Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 21
Claim 1
Independent Claim
182 words
A blood pressure monitoring apparatus, comprising: at least one pressure transducer which senses a patient's blood pressure and outputs a blood pressure signal; an A/D converter which samples said blood pressure signal and outputs blood pressure samples; a microprocessor which processes said blood pressure samples to determine blood pressure characteristic values representative of a patient's blood pressure, said microprocessor including respiration artifact reduction software which reduces respiratory artifacts in said blood pressure samples by determining, for each heart beat detected in said blood pressure samples, the blood pressure at a median point of a line connecting a blood pressure characteristic value for a current heart beat with a corresponding blood pressure characteristic value for a heart beat a predetermined number of heart beats prior to said current heart beat; a display buffer which stores a value of the blood pressure of said median point determined by said microprocessor as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat; and a display monitor which displays the blood pressure characteristic values stored in said display buffer as indicative of the patient's blood pressure.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
182 words
A blood pressure monitoring apparatus, comprising: at least one pressure transducer which senses a patient's blood pressure and outputs a blood pressure signal; an A/D converter which samples said blood pressure signal and outputs blood pressure samples; a microprocessor which processes said blood pressure samples to determine blood pressure characteristic values representative of a patient's blood pressure, said microprocessor including respiration artifact reduction software which reduces respiratory artifacts in said blood pressure samples by determining, for each heart beat detected in said blood pressure samples, the blood pressure at a median point of a line connecting a blood pressure characteristic value for a current heart beat with a corresponding blood pressure characteristic value for a heart beat a predetermined number of heart beats prior to said current heart beat; a display buffer which stores a value of the blood pressure of said median point determined by said microprocessor as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat; and a display monitor which displays the blood pressure characteristic values stored in said display buffer as indicative of the patient's blood pressure.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
69 words
An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said respiration artifact reduction software further averages the blood pressure value of the median point for the current heart beat with the blood pressure values of the median points of a number of heart beats immediately previous to said current heart beat and stores a resulting average in said display buffer as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
35 words
An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein said blood pressure characteristic values represent at least one of the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure for each heart beat of the patient.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
75 words
An apparatus as in claim 3, wherein said respiratory artifact reduction software determines the median points for the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure for the current heart beat of the patient and stores in said display buffer the respective values of the blood pressures of said median points as respectively indicative of said systolic blood pressure, said diastolic blood pressure, and said mean blood pressure for the current heart beat.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
36 words
An apparatus as in claim 3, wherein said microprocessor further includes heart beat detection software which identifies heart beats in said blood pressure samples and determines the systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures for each heart beat.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
33 words
An apparatus as in claim 1, further comprising a blood pressure sample averaging device which averages adjacent blood pressure samples prior to application of said blood pressure samples to said microprocessor for processing.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
166 words
A blood pressure monitoring apparatus, comprising: means for sensing a patient's blood pressure and outputting a blood pressure signal; means for sampling said blood pressure signal and outputting blood pressure samples; means for processing said blood pressure samples to determine blood pressure characteristic values representative of a patient's blood pressure, said processing means including means for reducing respiratory artifacts in said blood pressure samples by determining, for each heart beat detected in said blood pressure samples, the blood pressure at a median point of a line connecting a blood pressure characteristic value for a current heart beat with a corresponding blood pressure characteristic value for a heart beat a predetermined number of heart beats prior to said current heart beat, and for storing a value of the blood pressure of said median point as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat; and display means for displaying the blood pressure characteristic values determined by said processing means as indicative of the patient's blood pressure.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
166 words
A blood pressure monitoring apparatus, comprising: means for sensing a patient's blood pressure and outputting a blood pressure signal; means for sampling said blood pressure signal and outputting blood pressure samples; means for processing said blood pressure samples to determine blood pressure characteristic values representative of a patient's blood pressure, said processing means including means for reducing respiratory artifacts in said blood pressure samples by determining, for each heart beat detected in said blood pressure samples, the blood pressure at a median point of a line connecting a blood pressure characteristic value for a current heart beat with a corresponding blood pressure characteristic value for a heart beat a predetermined number of heart beats prior to said current heart beat, and for storing a value of the blood pressure of said median point as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat; and display means for displaying the blood pressure characteristic values determined by said processing means as indicative of the patient's blood pressure.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
