JP2008302052A - Biological signal collecting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a biological signal collecting apparatus which reduces a burden on skin and reduces noise signals generated when a sensor is peeled in spite of the small-sized apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: The biological signal collecting apparatus is characterized in that the periphery of an adhesion part in a first adhesion surface 3a of an intermediate sheet member 3 is located outside of the periphery of an adhesion part to a sensor unit 2 in a second adhesion surface 3b, and that adhesion force per unit area of the intermediate sheet member 3 to a living body in the first adhesion surface 3a is smaller than adhesion force per unit area of the intermediate sheet member 3 to the sensor unit 2 in the second adhesion surface 3b. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a biological signal collection device that collects biological signals by directly attaching to a body surface of a subject.

  Conventional stethoscopes acquire biological sounds that are diagnostic information such as faint heart sounds, blood vessel sounds, alveolar sounds, and respiratory sounds emitted within the body by a sound collection unit that is directly applied to the body of the patient (subject). Then, the body sound is propagated to the ear part through a pipe line part connected to the sound collecting part, and a doctor diagnoses the health condition of the patient by listening to the body sound propagated to the ear part. .

  However, in this diagnosis method using a stethoscope, the doctor obtains a body sound while applying the sound collection unit to the patient's body and diagnoses the patient's health, so the doctor and the patient continue to face each other directly during the diagnosis. For example, it is not suitable for a diagnosis requiring a body sound over a long period of time, such as when a body sound generated during sleep is obtained overnight to diagnose a patient's medical condition.

  Therefore, in recent years, a patient's body sound acquired by a body sound acquisition device such as a stethoscope is stored in a server as a digital sound signal, so that the doctor or patient can reproduce the digital sound signal at any time. A sound acquisition system has been developed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to this body sound acquisition system, body sounds can be stored together in a server, which is suitable for clinical diagnosis in which body sounds are acquired over a long period of time such as during sleep.

  Even in Patent Document 2, as an apparatus for acquiring a biological signal over a long period of time, an accelerometer is attached to a subject, and a signal accompanying the cough is extracted by processing a signal from the acceleration sensor. A cough measuring device for monitoring the cough over a long period of time is disclosed.

In this way, a biological signal acquisition device that acquires biological signals accompanying sounds and movements emitted from a living body over a long period of time needs to keep a sensor that acquires the signal at a fixed location on the surface of the living body. In Patent Document 2, as one means, a sensor is attached to the body surface of a subject with a double-sided tape.
JP 2003-93381 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-98964

  However, when the sensor is affixed to the body surface of the subject with an adhesive such as a double-sided tape, the sensor may be peeled off from the body surface due to patient movement or external force applied to the sensor. In particular, the body surface of the subject is a curved surface, and the shape of the surface changes. Although the living body follows the attached member to some extent, it tends to peel off from the end. When peeling occurs, vibration sound or the like generated at the time of peeling becomes a noise signal. In addition, when a member once peeled off comes into close contact with a living body, vibration may occur and become a noise signal. Once generated, these are easily generated when the living body moves, and become a very troublesome noise signal when analyzing the biological signal. Particularly in the case of breathing sound, the signal generated at the time of peeling is very similar to the velocura sound seen in interstitial pneumonia and the like, and causes false detection.

  For such a problem, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of peeling by increasing the adhesive force between the sensor and the body surface. Here, as means for increasing the adhesive force, there are a means for widening the area to be bonded and a means for increasing the adhesive force per unit area, but the former leads to an increase in the sensor and does not interfere with the subject. Under such circumstances where downsizing is desired, it is difficult to select as a means.

  The latter means for increasing the adhesive force per unit area has a problem that the skin is damaged when the sensor is peeled off after the measurement is completed, or the skin is rashed by using a strong adhesive.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to obtain a biological signal acquisition device that can reduce the generation of a noise signal that occurs even when a device is small, while reducing the burden on the skin.

  The above object is achieved by the invention described below.

