RU2537763C2 - Method and device for semi-automatic diagnosing of patient's body pathologies - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: patient's body skin temperature is scanned by means of contact thermal sensors. Before the scanning procedure starts, an elastic suit with installed thermal sensors is kept for 5 minutes in a room where the examination is supposed to be conducted. The thermal sensors are calibrated by comparing their resistances in relation to one single thermal sensor. The elastic suit is put on the patient; zip fasteners are used to adjust the suit if it does not fit the body tightly. A control unit timer is used to set a specified time of the steady-state start. A conductor resistance is measured in each i-th part of the body. The derived data assembly is transmitted to the computer to process the received information and detect if the patient suffers from any pathologies. The diagnostic results are displayed on the monitor as a spatial location of pathological centres. A device for implementing the method comprises the contact thermal sensors inserted in capsules arranged in the elastic suit, and configured to provide a tight contact of the thermal sensors with the patient's skin. The thermal sensors are connected together by means of the conductors terminated at a control unit connector. The control unit is connected to a modem providing long-distance communication to the computer having software for processing the transmitted information and forming and displaying the resultant thermal image of the patient's body.

EFFECT: invention enables providing safe, expressive and accurate early diagnosis of the human body pathologies; the device requires no multiple disinfection.

2 cl, 4 dwg

Description

The present invention relates to medicine, and is intended for semi-automatic diagnosis of pathologies in the patient’s body.

Known methods and devices for diagnosing pathologies in the patient’s body. They, as a rule, are aimed at identifying various types of pathologies within the patient’s body and are based on methods and devices for use: X-ray, ultrasound, thermal imaging, as well as thermal contact diagnostic methods. These known methods and devices have a number of significant drawbacks: X-ray and ultrasound methods are associated with the harmful effects of radiation on the patient’s body and do not provide information on the thermosemiotic nature of the detected pathology (see, for example, LM Klyukin. Device for the clinical diagnosis of a biological object. RF patent No. 2267982 dated January 20, 2006 with priority dated September 15, 2003).

A safe thermal imaging method is also known, but it provides the diagnosis of pathologies in the patient’s body only if they are close to the surface of the skin and has too much error that does not allow early recognition of diseases of deep-seated pathological foci (see, for example, Klyukin L.M. Screening and Monitoring of Tumor Neoplasms Using the Method of Diagnostic Contact Thermography. Medical Technology, No. 3, 2010, pp. 7-12).

A known method for diagnosing the clinical condition of a patient, comprising forming a network of points on the patient’s body at which skin temperature is measured by the contact dynamic scanning method through holes in an elastic mask whose numbers specify the scanning sequence. The mentioned procedure provides for the presence of an operator who must scan the temperature in exact accordance with the numbers of the mentioned points. In addition, he should conduct regular operations to cool the temperature sensor to a predetermined level (see, Klukin L. M. Method and device for themperature diagnostics of bioobject pathologies. US Pat. US 7, 214,194 B2 dated May 8, 2007 with priority dated January 8, 2002). This patent can be considered as a prototype of this application.

The disadvantages of this method and device are:

1. The possibility of operator error in the diagnosis associated with the erroneous choice of the number of points of contact of the skin. After that, the diagnosis becomes unreliable;

2. The need for an additional sensor cooling cycle before measuring at each subsequent point on the patient’s skin surface, which dramatically increases the time spent on the entire examination procedure;

3. The relatively large investment of time for the diagnosis, due to the need to conduct many sequential and similar operations.

The illustrations necessary to describe the proposed method, the semi-automatic diagnosis of pathologies in the patient’s body and the device that implements the proposed method are shown in figure 1, figure 2, figure 3 and figure 4.

 The numbers and letters on them denote:

Figure 1 - arrangement of the main components explaining the operation of the method and device: 1 - patient, 2 - elastic suit, 3 - control panel, 4, 5, 6 - zipper type fasteners, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 - diagnostic area, 12 - the transmitted file from the control panel, 13 - the received audio message, 14 - the transmitted file from the modem, 15 - the received audio message, 16 - the modem, 17 - pathology, 18 - the image area, 19 - the computer monitor, 20 - elastic mask -hood.

Figure 2. - placement and illustration of the location of the temperature sensor: 21 - skin of the patient.

In figure 3. - switching circuit of the temperature sensor: 22 - elastic material of the suit, 23 - temperature sensor, 24 - common conductor, 25 - signal conductor.

In figure 4. - block diagram of the switching of sensors in an elastic suit: P _ol - common conductor horizontally, P _os - common conductor, P _s - signal conductor, K _i - i-th diagnostics area covered by common conductors, K _is - i-th diagnostics area covered by signal conductors and common conductors.

The technical result in terms of the implementation of the proposed method is achieved by the fact that, as a first step, the calibration of all temperature sensors 23 installed in an elastic suit 2 by its resistance after exposure for 5 minutes in a room intended for an examination by comparing their resistance against one selected temperature sensor. After that, the patient’s skin is wiped with a 40-70% solution of ethyl alcohol and then the aforementioned elastic suit is put on it, selected in accordance with the parameters of the patient’s body, after which the temperature sensors are evenly contacted with the patient’s skin by tightly compressing the patient’s body with zippers such as zippers 4, 5, 6. Then the patient, in accordance with his size and weight, sets on the control panel 3 the time to enter the stationary mode of the temperature sensors 23, after which an operative a survey of all the mentioned temperature sensors in all areas of diagnosis K _i , as well as resistance measurements in each i-th horizontal are measured and recorded. Then, the obtained data array of temperature and resistances from the control panel is transferred in the form of a file 12 to the modem 16, from which it is also transmitted via the Internet via file 14 to a computer located in a remote medical center, in which the transferred array is processed using a pre-installed program in accordance with the program, and on the monitor 19 as a result, the thermogram of the body of the patient 17 is displayed, on which the image of the pathology 16 is shown.

