Other

Johnson & Johnson Medical Gmbh

Critikon, Inc

Charles A Wells

Richard Medero

Rush W Hood, Jr

An apparatus for effecting spinal traction on a patient includes a tub containing liquid in which a patient, buoyantly supported by a floatation device, can float in a generally upright position in a state of buoyant equilibrium. The level of the liquid in the tub can be varied, which effects a variation on a traction force acting on the patient as the floatation device seeks new positions of buoyant equilibrium in response to the change in liquid level. The traction force may be generated by one or more weighted devices worn on the body of the patient or by a harness attached to the patient and secured within the tub to resist upward movement of the patient when the liquid level rises in the tub. The liquid level within the tub is varied by a liquid level varying apparatus associated with the tub which operates generally by displacing a volume of liquid within the tub to vary the level of the liquid by an amount corresponding to the volume of displaced liquid. A method for effecting spinal traction includes floating a patient in a vessel of water, applying a body-tensioning force to the patient's body, and raising and lowering the level of liquid in the vessel to effect variations in the body-tensioning force as the patient's floating body seeks a new position of buoyant equilibrium.

Apparatus for effecting traction on the spine and method of using the

An automated sphygmo-manometer which digitizes the pressure transducer output with sufficient resolution to preserve the details of the measured oscillation complexes. The 'composite' arterial pulse signal containing the DC pressure component and the oscillation complexes is processed in a single processing channel so that the amplitudes of the oscillation pulse can be measured in the presence of the static components. Any necessary filtering is performed in the digital domain using known digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. In addition, dither signals may be added to the arterial pulse signal in the single processing channel in order to increase the apparent resolution. A simple finite impulse response (FIR) filter is used to sum respective samples to form high resolution samples from a plurality of low resolution samples. The FIR filter has zero crossings at the summing frequencies for the dither signal so as to eliminate the dither signal from the high resolution sum signal prior to determining the blood pressure from the composite signal using pulse separation and blood pressure calculation software.

Oscillometric blood pressure monitor which acquires blood pressure

A communication protocol is provided to enable one of a number of transmitters using a common transmission line to independently gain exclusive use of the line. Before transmitting data, a transmitter first monitors the line to establish that it is idle. If it is, the transmitter then asserts the line for an interval unique to that given device. Thereafter the transmitter monitors the device momentarily to determine that no other transmitter is asserting the line and, if so, the transmitter may then gain exclusive control of the line.

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Clearwater, FL, United States of America

Charles A Wells