Method and system for monitoring and displaying physiological conditions

1. A method for providing an indication of a state of awareness for a patient, comprising:

arranging data of an EEG power spectrogram to provide power versus frequency in a log-log arrangement;

calculating a first best-fit line for a lower frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram, using a processor;

calculating a second best-fit line for a higher frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram, using said processor; and

displaying, on a display device, a density spectral array of the spectrogram using a display scale that ranges between an upper limit and a lower limit, wherein the lower limit is set based on one of the first best-fit line and the second best-fit line and the upper limit is set based on one of an alpha peak or a delta peak of the EEG power spectrogram.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lower limit is set based on a highest point of the second best-fit line.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lower limit is set based on a lowest point of the first best-fit line.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lower limit is set based on a theta trough of the power spectrogram.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the display scale varies in terms of one of color, display intensity, gray scale value.

6. An apparatus for providing an indication of a state of awareness for a patient, comprising:

a data formatter configured to arrange data of an EEG power spectrogram power spectrogram, that provides power versus frequency, in a log-log arrangement;

a first calculator configured to calculate a first best-fit line for a lower frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram;

the first calculator also configured to calculate a second best-fit line for a higher frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram;

a display configured to provide a density spectral array of the spectrogram using a display scale that ranges between an upper limit and a lower limit, wherein the lower limit is set based on one of the first best-fit line and the second best-fit line and the upper limit is set based on one of an alpha peak or a delta peak of the EEG power spectrogram.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the lower limit is set based on a highest point of the second best-fit line.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the lower limit is set based on a lowest point of the first best-fit line.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the lower limit is set based on a theta trough of the power spectrogram.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the display scale varies in terms of one of color, display intensity, gray scale value.

11. A method for providing an indication of a state of awareness for a patient, comprising:

arranging data of an EEG power spectrogram to provide power versus frequency in a log-log arrangement;

calculating a first best-fit line for a lower frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram, using a processor;

calculating a second best-fit line for a higher frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram, using said processor;

determining, by the processor, differences between the EEG power spectrogram and the first and second best-fit lines; and

displaying, on a display device, a density spectral array of the EEG power spectrogram, with values calculated based on the differences between the EEG power spectrogram and the first and second best-fit lines, wherein the differences are determined by subtracting the first and second best-fit lines from the EEG power spectrogram to determine a respective difference value at each frequency value of the EEG power spectrogram.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein displaying the differences comprises:

defining a display graph with a horizontal axis representing time and a vertical axis representing frequency; and

setting a respective display intensity for each respective difference value, wherein the display intensity ranges between an upper limit and a lower limit.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining differences comprises:

determining if each respective difference value exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

displaying those respective difference values which exceed the predetermined threshold.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining differences comprises:

determining at which frequencies the EEG spectrogram exceeds a corresponding one of the first and second best-fit lines.

15. An apparatus for providing an indication of a state of awareness for a patient, comprising:

a data formatter configured to arrange data of an EEG power spectrogram power spectrogram, that provides power versus frequency, in a log-log arrangement;

a first calculator configured to calculate a first best-fit line for a lower frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram;

the first calculator also configured to calculate a second best-fit line for a higher frequency region of the EEG power spectrogram;

the first calculator also configured to calculate differences between the EEG power spectrogram and the first and second best-fit lines; and

a display device configured to display a density spectral array of the EEG power spectrogram, with values calculated based on the differences between the EEG power spectrogram and the first and second best-fit lines, wherein the differences are determined by subtracting the first and second best-fit lines from the EEG power spectrogram to calculate a respective difference value at each frequency value of the EEG power spectrogram.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein display device is also configured to display:

a display graph with a horizontal axis representing time and a vertical axis representing frequency; and

a respective display intensity for each respective difference value, wherein the display intensity ranges between an upper limit and a lower limit.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the calculation of differences comprises:

determining if each respective difference value exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

displaying those respective difference values which exceed the predetermined threshold.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the calculation of differences comprises:

determining at which frequencies the EEG spectrogram exceeds a corresponding one of the first and second best-fit lines.