JPH11267115A - Pillow device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pillow device which enables easy and simple determination of the respiratory condition during sleeping. SOLUTION: This pillow device 10 is provided with a plurality of probes 16 which are provided on a head carrier surface 14 thereof and each contain a near infrared ray emitting diode and a photodetecting photodiode and a pressing detection means for detecting contact condition, a controller 28 which contains a microcomputer to measure the respiratory condition based on outputs from the probes 16 and a display device 48 to display results determined by the controller 28. The use of the pillow device 10 enables determination of the respiratory condition during natural sleep thereby eliminating uneasiness felt by a person to be measured. Based on the results shown on the display device 48, this also enables checking for user's own heath condition and thus, whenever any abnormality is discovered, early handling thereof is possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pillow device, and more particularly to a pillow device for measuring, for example, a respiratory state during sleep.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a device for measuring a respiratory state during sleep, a special instrument is required to perform measurement by attaching a sensor to a finger, an earlobe, a chest, or the like of a patient or the like.
At present, it cannot be easily measured in ordinary households and the like.

[0003]

In recent years, sleep apnea has been pointed out to be associated with cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, arrhythmia, stroke, and ischemic heart disease, as well as overwork death and sudden death. It is becoming an important issue. For example, the number of patients with sleep apnea in Japan is estimated to be about 2 million, the ratio of which is equivalent to about 1 in 60 people.

[0004] On the other hand, according to estimates in the United States, patients with sleep apnea have a hypertension of 2 compared to healthy people.
The incidence rate is three times higher, heart disease is three times higher, and cerebrovascular disease is four times higher. Therefore, in the United States, treatment for sleep apnea is considered to be a very important medical problem in the future.

[0005] By the way, polysonomography (PSG) is an international standard method for examining sleep apnea syndrome. In order to conduct an examination using this PSG, a patient sets many electrodes on the body, It requires measurement of many items such as EEG, eye movement, nasal respiratory airflow, chest and abdominal wall movement, which places a heavy burden on both examiners and subjects.
In Japan, only a small number of university hospitals are available.

[0006] Furthermore, these limited facilities alone
The number of patients complaining of sleep apnea disorder, which has been increasing in Japan in recent years, has become unable to cope with the number of patients complaining of sleep apnea disorder. Has occurred. Usually, the definition of apnea is defined as a case where there are 30 or more breath stops that last for 10 seconds or more during a sleep period of 7 hours or more, or a case that there are 7 or more breath stops per hour.

As a method for measuring the oxygen saturation concentration in blood using near-infrared light, a living tissue is irradiated with near-infrared light having a plurality of wavelengths as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-228129. A method is generally known in which the measurement is performed based on the difference in absorbance at each wavelength depending on the oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (HbO ₂ ) and the deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration (Hb).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a pillow device capable of easily and easily measuring a respiratory state during sleep.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a body having a head mounting surface, and a plurality of probes provided on the head mounting surface and each including a near-infrared light emitting element and a light receiving element. A pillow device comprising: a determination unit that receives outputs of the plurality of probes to determine a respiratory state; and a display unit that displays a respiratory state.

[0010]

[Function] Based on the output from a plurality of probes each including a near-infrared light emitting element and a light receiving element provided on the head mounting surface of the pillow device, breathing based on blood oxygen saturation concentration during sleep is performed. The state is automatically determined by the determination means, and the result is displayed on the display means.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the apnea state during sleep is determined and the result is displayed, so that the subject does not feel uncomfortable and easily apnea in a natural sleep state. The presence or absence is measured. In addition, the self-health state can be confirmed from the measurement result, and if an abnormality is found, early treatment can be performed.

The above objects, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the drawings.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A pillow device 10 according to this embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 has a body 14 having a head mounting surface 12 and a blood oxygen saturation in the brain provided on the head mounting surface 12. Include a plurality of probes 16 to be detected. As shown in FIG. 3, each probe 16 constitutes a unit unit including a light emitting unit 18, a light receiving unit 20, and a small pressing detection switch 22 for detecting a contact state, and the light emitting unit 18 and the light receiving unit 20 are each a first optical fiber. As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the near-infrared light emitting diodes 30 and 30 provided in pairs in the control device 28 and the light receiving / emitting unit 34 constituted by the light receiving photodiode 32 by the second optical fiber 26. It is connected. As shown in FIG. 7, each light emitting section 18 of the light receiving / emitting section 34 is composed of two LEDs having wavelengths λ1 and λ2, and one end of each LED is connected to a LED via a resistor.
The other end is connected to a power supply, and the other end is connected via an LED switch 36 to a microcomputer 38 having an operation / control unit.

The wavelength λ ₁ is 750 nm as the absorption peak wavelength of deoxygenated hemoglobin, and the wavelength λ ₂ is 805 nm as the equal absorption wavelength of oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin. Further, among the light receiving / emitting units 34, each light receiving unit 20 is configured as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the photodiode 32 is constructed, one end of which is connected to the ground and the other end is connected to a microcomputer 38 via a photodiode switch 40, an amplifier 42 and an A / D converter 44. Have been. Further, each press detection switch 22 provided on each probe 16 is connected to a microcomputer 38 via a digital input port 46 shown in FIG.