(1) A biological signal collection device for detecting a biological signal of a subject,
An intermediate sheet member having a first adhesive surface to be attached to a living body;
A sensor unit for detecting a biological signal attached to a second adhesive surface other than the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member,
The outer periphery of the adhesive portion in the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member is located outside the outer periphery of the adhesive portion with the sensor unit in the second adhesive surface, and
The adhesive force per unit area with the living body on the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member is smaller than the adhesive force per unit area with the sensor unit on the second adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member. Biological signal collection device.

  (2) The biological signal collecting apparatus according to (1), wherein the intermediate sheet member is a flexible sheet.

(3) An adhesive is attached to the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member,
The biological signal collecting device according to (1) or (2), wherein an adhesive is attached to a contact surface of the sensor unit with the second adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member.

  (4) The biological signal collection device according to any one of (1) to (3), wherein the intermediate sheet member and the sensor unit are detachable.

  (5) The second adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member is provided with a mark for attaching the sensor unit at a predetermined position, according to any one of (1) to (4), Biological signal collection device.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a biological signal acquisition device that can reduce the generation of a noise signal that occurs when peeling even with a small device while reducing the burden on the skin.

  Although the present invention will be described based on an embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of use of the biological signal collection device. The example shown in the figure shows a state in which two biological signal collection devices 1 are attached to the biological surface H of the subject. The biological signal collection device 1 can monitor a subject H over a long period of time by detecting cough, breathing sound, heart sound, and other biological signals and transmitting them to an external device (not shown).

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the biological signal collecting apparatus 1 that acquires a biological signal of a subject according to the embodiment. In the example shown in the figure, a biological sound is collected as a biological signal. As shown in FIG. 2, the biological signal collection device 1 includes a sensor unit 2 having a cylindrical shape with one end surface opened, and an intermediate sheet member 3 that is in close contact with the sensor unit 2 so as to close the opening surface of the sensor unit 2. It has.

  The sensor unit 2 is a so-called condenser microphone type sound collecting unit. The sensor unit amplifies the electrical signal obtained by the conversion unit 25 composed of a coil, a magnet, and the like, the conical air chamber wall 26 whose upper and lower surfaces are opened, and the conversion unit 25 to digitally An element 29 that converts the signal into a signal or transmits it to an external terminal (not shown), a conversion unit 25 and a substrate 27 on which the element 29 is mounted, and a battery unit 28 that supplies power to the conversion unit 25 and the element 29 Composed.

  The biological signal collection device 1 is attached to a predetermined part of a patient (subject) by an adhesive layer 31 provided on the intermediate sheet member 3 (also referred to as attachment). When the patient emits a body sound by breathing or swallowing, the intermediate sheet member 3 minutely vibrates in accordance with the wavelength of the body sound. The minute vibration of the intermediate sheet member 3 is propagated to the conversion unit 25 through the air chamber wall 26. The vibration of the biological sound is converted into an electric signal by the conversion unit 25, converted into a digital signal by the element 29, and transmitted to an external device (not shown). The transmitted body sound is stored in an external device.

  The doctor can diagnose the patient's health condition by, for example, displaying the patient's body sound stored in the external device on a display device or outputting the sound through a speaker. Further, an analysis function for analyzing a body sound may be provided in the external device, a diagnosis may be performed by the analysis, and a diagnosis result may be output.

  The intermediate sheet member 3 is a thin diaphragm formed of a material such as PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate), PP (Polypropylene), resin such as vinyl chloride, and since it is a flexible sheet, it moves with the movement of the subject. It follows the shape of the living body surface H (mainly skin) that changes slightly. Furthermore, it is more preferable that the intermediate sheet member 3 is formed of an elastic material having elasticity so that followability is further improved.

