The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 26, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 19, 1997
John B Shaw, Aloha, OR (US);
Richard A Sunderland, Aloha, OR (US);
Mecta Corporation, Lake Oswego, OR (US);
Abstract
An electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) system includes both hardware and software safety detectors and monitors, including a pulse generator that generates a pulse train of a plurality of pulses with parameters specified by the user. The safety monitors monitor these user-specified parameters as well as other important pulse parameters both during treatment of a patient and prior to treatment in order to ensure that the system is operating according to specification and, therefore, will not injure the patient. The pulse generator is responsive to the safety monitors in that if any of the safety detectors detect a parameter that is out of tolerance, the safety monitor disables the pulse generator so that no further pulses are delivered to the patient. The safety detectors detect plurality of pulse characteristics including pulse width, frequency, voltage, current, treatment duration, as well as energy. In addition to these real time safety checks, the system includes a pre-treatment arming routine that applies a pre-treatment ECT pulse train to an internal load and monitors these same parameters during this internal test. If all of these parameters are within tolerance, the system moves to an armed state in which the user can proceed to apply an ECT treatment pulse train. If any one of these safety checks fails, however, the system does not arm and, therefore, prohibits treatment.