The microcomputer 38 is connected to a display device 48 for displaying measurement results and an operation unit 50 including a power switch and the like. The pillow device 10 of this embodiment
In the control device 28, the light emitting unit 18 of each probe 16 is
A light emitting diode 30 and a light receiving photodiode 32, which are connected to the light receiving unit 20 by the first optical fiber 24 and the second optical fiber 26, are built in, but as shown in FIG. If these elements are directly embedded in the probes 16 together with the small pressure detection switches 22 using the elements 32, it is more desirable in terms of mounting of wiring and noise countermeasures.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the near-infrared light is emitted and received by a light source by two light emitting diodes 30 and 30 of each probe 16 and a light received by one light receiving photodiode 32. Microcomputer 38
Switches 36 and 40 based on the select signal supplied from
The switching can be performed by the same light receiving / emitting unit 34.

As shown in FIG. 2, a head 56 of a human body 54 lying on a bed 52 is provided on a display device 48 for displaying the measurement result in the control device 28.
Graph of change in total sleep time, presence or absence of respiratory arrest, number of respiratory arrests per hour, and blood oxygen saturation during the time of contact with the body Although the blood oxygen saturation level is about 97%, if the apnea condition continues for several minutes, it drops to 90% or less, so that 90% is displayed as a threshold value).

In the pillow device 10 of this embodiment, the measurement of the breathing state during sleep and the display thereof will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 10. First, in step S1, the switch of the operation unit is turned on. In step S3, the variable i of the probe is set to 1. Step S
In step 5, the value of the i-th signal line of the digital input port is read to confirm whether the i-th push detection switch 22 of the probe is ON. If the result of the check is ON in step S7, the LED for the i-th wavelength λ ₁ in the probe is set in step S9.
Is selected by the LED switch, and at the same time, the i-th photodiode is selected by the switch, and the received light amount Ii is read. In step S11, the received light amount Ii is calculated by the equation (1) using the absorbance OD (λ
₁ ) to convert.

[0019]

OD (λ ₁ ) = Log ₁₀ (I ₀ / I _i ) Similarly, in step S13, L for the i-th wavelength λ ₂ of the probe
Request lambda ₂ absorbance OD (lambda ₂₎ with ED. In step S15, i is incremented by one, and if it has proceeded to N in step S17, the absorbance OD (λ ₁ ) and O measured for the probe whose switch is ON in step S19.
The value of D (λ ₂ ) is averaged. In step S21, the oxygenated hemoglobin concentration CHbO ₂ and the deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration CHb are obtained from the absorbances OD (λ ₁ ) and OD (λ ₂ ), and the blood oxygen saturation concentration SpO ₂ in the brain is calculated from the equation ( ₂ ). Ask.

[0020]

## EQU2 ## SpO ₂ = ｛CHbO ₂ / (CHbO ₂ + CH)
b)｝ × 100 (%) The value of SpO ₂ calculated in step S21, that is, the blood oxygen saturation concentration is displayed on a display device, and the value is recorded with time and displayed in a graph. When this value becomes a value indicating an apnea state (about 90 or less), the time period and the number of times are recorded. This operation is repeated until the measurement end switch provided on the operation unit is pressed in step S25. When the measurement end switch is turned on, the measurement operation ends.

The above calculations and controls are all performed by the microcomputer 38 to determine the respiratory condition during sleep, and the result is displayed on the display device 48. Since apnea during sleep is a phenomenon during sleep, it is difficult to judge as a subjective symptom by oneself. However, by using the pillow device 10 according to the present invention, it is possible to use You can check your usual sleep condition, and you can detect poor physical condition at an early stage, which will help maintain and improve your health.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a main part of a usage example.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an optical fiber type unit probe.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a unit probe according to another embodiment corresponding to FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an electric circuit block diagram of the control device.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged explanatory view of a light emitting / receiving unit in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a detailed explanatory diagram of a main part in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a detailed explanatory view of a main part in FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a detailed explanatory diagram of a pressing detection switch unit.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for measuring a respiratory state.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Pillow device 12 ... Main body 14 ... Head mounting surface 16 ... Probe 18 ... Light emitting unit 20 ... Light receiving unit 22 ... Pressure detection switch 24 ... First optical fiber 26 ... Second optical fiber 28 ... Control device 34 ... Receiving and emitting light Unit 38: microcomputer (CPU) 48: display device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A main body having a head mounting surface, a plurality of probes provided on the head mounting surface, each including a near-infrared light emitting element and a light receiving element, and receiving outputs of the plurality of probes. A pillow device comprising: a determination unit configured to determine a respiratory state by using the display unit; and a display unit configured to display the respiratory state. 2. The pillow device according to claim 1, wherein said probe includes a pressure detecting means, and said determining means determines a breathing state based on an output from the probe to which a signal is output from said pressing detecting means. 3. A probe comprising: a first optical fiber having one end exposed on the head mounting surface; a light emitting element for inputting near-infrared light from the other end of the first optical fiber; 3. A second optical fiber having one end face exposed to the mounting surface, and a light receiving element receiving reflected light of near-infrared light input through the second optical fiber from the other end face, 3. Pillow device.