  The intermediate sheet member 3 has a first adhesive surface 3a attached to the living body surface H and a second adhesive surface 3b opposite to the first adhesive surface. An adhesive layer 31 is provided between the first adhesive surface 3 a and the biological surface H, and an adhesive layer 21 is provided between the second adhesive surface 3 b and the sensor unit 2. Here, the positional relationship between the pressure-sensitive adhesive layers 21 and 31, the intermediate sheet member 3, and the sensor unit 2 will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining the positional relationship between the components of the biological signal collection device 1. 3A is an exploded cross-sectional view, and FIG. 3B is a top view.

  As shown in the figure, the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 21 is affixed (attached) to the bottom surface of the sensor unit 2 and has a donut shape corresponding to the shape of the bottom surface of the sensor unit 2. The pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 31 has a disk shape and is attached to the entire surface of the intermediate sheet member 3.

  The outer periphery c31 of the adhesive portion on the first adhesive surface 3a of the intermediate sheet member 3, that is, the outer peripheral surface c31 of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 31, is the outer periphery of the adhesive portion with the sensor unit 2 on the second adhesive surface 3b. Is also located on the outside. In the example shown in the figure, since the centers of the sensor unit 2 and the intermediate sheet member 3 are made coincident, the outer peripheral surface c31 is positioned outside the outer peripheral surface c21 by a predetermined distance L over the entire periphery. .

  The size of the sensor unit 2 is preferably 5 to 30 mm in diameter. At this time, the intermediate sheet member is preferably about 1.5 to 3 times the diameter of the sensor unit 2, more preferably about 2 times. In this case, the distance L can be secured about 5 mm to 30 mm.

  The sensor unit 2 and the intermediate sheet member 3 are detachable. In order to realize this, the adhesive force between the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 21 and the sensor unit 2 is made larger than the adhesive force between the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 21 and the intermediate sheet member 3. By doing so, when the sensor unit 2 is detached (peeled) from the intermediate sheet member 3, the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 21 remains on the sensor unit 2.

[Adhesive strength]
Here, the adhesive force will be described. The adhesive force αa per unit area with the living body surface H on the first adhesive surface 3a of the intermediate sheet member 3 is larger than the adhesive force αb per unit area with the sensor unit 2 on the second adhesive surface 3b of the intermediate sheet member 3. It is set to be smaller. By doing so, it is not necessary to increase the adhesive force of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 31, so that the burden on the skin can be reduced.

  Here, the adhesive force is an adhesive force when measured by the method shown in FIG. 4A is a diagram showing a method for measuring the adhesive force between the intermediate sheet member 3 and the living body surface H, and FIG. 4B is an adhesive between the intermediate sheet member 3 and the sensor unit 2 (the housing member). It is a figure which shows the measuring method of force. As shown in the figure, as the adhesive strength, the peel adhesive strength when the intermediate sheet member 3 is slowly peeled in the direction perpendicular to the other adhesive surface is measured (conforming to JIS-K6854). As a measurement condition, a strip-shaped intermediate sheet member 3 having a width of 10 mm is used. In addition, when measuring the adhesive force with the living body surface H, if there is sweat or oil, the adhesive force is reduced. Therefore, the sweat or oil is measured after wiping with alcohol.

  The adhesive force αa per unit area between the living body surface H and the intermediate sheet member 3 measured by the measurement method shown in FIG. 4B is selected from a range of 0.01 N / 10 mm to 10.0 N / 10 mm, for example. Since a very strong adhesive force damages the skin, it is preferably selected from the range of 0.1 N / 10 mm to 5 N / 10 mm.

The preferable range of the adhesive force varies depending on the size and shape of the adhesive surface. Bonding area to a living body surface H (skin) (area of the intermediate sheet member) is intended depending on the size of the biological signal collecting device 1, which preferably is 2500 mm ² from 50 mm ^2, which is formed by not easily separable curve Preferably there is. The circle or ellipse shown in FIG. 3 is one of preferable shapes, and a shape having a basic shape of a circle having a diameter of 10 to 100 mm or an ellipse close thereto is preferable.

The “adhesive force per unit area” referred to in the present invention is the adhesive force per length in 90-degree peeling shown in FIG. 4, but this may be converted into an area, for example, This is a case where a value obtained by multiplying the area (m ² ) by a 90 ° peel value N / 10 mm is used.