67 words
An apparatus as in claim 7, wherein said processing means further comprises means for averaging the blood pressure value of the median point for the current heart beat with the blood pressure values of the median points of a number of heart beats immediately previous to said current heart beat and for storing a resulting average as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
35 words
An apparatus as in claim 8, wherein said blood pressure characteristic values represent at least one of the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure for each heart beat of the patient.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
73 words
An apparatus as in claim 9, wherein said processing means includes means for determining the median points for the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure for the current heart beat of the patient and for storing the respective values of the blood pressures of said median points as respectively indicative of said systolic blood pressure, said diastolic blood pressure, and said mean blood pressure for the current heart beat.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
35 words
An apparatus as in claim 9, wherein said processing means further includes means for identifying heart beats in said blood pressure samples and for determining the systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures for each heart beat.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
30 words
An apparatus as in claim 7, further comprising averaging means for averaging adjacent blood pressure samples prior to application of said blood pressure samples to said processing means for processing.
Claim 15
Independent Claim
184 words
A method of determining a patient's blood pressure, comprising the steps of: applying at least one transducer to the patient so as to sense the patient's blood pressure and outputting a blood pressure signal; sampling the blood pressure signal and outputting blood pressure samples; processing the blood pressure samples to determine blood pressure characteristic values representative of the patient's blood pressure, said processing step including the steps of detecting the patient's heart beat from said blood pressure samples, reducing respiratory artifacts in said blood pressure samples by determining, for each heart beat detected in said blood pressure samples, the blood pressure at a median point of a line connecting a blood pressure characteristic value for a current heart beat with a corresponding blood pressure characteristic value for a heart beat a predetermined number of heart beats prior to said current heart beat, and storing a value of the blood pressure of said median point as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat; and displaying the blood pressure characteristic values determined in said processing step as indicative of the patient's blood pressure.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
184 words
A method of determining a patient's blood pressure, comprising the steps of: applying at least one transducer to the patient so as to sense the patient's blood pressure and outputting a blood pressure signal; sampling the blood pressure signal and outputting blood pressure samples; processing the blood pressure samples to determine blood pressure characteristic values representative of the patient's blood pressure, said processing step including the steps of detecting the patient's heart beat from said blood pressure samples, reducing respiratory artifacts in said blood pressure samples by determining, for each heart beat detected in said blood pressure samples, the blood pressure at a median point of a line connecting a blood pressure characteristic value for a current heart beat with a corresponding blood pressure characteristic value for a heart beat a predetermined number of heart beats prior to said current heart beat, and storing a value of the blood pressure of said median point as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat; and displaying the blood pressure characteristic values determined in said processing step as indicative of the patient's blood pressure.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
67 words
A method as in claim 13, wherein said processing step includes the additional steps of averaging the blood pressure value of the median point for the current heart beat with the blood pressure values of the median points of a number of heart beats immediately previous to said current heart beat and storing a resulting average as the blood pressure characteristic value for the current heart beat.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
35 words
A method as in claim 14, wherein said blood pressure characteristic values represent at least one of the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure for each heart beat of the patient.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
73 words
A method as in claim 15, wherein said processing step includes the steps of determining the median points for the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure for the current heart beat of the patient and storing the respective values of the blood pressures of said median points as respectively indicative of said systolic blood pressure, said diastolic blood pressure, and said mean blood pressure for the current heart beat.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
34 words
A method as in claim 15, wherein said processing step includes the steps of identifying heart beats in said blood pressure samples and determining the systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures for each heart beat.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
23 words
An apparatus as in claim 13, further comprising the step of averaging adjacent blood pressure samples prior to processing in said processing step.