Arrhythmia alarm processor
View Patent ↗An arrhythmia alarm processor has a pattern extractor and a predetermined reference pattern. The pattern extractor has an output responsive to short duration, intermittent oxygen desaturations of a patient as determined by a fast blood oxygen saturation processor incorporated within a pulse oximeter. The reference pattern is indicative of a series of oxygen desaturations resulting from an irregular heartbeat. An alarm is triggered when the pattern extractor output matches the predetermined reference pattern.
1. An arrhythmia alarm processor comprising:
a pattern extractor having an output responsive to short duration, intermittent oxygen desaturations of a patient as determined by a fast blood oxygen saturation processor incorporated within a pulse oximeter;
a predetermined reference pattern indicative of a series of oxygen desaturations resulting from an irregular heartbeat; and
an alarm triggered when the pattern extractor output matches the predetermined reference pattern.
2. A patient monitor configured to receive a sensor signal responsive to multiple wavelengths of light emitted into a tissue site, the patient monitor comprising:
a blood oxygen saturation processor capable of providing a predictor measurement of blood oxygen saturation derived from a tissue site in response to a sensor signal, wherein the blood oxygen saturation processor is responsive to short duration, intermittent oxygen desaturations of a patient;
a pattern processor responsive to the predictor measurement of blood oxygen saturation so as to detect a pattern in a series of oxygen desaturations indicative of an irregular heartbeat of a patient; and
an alarm responsive to the pattern processor so as to indicate the occurrence of irregular heartbeats.
3. An arrhythmia alarm method comprising the steps of:
transmitting light having multiple wavelengths into a patient tissue site;
detecting the light after absorption by arterial blood within the tissue site so as to generate a sensor signal;
generating a predictor blood oxygen saturation measurement responsive to the sensor signal and to short duration, intermittent oxygen desaturations of the patient;
recognizing a pattern in the blood oxygen saturation measurement indicative of an irregular heartbeat event; and
triggering an alarm in response to the recognized pattern.
4. A patient monitor comprising:
a processor means for deriving a plurality of oxygen saturation measurements;
a pattern recognition means for extracting a desaturation pattern of short duration, intermittent oxygen desaturations;
a reference means for comparing the extracted desaturation pattern with a stored pattern indicative of irregular heartbeats; and
an alarm means for indicating a match between the extracted desaturation pattern and the stored pattern.