  In order to obtain the adhesive strength as described above, a known medical pressure-sensitive adhesive composition can be used as the pressure-sensitive adhesive material in the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 31. For example, it is preferable to use a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer using an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive, a rubber pressure-sensitive adhesive, a silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive, or the like that is less irritating to the skin as disclosed in JP-A-11-188053. In the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer disclosed in JP-A-11-188053, the acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive is a single (meth) acrylic acid alkyl ester obtained from an aliphatic alcohol having 4 to 18 carbon atoms and (meth) acrylic acid. A polymer or copolymer and / or a copolymer of the above (meth) acrylic acid alkyl ester and other functional monomer is preferably used. Examples of the rubber-based pressure-sensitive adhesive include tackifier 20 on 100 parts by mass of a rubber elastic body such as natural rubber, styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymer, polyisoprene, polybutene, polyisobutylene, and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer. A product obtained by adding ~ 200 parts by mass and an appropriate amount of a softener, a stabilizer and the like is used. And as a silicone type adhesive, what has polydimethylsiloxane etc. as a main component is used, for example.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a state where a force to be peeled off is applied to the sensor unit 2. The force applied to the biological surface H to peel off the biological signal collection device 1 includes gravity applied to the sensor unit 2, gravity applied to a lead wire for transmission, and force applied to the lead wire. When such a force in the peeling direction is applied, the living body surface H extends as shown in FIG. 5A, and the flexible intermediate sheet member 3 is deformed so as to match it.

  FIG. 5B is an enlarged view of FIG. As shown in the figure, the force F1 applied to the end of the sensor unit 2 exerts a force on the range of the region b shown in the figure and tries to peel the sensor unit 2 from the intermediate sheet member 3. However, as shown in the figure, the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 31 spreads outward (by a predetermined length L) from the outer peripheral surface c21 of the second adhesive surface of the flexible intermediate sheet member 3. This allows the force to be peeled off to be distributed over a wide range of the region a shown in FIG. 5, so that even if the adhesive force αa per unit area in the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 31 is small, peeling does not easily occur and is caused by peeling. Noise signal can be reduced.

  As described above, the adhesive force fa per unit area with the living body surface H on the first adhesive surface 3a of the intermediate sheet member 3 is the adhesion per unit area with the sensor unit 2 on the second adhesive surface 3b of the intermediate sheet member 3. It is set smaller than the force fb. However, since the region b is sufficiently wider than the region a, the adhesive force Fa between the adhesive layer 31 and the biological surface H in the region b is equal to the adhesive force Fb between the adhesive layer 21 and the sensor unit 2 in the region b. Can be equivalent or better.

  Thus, even if it is a small sensor, the outer periphery of the bonded portion on the first bonding surface 3a of the intermediate sheet member 3 is positioned outside the outer periphery of the bonding portion with the sensor unit 2 on the second bonding surface 3b. It is possible to obtain a biological signal acquisition apparatus that can reduce the generation of noise signals that sometimes occur.

  In the embodiment of the present application, the cylindrical sensor unit 2 has been described. However, the sensor unit 2 is not limited to this, and may be a hemispherical shape, a rectangular parallelepiped shape, a conical shape, or the like. It may be a shape. That is, the intermediate sheet member 3 is made larger than the bottom surface of the sensor unit (so as to be located outside), and a predetermined distance L (distance between the outer peripheral surface c31 and the outer peripheral surface c21) is several m to several over the entire circumference. It is only necessary to secure 10 mm. The intermediate sheet member 3 may be a rigid body, for example, a metal plate, instead of a flexible sheet.

  Furthermore, although the sensor unit 2 having the conversion unit 25 that converts sound of a condenser microphone format into an electric signal has been described, a conversion unit that converts acceleration into an electric signal by an acceleration sensor may be used.