The technical result of the invention in terms of the device is to simplify the device. To this end, the temperature sensors 23 with an adhesive fastener are fixed on the bottom formed of elastic fabric, for example, silicone, capsules and then connect them together by common conductors 24 and individual conductors 25, after which they are sealed by applied over the said conductors, which are switched into the remote control connector controls mounted on the patient’s shoulder.

A device for diagnosing the internal state of a person works as follows. After the patient selects and puts on an elastic suit in accordance with its size, the patient provides reliable contact of the temperature sensors with the skin in all areas of diagnosis by crimping with zippers. Then he starts the timer, which is part of the control panel. Then, after the set time has passed, the temperature sensors go to the stationary mode of operation set by the timer, the control panel switches on the system of sequential polling of temperature sensors, as well as resistance measurements P _ol in each of the i-th diagnostic areas, and the data array obtained after polling using the remote control control is transmitted to the modem 16, remotely connected via the Internet to a computer located in the medical center, where there is encoded data about the patient being examined and in memory of which A program for processing transmitted information has been introduced. After that, the resulting thermogram of the patient’s body 17 is displayed on a computer monitor 15 in the form of a color picture that displays the internal state of his body’s organs, which shows the absence or presence of pathological foci in it and, if any, determines their coordinates and assesses their nature . Then, the patient receives an audio signal 13 from the feedback center and information on the necessary measures for monitoring and treating the detected disease.

For documentation, information about the results of the examination is transmitted in the form of an image on the monitor screen with the appropriate conclusion about the disease and the measures taken in terms of notifying the patient and the measures taken and treatment recommendations. The information necessary further is stored in electronic form and printed out on paper and entered into an electronic file cabinet.

The proposed method and device for the semi-automatic diagnosis of pathologies of the patient’s body provides, in contrast to existing devices, an express (about 1-2 min) examination of temperature parameters and ensures, due to the uniformity of contact conditions for all sensors, improved accuracy compared to existing analogues. The proposed method makes it possible to obtain a conclusion about the disease by using thermosemiotic signs of pathologies [see, Melnikova VP, Kozlov OA, Rozanov A.E. and others. Thermal imaging research method in gastroenterology. Atlas of thermograms. Thermosemiotics of benign and malignant diseases. GOI, L-d, 1984, 93 pp.].

The execution of an elastic suit with sealed sensors based on an elastic material, such as silicone, which is safe for contact with the human body, allows multiple subsequent disinfection, makes it possible to avoid the use of disposable suits, which leads to an order of magnitude lower cost of the examination procedure, which is one of the decisive factors when mass introduction of devices for the prevention of diseases and mass screening of the population for early detection into the clinic eniya malignant neoplasms, as well as other kinds of diseases.

Claims (2)

1. A method for diagnosing pathologies of the patient’s body, including scanning the temperature of the surface of the patient’s body using contact temperature sensors evenly mounted in an elastic suit corresponding to the parameters of the patient’s body, the suit tightly fitting the patient’s body, ensuring uniform contact of the temperature sensors with the body, set using the timer time for the temperature sensors to enter the stationary mode of operation, after which the temperature readings are taken from the temperature sensors, the obtained data array is processed Pipeline in the computer, taking into account the definition termosemioticheskih signs presence or absence of abnormalities in the patient terminal and the diagnostic results on the monitor display of the spatial arrangement of lesions,
characterized in that before the start of the scan, an elastic suit with temperature sensors installed in it, connected by conductors, is kept for 5 minutes in the room intended for the examination, and the temperature sensors are calibrated by comparing their resistance against one selected temperature sensor, then put on the patient a suit, while the density of his body fit is ensured by the use of zippers; and when the temperature sensors enter the stationary mode of operation, when determining their readings in all areas of diagnosis, they additionally automatically measure the resistances of the conductors in each of the i-th areas of the body, then the resulting array of data on the resistances of the temperature sensors and conductors is transferred to a computer to process the received information and display the resulting picture to the monitor screen. 2. A device for diagnosing pathologies of the patient’s body, containing contact temperature sensors inserted into capsules mounted in an elastic suit, made with the possibility of tight contact between the temperature sensors and the patient’s skin surface, characterized in that the capsules are uniformly located in the suit along the length of the patient’s body in all areas diagnostics, moreover, the temperature sensors are fixed at the bottom of the capsules formed from elastic tissue using an adhesive fixator and interconnected by means of conductors, thermal sensors and sealed with a layer of the same elastic material over the above-mentioned conductors, which are switched into a connector for a control panel mounted on the shoulder of the elastic suit, where the control panel contains a timer for setting a predetermined time for the temperature sensors to exit to stationary operation, the control panel is configured to measure resistances in each of the i-th areas of diagnosis and is connected to a modem that provides remote communication with a computer having a program for processing the transmitted information and the formation and output to the monitor screen of the resulting thermogram of the patient’s body.

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