Systems and methods for monitoring a patient's neurological disease state
View Patent ↗The present invention provides methods and systems for modulating a patient's neurological disease state. In one embodiment, the system comprises one or more sensors that sense at least one signal that comprise a characteristic that is indicative of a neurological disease state. A signal processing assembly is in communication with the one or more sensors and processes the at least one signal to estimate the neurological disease state and to generate a therapy to the patient that is based at least in part on the estimated neurological disease state. A treatment assembly is in communication with the signal processing assembly and delivers the therapy to a nervous system component of the patient.
1. A method of modulating a patient'neurological disease state, the method comprising:
sensing at least one neurological signal from the patient;
processing the at least one neurological signal using a disease state processor to estimate the neurological disease state;
generating a therapy output, wherein the generated therapy output is a function of the estimated neurological disease state;
delivering the therapy output to the patient; and
communicating the estimated neurological disease state to the patient using a patient interface module external to the patient's body.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein delivering the therapy output is carried out with an electrode array.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising coupling the electrode array to a peripheral nerve.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the peripheral nerve comprises a vagus nerve.
5. The method of claim 2 further comprising positioning the electrode array intracranially.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein communicating the estimated neurological disease state to the patient comprises displaying of a time history of the estimated neurological disease state.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein said processing the at least one neurological signal using the disease state processor comprises estimating a future neurological disease state.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein sensing is carried out with one or more sensors and processing is carried out with a signal processing assembly, the method comprising implanting the signal processing assembly within the patient's body.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the therapy output is carried out with a control law.
10. A method of modulating a patient'epilepsy disease state, the method comprising:
sensing at least one neurological signal from a nervous system component of the patient;
processing the at least one neurological signal using a disease state processor to estimate the patient'epilepsy disease state;
communicating the patient'estimated epilepsy disease state to the patient using a patient interface module external to the patient'body;
generating an electrostimulation therapy output that is based at least in part on the estimated epilepsy disease state; and
delivering the electrostimulation therapy output to a vagus nerve of the patient.