Sessions Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Bpsure, L.l.c.

Ferris Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Ferris Corporation

Meadox Instruments, Inc.

Alan R Kahn

Robert W Sessions

Dennis E Bahr

Kurt W Allen

Kenneth R Clark

Roger Sessions, Legal Representative

The present invention provides a method of attenuating the formation or reducing the severity of neurogenic pain in the tissue of a patient via applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate and a polymeric hydrophilic agent to a portion of the surface of the skin in an amount and at a location sufficient to attenuate formation of or reduce the severity of neurogenic pain.

Method of attenuating neurogenic pain

The present invention provides a method of attenuating the formation or reducing the severity of swelling and/or inflammation in the tissue of a patient via applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate and a polymeric hydrophilic agent to a portion of the surface of the skin in an amount and at a location sufficient to attenuate formation of or reduce the severity of swelling and/or inflammation.

Method of attenuating swelling or inflammation

The present invention provides a method of attenuating the formation or reducing the severity of a bruise in the tissue of a patient via applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate and a polymeric hydrophilic agent to a portion of the surface of the skin in an amount and at a location sufficient to attenuate formation of or reduce the severity of bruising.

Method of attenuating bruise formation

The present invention provides a method of attenuating the formation or reducing the severity of neurogenic swelling and/or neurogenic inflammation in the tissue of a patient via applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate and a polymeric hydrophilic agent to a portion of the surface of the skin in an amount and at a location sufficient to attenuate formation of or reduce the severity of neurogenic swelling and/or neurogenic inflammation.

Method of attenuating neurogenic swelling or neurogenic inflammation

The present invention provides a method of attenuating the formation or reducing the severity of a neurogenic bruise in the tissue of a patient via applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate and a polymeric hydrophilic agent to a portion of the surface of the skin in an amount and at a location sufficient to attenuate formation of or reduce the severity of bruising.

Method of attenuating neurogenic bruise formation

The present invention provides a method of attenuating swelling or inflammation in the tissue of a patient via applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate and a polymeric hydrophilic agent capable of absorbing water to a portion of the surface of the skin of the patient in an amount and at a location sufficient to attenuate swelling or inflammation.

The present invention provides a method of attenuating the response of nociceptors to noxious stimuli by applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate, a polymeric hydrophilic agent capable of absorbing water to the surface of the skin. In other aspects, the present invention provides a method of preventing the formation of a bruise in traumatized tissue, a method of attenuating swelling, a method of attenuating neurogenic inflammatory response, and a method of reducing the sensation of pain by applying like compositions to the surface of the skin of patients.

Analgesic and antinociceptive methods

The present invention provides a method of attenuating the formation of a bruise and a method of attenuating swelling or inflammation in the tissue of a patient via applying a composition comprising a hydrophilic foam substrate and a polymeric hydrophilic agent capable of absorbing water to the surface of the skin.

A method and apparatus is provided for distinguishing blood pressure sounds from noise in an automatic blood pressure monitoring system using the information contained in two microphone signals. Two microphones are placed on a patient along an axis of an artery to pick up blood pressure sounds. Pressure is applied to the artery such that the artery opens and closes during each heart cycle, the opening snap of the artery producing a blood pressure sound. The two microphone signals are sampled, filtered, and multiplied together to produce a microphone signal product. The microphone signal product is wave width filtered to remove therefrom portions of the signal having a wave width which is less than a selected minimum wave width value. A blood pressure sound is indicated as being detected when an amplitude of this wave width filtered microphone signal product exceeds a noise signal threshold level. The microphone signal product is also wave width filtered to remove therefrom portions of the signal having a wave width which is greater than a selected maximum wave width value. The amplitude of the resulting noise amplitude signal is used to adjust dynamically the noise signal threshold level in response to changing noise conditions. The detection of blood pressure sounds at a range of applied pressure levels is used to determine the systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels of the patient.

