JP2010158517A - Ultrasonic body monitor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonic body monitor which can measure breath and heart beat in a contactless manner in real time. <P>SOLUTION: The ultrasonic body monitor includes an ultrasonic sensor for transmission and reception to detect, in a contactless manner, breath and heart beat of a living body using an incubator or a bed for a newborn. An interval of time from a time when an ultrasonic signal transmitted from the ultrasonic sensor is reflected by a measurement section of the living body to a time when the reflected ultrasonic signal reaches the reception sensor is calculated as a distance. The chest part of the living body finely moves by the influence of breath and heart beat. As a result, the fine variation of the distance between the measurement section of the transmission and reception sensors is captured as a data waveform obtained by continuously carrying out measurements, the waveforms of breath and heart beat obtained thereby are separated on an electronic circuit using algorithm, and the calculated result is displayed in real time. When displacement of the living body cannot be detected due to movement or the living body stops its motion, it can be widely known by sounding an alarm. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to monitoring and measuring the respiration and heartbeat of a living body by using a pulsed ultrasonic wave and a sensor for detecting the reflected wave.

Breathing and heart rate measurements of premature babies and newborns using incubators and newborn beds are performed by medical equipment, doctors and nurses with visual and stethoscopes at regular intervals.

Conventionally, when detecting a heartbeat of a human body, there is a method in which an optical sensor is brought into contact with the human body and measured, whereby a heartbeat of a living body can be measured and an abnormality can be detected. (See Patent Document 1)

Furthermore, as a sensor that emits ultrasonic waves, a piezoelectric sensor is used to emit or detect ultrasonic waves by applying a voltage to the piezoelectric body. Thereby, the movement of the living body can be detected. In addition, the moving distance of the living body can be detected.

Since these methods use an adhesive or the like, there is a problem that the skin of a living body hurts. For newborns such as premature infants with weak skin, if you use a sticky one directly on the skin to measure heart rate, you must bear the risk of skin aching.

JP-A-11-332338

Conventionally, there are many problems in the medical field due to the shortage of manpower. Measurement of breathing and heart rate is indispensable for grasping the patient's condition, and the nursing staff periodically measures breathing and heart rate using visual observation and stethoscope etc. Requires labor.

An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic biological monitoring apparatus that can perform high-precision measurement even without contact with a living body such as a premature baby, and can measure and display measured values in real time.

This was done to assist doctors, nurses, and medical equipment.

According to the conventional method, for a newborn baby who enters an incubator such as a premature baby or a low-weight baby, the adhesive surface directly touching the skin to measure the heart rate causes the skin surface to be damaged.

However, even if the skin may hurt, it is unavoidable to confirm the maintenance of life at any time, so measurement with a device that unavoidably contacts the skin is performed.

If the respiration and heart rate can be measured without contact with the living body and the displacement can be confirmed with high accuracy, the living body will not be burdened.

In monitoring a living body using an incubator or a bed for a newborn, one or more ultrasonic sensors are provided for reception and transmission using ultrasonic waves. It is possible to transmit pulsed ultrasonic waves and read a plurality of slight displacements when the living body breathes and when the heart beats. The biometric information read based on the information is displayed on a monitor.

In this case, the displacement of the living body is measured by dividing a chest waveform generated by breathing / beating into a waveform of a small heartbeat included in the breathing waveform using an algorithm.

In the ultrasonic sensor having such a structure, the receiving sensor is installed on the inner wall of the incubator or the upper part of the bed for the newborn so that the receiving sensor is located above the measurement site.
The present invention is an ultrasonic biological monitoring apparatus having the above configuration.

In the ultrasonic living body monitoring apparatus of the present invention, an ultrasonic sensor is installed on the upper part of the living body, so that it is possible to measure the displacement of the ultrasonic wave due to the movement of a newborn such as a premature baby, and thereby the information is real-time Can be displayed. In addition, the state of breathing and heartbeat can be easily confirmed just by looking at the display unit. In addition, it is possible to save the time and effort of periodically measuring such as counting breathing and counting beating by a doctor or nurse. Furthermore, when the movement of the living body cannot be confirmed, it is possible to recognize the change in the living body that may occur outside the measurement time without overlooking by notifying with a warning sound.

