wherein the base station amplifies the data before the further transmission.
54. The method of claim 48, wherein the base station analyzes the data before the further transmission.
55. The method of claim 48, wherein the base station can further send communications to the implantable device.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. Procedure for recognizing types of physically demarcated body parts (2) like faces, hands, and legs of a person (1) portrayed in a target image (5) when at least one, not yet recognized, body part (2) appears in the target image in front of a background (3) and its position is indicated by means of positional information obtained and stored appropriately;
characterized by
(a) the target image (5) being converted into at least one intermediate image (FIGS. 2b and 2c) on which edge lines (5a, 5b, and 5c) are accentuated, to be evaluated in a following step in regard to their direction (FIG. 2e, 4);
(b) preparing a model (FIG. 8, 30) based on other edge line information obtained previously. The directions of the edge lines in the model are retained for determining which other model or which other edge line information corresponds to the sought-for type of body part (2);
where only edge line directions of a body part image are evaluated in comparison with the model (30) to determine whether the body part image (2) appearing in front of the background (3) corresponds to the sought-for body part and whether the accompanying positional information should be determined and stored;
2. Procedure according to claim 1 when images of several body parts are present and can be consecutively compared with the sought-for type according to their edge line information.
3. Procedure according to claim 1 when the positional information contains data about the position of the sought-for body part in the target grayscale image (5).
4. Procedure according to claim 1 when both the first edge lines (5d, 5e; 5d\u2032, 5e\u2032) inside the one (at least) body part image (2) as well as the edge line (5a, 5a\u2032) of the physically demarcated body part (2) (at least one) are used.
5. Procedure according to claim 1 when a scenic picture is represented which has various locally unchanging intensities and appears as a static image in digital form being a pixel-based representation containing intensity steps.
6. Procedure according to claim 1 when a scenic image has locally changing intensities and shows a subject (1) moving in front of the background (3) in such a way that the relative position or orientation of at least one depicted body part changes with time.
7. Procedure according to claim 1 when boundary line information is seen as edge information which contains data about the orientation, especially if the three-dimensional edges of subject (1) contains lines shown in the two-dimensional intensity image (5).
8. Procedure according to claim 1 when the accentuation of the borderlines is obtained from an evaluation of the intensity difference (contrast) between two adjacent image areas, especially by using a Sobel operator as a type of high-pass plane filter.
9. Procedure according to claim 1 when the type of body part given by Model (30) is found in front of the background (3) in image (5) and made available for finding a binary result, namely whether at least the one type of body part corresponding to the model is to be found in the image or not (detection).
10. Procedure according to claim 1 when the grayscale image (5) is a color picture or one with colored components, in visible light or in an invisible wavelength range.
11. Procedure according to claim 1 when size information is determined and stored in addition to the positional information.
12. Procedure according to claim 11 when size information is made available by changing the relative sizes of the model and the target image (5) and compare them for every pair of sizes to determine similarity values as well as selecting the best similarity index for determining size information.
13. Procedure according to claim 1 when the intermediate image (FIG. 2e, FIG. 4) has been evaluated in terms of direction compared with the model (30) by constructing several sums of angle oriented similarity values, especially the formation of a sum of angle differences between borderline sections of the model and of the intermediate image (FIG. 2e, FIG. 4) evaluated in regard to direction.
14. Procedure according to claim 13 when a threshold value is made available which is compared to all similarity values distributed over the target image, only concluding that a sought-for body part (2) is present in the target image if at least one index is below the minimum threshold value.
15. Procedure for the detection of physically demarcated body parts like a face, a hand or a leg of a person’s image (5) when a body part (2) is depicted in front of a background (3);
characterized by
borderlines (5d, 5e) of the image are only evaluated along directions (5a\u2032, 4a\u2032, 4b\u2032, 5c\u2032) to determine by comparison with model (30) whether the body part image corresponds to a type presented by the model, when
at least borderline directions (5d\u2032 and 5e\u2032) inside at least one body part image and borderline directions (5a) of at least one physically demarcated body part image are used for locating its position and the corresponding positional information is stored.