[Other Embodiments]
FIG. 6 is a biological signal collecting apparatus 1 according to another embodiment. In the figure, the sensor unit 2 is provided with a disk-shaped outer wall sheet 24 that protects the conversion unit 25. The protective sheet is made of a thin metal plate or a resin plate similar to the intermediate sheet member, and can transmit vibration information from the living body surface H to the conversion unit 25 without impairing it. An adhesive layer 210 is pasted over the entire surface of the outer wall sheet 24.

  By providing the outer wall sheet 24 in this manner, the conversion unit 25 can be protected when the sensor unit 2 is detached from the intermediate sheet member 3.

[Another embodiment]
FIG. 7 is a biological signal collection device 1 according to another embodiment. In the figure, a mark 34 for attaching the sensor unit 2 is provided at a predetermined position on the second adhesive surface 3 b of the intermediate sheet member 3. The mark 34 is made of the same material as the intermediate sheet member 3 and is attached to the intermediate sheet member 3. In addition, as a mark, you may make it mark on the surface of the intermediate sheet member 3 with an ink etc. instead of a projection-shaped thing like the figure.

  The object of the present invention is to measure a biological signal for a long time. There is a situation where the subject takes a bath and the biological signal acquisition device is attached or detached for other reasons. In this case, if the position where the biological signal is measured is different, the quality of the signal is also inconvenient in analysis.

  Even in such a case, by leaving the intermediate sheet member 3 on the subject (living body H) at the time of attachment / detachment, only the sensor unit 2 can be attached / detached, whereby the intermediate sheet member 3 is peeled off from the attachment position of the subject. The position can be maintained as it is. If the sensor unit 2 is installed on the intermediate sheet member 3 whose position relative to the subject does not change when the attachment is performed again (after wiping the surface of the second adhesive surface 3b), the position of the sensor unit 2 relative to the subject changes. Can be prevented. Further, by providing the intermediate sheet member 3 with a mark as shown in FIG. 7, the sensor unit 2 can be installed at the same position with high accuracy before and after the attachment / detachment, so that the predetermined distance L is sufficiently secured. be able to. Furthermore, when the sensor unit 2 is mounted, a structure in which the sensor is guided (by a projection or the like) to a specific portion of the intermediate sheet member can be provided at the same position more reliably. become.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the usage example of a biological signal sampling device. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a biological signal collecting apparatus 1 that acquires a biological signal of a subject according to an embodiment. It is a schematic diagram explaining the positional relationship of each structure part of the biosignal sampling device. It is a figure which shows the measuring method of adhesive force. It is a schematic diagram which shows a state when the force to peel off is added to the sensor unit. It is the biosignal sampling device 1 which concerns on other embodiment. It is the biosignal sampling device 1 which concerns on another embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Biological signal sampling device 2 Sensor unit 21,210 Adhesive layer 25 Conversion part 26 Air chamber wall 27 Board | substrate 28 Battery part 29 Element 3 Intermediate sheet member 3a 1st adhesion surface 3b 2nd adhesion surface 31 Adhesive layer c21, c31 outer periphery Surface (periphery of bonding part)
34 Placemark

Claims (5)

A biological signal collection device for detecting a biological signal of a subject,
An intermediate sheet member having a first adhesive surface to be attached to a living body;
A sensor unit for detecting a biological signal attached to a second adhesive surface other than the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member,
The outer periphery of the adhesive portion in the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member is located outside the outer periphery of the adhesive portion with the sensor unit in the second adhesive surface, and
The adhesive force per unit area with the living body on the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member is smaller than the adhesive force per unit area with the sensor unit on the second adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member. Biological signal collection device. The biological signal collecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate sheet member is a flexible sheet. A pressure-sensitive adhesive is attached to the first adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member,
The biological signal collection device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an adhesive is attached to a contact surface of the sensor unit with the second adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member. The biological signal collection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the intermediate sheet member and the sensor unit are detachable. The biological signal collection according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a mark for attaching the sensor unit is provided at a predetermined position on the second adhesive surface of the intermediate sheet member. apparatus.

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