It is an example of use of the present invention. It is sectional drawing (a) seen from the side of the displacement measuring unit provided with one receiving sensor of this invention, and the figure (b) seen from the lower side. It is a figure showing the angle of the displacement measuring unit of this invention. It is sectional drawing (c) seen from the side of the displacement measuring unit provided with the several receiving sensor of this invention, and the figure (d) seen from the lower side. It is a figure showing the angle of the displacement measuring unit of this invention. It is a figure of the display unit of this invention. It is the figure which integrated the displacement measuring unit and display unit of this invention. It is a waveform of respiration and heartbeat obtained from a living body. An ultrasonic propagation path when the ultrasonic biological monitoring device of the present invention is attached to an incubator (e) and when the ultrasonic biological monitoring device of the present invention is attached to a neonatal bed (f) It is.

FIG. 1 is a usage example of the configuration of the ultrasonic biological monitoring apparatus of the present invention. The ultrasonic biological monitoring apparatus includes an ultrasonic sensor 3 in which one or more transmission sensors 5 and reception sensors 6 are provided above the measurement position of the incubator 2. The living body 1 is a newborn such as a premature baby. The living body 1 is laid down inside the incubator 2, for example, and the ultrasonic sensor 3 is information on the living body 1, and is attached to the inner wall of the incubator. A monitor 4 capable of displaying measured information is connected to the ultrasonic sensor 3.
As a shape of the displacement measuring unit, a single flat sensor and one receiving sensor 6 in FIG. 2 can cope with a measurement point on a substantially flat surface.

As shown in FIG. 3, the angle of the reception sensor 6 is set to 0 to 30 degrees with respect to the parallel direction with the reception sensor 6 facing inward when the transmission part of the transmission sensor 5 is installed substantially parallel to the object. Degree is preferred. The angle in this range is an angle suitable for measuring the living body 1 without contact.

At this time, the ultrasonic sensor 3 and the display monitor 4 are installed so as not to fall, for example, inside the incubator 2 so that the ultrasonic sensor 3 and the display monitor 4 are located above the measurement site.

FIG. 4 shows an example of another shape of the ultrasonic sensor 3. The ultrasonic sensor 3 has a structure that can measure the living body 1 with many curved surfaces even when the orientation with respect to the measurement surface and the unevenness are changed.

The ultrasonic sensor 3 is provided with a plurality of receiving sensors 6, and even if the measurement surface of the living body 1 is tilted forward, backward, left and right, the transmitting sensor 5 in the center of FIG. The reflected ultrasonic waves reach one of the plurality of reception sensors 6 and can be measured for displacement by the amount of movement. Although the number of reception sensors 6 is not limited, 2-6 are preferable.

In addition, the reception sensors 6 installed outside the transmission sensor 5 in FIG. 5 can be adjusted to the same angle for a plurality of 0 degrees to 30 degrees on the inner side with respect to the transmission surface of the transmission sensor 5.

6, an analog circuit 7 and a digital circuit 8 are incorporated in the monitor 4 connected to the ultrasonic sensor 3. An ultrasonic signal is transmitted from this circuit, and the time when the signal reaches the reception sensor 6 is calculated and displayed on the display screen 9.

Examples of the material of the ultrasonic sensor 3 and the monitor 4 include ABS, acrylic resin, polycarbonate, styrene, and glass.

Next, propagation of ultrasonic signals will be described. As shown in FIG. 9, first, an ultrasonic signal 14 is emitted from the transmission sensor 5 toward the measurement site. The ultrasonic signal 14 that reaches the measurement site reaches the reception sensor 6 from the measurement site of the living body 1.