16. Preparation procedure for the detection of physically demarcated body parts like a person’s face, hand, or leg in an image (5) when a body part (2) is depicted in front of a background (3) and directional information of the borderlines of at least one body part image and its background for determining in a later step whether the body part image corresponds to a type given by model (30). In preparing for a detection procedure a working image is constructed by calculation for which
(a) the image (5) is converted into another representation (FIG. 2b) which indicates directional data for the borderlines with a clarity value given for each direction;
(b) the further representation is processed by using a threshold value (FIG. 2c) to repress directional data at positions where the clarity is below the threshold value, resulting in reduced directional information (5a\u2032, 5b\u2032) in the working image (FIG. 3, FIG. 4);
to enable the working image to be used as model (30) or as target image (FIG. 4).
17. Procedure according to claim 16 when the remaining directional information stays unchanged in the working image, but the clarity indices are set at a standard value for all remaining directions to neutralize the clarity information.
18. Procedure according to claim 17 when the remaining information (the remaining directions) is evaluated in the next step by using model (30) and the position of the body part concerned is located and the positional information is stored.
19. Procedure according to claim 16 when the plane of the representation which has been processed with threshold values, is now processed with a binary operator to obtain a pattern image (FIG. 2d) which is then combined with the next representation.
20. Procedure according to claim 13 when only a reduced number of terms are used to obtain several sums of similarity indices for each relative position of model (30) and the intermediate image (FIG. 4) which has been evaluated according to direction, especially below 80% of the available summation terms for every relative position when only those similarity data having the best similarity indices are used.
21. Procedure according to claim 13 or claim 20 when only acute angles are compared; angles between 90\xb0 and 180\xb0 are converted to corresponding values between 90\xb0 and 0\xb0 before being compared.
22. Procedure according to claim 21 when model (30) contains only directional angles between 0\xb0 and 90\xb0 for borderlines in the model.
23. Procedure for locating at least one physically demarcated body part like a face, a hand, or a leg in an image of a person
(i) when at least one body part (2) in the image (5) is depicted in front of a background (3);
(ii) when borderlines (5d, 5e) are accentuated (FIG. 2b), and at least the directions (5a\u2032, 4a\u2032, 4b\u2032, 5c\u2032) of some of these emphasized borderlines (FIG. 4) have been evaluated by repeated comparisons with model (30) where each comparison occurs at another relative local placement of model (30) and the emphasized borderlines (FIG. 4) to obtain a similarity index for every location;
Selection of a best similarity index from the values obtained in the comparisons; this determines and stores the position of the body part image.
24. Procedure according to claim 23 when the part of the accentuated borderlines (FIG. 4) forms an intermediate image and the similarity value of a local correspondence is determined by the summation of the similarity data occurring at the borderline angles, especially
by constructing a sum of angle differences between borderline sections of model (30) and the intermediate image (FIG. 2e, FIG. 4) over at least a significant area of model (30); or
by finding angle differences between borderline sections of model (30) and the intermediate image (FIG. 2e, FIG. 4) with the corresponding trigonometrical conversions and summation of the resulting similarity data for the similarity index.
25. Procedure according to claim 23 when a threshold value is available and compared with all the similarity indices distributed over the plane of the image (5). The presence of a sought-for body part (2) is only confirmed if a value smaller than the threshold minimum is found at least one position.
26. Procedure according to claim 23 when a similarity value is determined for a local correspondence only when using those angle-oriented similarity data for which both model (30) and the intermediate image (FIG. 2e) a directional value is available at the same position and there is no angle (directional information) in at least one of the two images (FIG. 2e, 30), then this contributes nothing to the similarity index at this position.
27. Procedure according to claim 24 when a smaller similarity value means a better or greater similarity.