Blood pressure monitoring with improved noise rejection

A method and apparatus for automatically recognizing meaningful patterns in non-stationary periodic data is provided. The invention may be used in making measurements of physiological phenomena, such as arterial blood pressure, wherein data of interest is undergoing small changes in timing and magnitude in succeeding cycles, and wherein noise artifacts are detected along with the data of interest. Data points of interest are identified by grouping all received data points into family groups of multi-dimensional data points wherein each data point in the family group has dimensional values similar to at least one other data point in the family. The present invention may preferably be employed for the determination of a patient's systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. For this application, the data points include a time dimension value corresponding to the delay time between an ECG signal and the detection of a potential blood pressure sound by a microphone placed in an inflatable cuff on the arm of a patient, and a magnitude dimension value corresponding to the cuff pressure at the time of the potential blood pressure sound detection. Data points are collected for a series of cuff pressures ranging from above the systolic blood pressure level of the patient to below the diastolic blood pressure level of the patient. The highest and lowest pressures of data points in the family containing the largest number of data points are used to derive the systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels of the patient, respectively.

Coherent pattern identification in non-stationary periodic data and

A method and apparatus is provided for detecting blood pressure sounds produced by the opening snap of an artery in a patient in the presence of significant noise using the phase information contained in two microphone signals. The two microphones are placed on a patient along the axis of an artery with their centers separated by a distance such that blood pressure sounds picked up by the microphones will be out of phase. Pressure is applied to the artery such that the artery opens and closes during each heart cycle, the opening snap of the artery producing blood pressure sounds. The two microphone signals are filtered, preferably using band pass filters having pass bands corresponding to the frequency of the blood pressure sounds. The filtered microphone signals are sampled and multiplied together or convolved in the frequency domain to generate a microphone signal product. If the microphone signal product is negative, the detection of a valid blood pressure signal for that sampling time is indicated. In an alternative embodiment, the slope of the two microphone signals at the sample time is also determined. A valid blood pressure signal is indicated when the microphone signal product is negative and either the two microphone signal slopes have inverse signs or are both less than a selected slope threshold. A selected number of consecutive valid blood pressure signal detections indicates the detection of a blood pressure sound. The detection of blood pressure sounds at a range of cuff pressures is used to determine the systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels of the patient.

Method and apparatus for detecting blood pressure by blood pressure

A closed pressure monitoring system (20) is disclosed in which a pump (27) delivers gas on a supply line (22, 29) through a first accumulator chamber (30) to a load device (21) and returns the gas on a return line (23, 28) through a second accumulator chamber (34) to the pump (27). After pressures in the first and second chambers stabilize, the pressures are compared, and a leak warning signal is given if the compared pressures changed with respect to one another over time. The system is particularly adapted to use a pressure sensor as the load (21) which is implanted within a human patient. The pressure sensor receives air from a restrictor (32) in the supply line (22, 29) and is operative to maintain the pressure in the supply line substantially equal to the pressure surrounding the sensor.

Pressure monitoring and leak detection method and apparatus

An apparatus (10) which measures and monitors the pressure within a human body includes a pressure sensor (11) having a housing (30) closed by a pressure sensitive diaphragm (34) to define a plenum (35), an exhaust tube (36) mounted within the plenum (35) which terminates adjacent the inner surface of the diaphragm (34), and tubes (13, 15) which transmit a substantially constant flow of gas into the plenum and which withdraw gas from the exhaust tube (36) to a location remote from the body. Changes in pressure within the body cause the diaphragm (34) to alternately close and open the end of the exhaust tube (36), thereby resulting in an increase or decrease in the pressure within the plenum until an equilibrium pressure is reached. A source (12) of gas pressure is provided, as well as a means for providing a substantially uniform flow rate (R) and means for measuring the pressure (14) within the tube (13) that transmits the gas flow to the sensor (11). The flow rates to and from the sensor (11) are compared, and the flow of gas to the sensor (11) is cut off if the flow rates are unequal, a condition indicative of a leak in the sensor (11) or in the tubing (13, 15, 17) that transmits the gas to and from the sensor.

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Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

Alan R Kahn