At this time, the ultrasonic wave is transmitted toward the measurement site of the living body 1, and the time until the reception sensor 6 receives the reflection of the ultrasonic wave from the measurement site is replaced with the distance, and the fluctuation is measured at the measurement site. It was taken as a movement.

The time taken to transmit from the transmission sensor 3, reflect and receive is used as information of the living body 1 by calculation using a dedicated algorithm, and the measurement contents are continuously displayed on the monitor 4 in real time.

The ultrasonic signal is reflected and propagated at the measurement site. However, if there is unevenness or movement, the ultrasonic signal reflected from the measurement site will reach any reception sensor 6 regardless of the direction, and will not A very small amount of displacement can be detected by contact.

Further, since the skin of the living body 1 such as a premature baby has a very small displacement of the surface of the skin due to heartbeat or respiration, it is necessary to detect the movement in real time, so that high resolution and responsiveness are required.

Next, signal processing will be described with reference to FIG. First, the transmission sensor 5 transmits an ultrasonic signal by the transmission circuit and is received by the reception sensor 6. Based on the signal, respiratory / heartbeat detection is performed.

Next, the breathing / heartbeat signals will be described with reference to FIG. The respiratory waveform 12 and the heartbeat waveform 13 indicated by the solid line in FIG. 8 are obtained when the ultrasonic sensor 3 is attached to the upper part of the measurement target. This waveform contains information on breathing and heartbeat, and each waveform can be separated and digitized and displayed on the monitor 4.

This can measure with a time resolution of 5 nsec and a sampling period of 3 msec, and can detect a position displacement in units of microns. The combination of the algorithm and the ultrasonic sensor 3 is important.

From the above, an ultrasonic wave with a frequency of 200 kHz that can measure the distance to the living body 1 using the box-shaped incubator 2 and the neonatal bed of FIG. 1 as a positional displacement and can detect a displacement down to a micron unit is optimal. It was confirmed that the frequency.

In the above process, the slight movement of the living body 1 is read, and the minute surface movement of the living body 1 is displayed in real time as respiration and heartbeat on the display unit 4 of the apparatus.

Therefore, when there is no living body 1 to be measured due to movement of the living body or movement of the living body and no response is seen on the monitor 4, an abnormal state is quickly recognized by informing the outside. It is possible to improve the convenience, accuracy, and reliability of human body detection by performing appropriate actions thereafter.

In FIG. 7, the ultrasonic sensor 3 provided with the transmission sensor 5 and the reception sensor 6 is provided with a monitor 4 provided with a display screen and a circuit, whereby the ultrasonic sensor 3 and the monitor 4 are separately connected with a cable or the like. It becomes unnecessary to install, and attachment to the bed for newborns other than the incubator 2 becomes easy.

Although the ultrasonic biological monitoring apparatus according to the present invention has been described, other modifications are possible. For example, although the incubator 2 has been described in the above embodiment, the same effect can be obtained by attaching the arm 11 in the case of a neonatal bed.

The present invention can also be used as a simple and auxiliary role for medical devices. In addition, since the reflected waves of ultrasonic waves are accurately detected and converted from time to distance, not only medical devices but also substances that cannot be measured by light displacement meters such as water and glass are measured in micron units. It is possible to measure with.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Living body 2 Incubator 3 Ultrasonic sensor 4 Monitor 5 Transmission sensor 6 Reception sensor 7 Analog circuit 8 Digital circuit 9 Heartbeat and respiration display screen 10 Ultrasonic sensor and display monitor integrated unit 11 Arm 12 Respiration waveform 13 Heartbeat waveform 14 Ultrasonic wave propagation path 15

Claims (1)

In monitoring a living body using an incubator or a bed for a newborn, one or more ultrasonic sensors are provided for reception and transmission using ultrasonic waves. It is possible to read pulsed ultrasonic waves and read several slight displacements when the living body breathes and the heartbeat, and based on that, it can read the living body information on the monitor An ultrasonic biological monitoring device characterized by displaying.

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