University of California

Other

Imagyn Medical Technologies California, Inc.

Conmed Corporation

Arthur W Wallace

Ascher Shmulewitz

Systems and methods provide audio-visual distraction to a patient while the patient is undergoing a surgical or other such medical procedure. When used in the context of a surgical procedure, local anesthetics are used to eliminate the pain of the procedure, autonomic blockade (beta blockers and/or alpha-2 agonists) is used to control autonomic responses, and audio-visual distraction is provided to distract the patient. The system allows reduction in the need for pharmacologic sedation.

Audiovisual distraction in patients undergoing surgery with regional anesthesia

Determining the cardiac output of a patient uses first and second electrodes disposed with the peri-aortic adventitia or fat pad of the patient. Third electrode is disposed on the cardiac atrial area of the patient. Fourth electrode is placed either externally on the body surface or internally superior to electrodes one and two. A bioelectrical impedance recorder is coupled to the third and fourth electrodes to pass a current between the electrodes. A bioimpedance recorder is coupled to the first and second electrodes to measure the resulting voltage. The output of the bioelectrical impedance recorder is processed to compute a metric corresponding to the patient's cardiac output. The third electrodes are adapted to be the cardiac pacing electrodes.

Internal cardiac output monitor

This invention pertains to the discovery that L-arginine and type V phosphodiesterases act synergistically to inhibit vasospasm and/or to induce vasodilation. Methods are provided using combinations of L-arginine and type V phosphodiesterase inhibitors in the treatment of cardiac pathologies and/or the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

L-arginine and phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor synergism

Apparatus and methods are provided for monitoring cardiac output using bioelectrical impedance techniques in which three orthogonal pairs of sense electrodes are placed in the trachea or esophagus in the vicinity of the aorta, while an excitation current is injected into the intervening tissue mass via a current electrode, so that bioelectrical impedance measurements based on the voltage drop sensed by the sense electrodes reflect voltage changes induced primarily by blood flow dynamics. Methods are provided for computing cardiac output from bioelectrical impedance values using a multi-parameter algorithm derived using stepwise multiple linear regression or other optimization techniques. Apparatus and methods are also provided so that the measured cardiac output may be used to control administration of intravenous fluids or medication to an organism or to optimize a heart rate controlled by a pacemaker.

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San Rafael, CA, United States of America

Arthur W Wallace