Abstract: An ultrasonic probe includes a housing, and a plurality of piezoelectric elements radially arranged in a plane substantially perpendicular to a direction in which the ultrasonic probe is inserted into a hollow portion to be scanned. The ultrasonic probe also includes an electrical part for carrying electricity to the piezoelectric elements to thereby cause the piezoelectric elements to emit ultrasonic waves and for carrying, to an external device, electric signals generated from the ultrasonic waves reflected by the hollow portion and received by the piezoelectric elements.

Abstract: An apparatus adapted to be implanted in a patient for electrically stimulating the heart and analyzing the heart's stimulated response, and a method of operating the apparatus, are disclosed. The apparatus operates to reduce the stimulation polarization artifact that normally accompanies such stimulation, allowing accurate measurement of stimulated cardiac potentials. The apparatus is useful in such devices as cardiac pacemakers, tachycardia reversion devices, and defibrillators. Optimizing features are provided to allow the apparatus to function properly in noisy environments and with suboptimal leads. In addition, provision is included to make the apparatus capable of performing self-diagnosis for determining when accurate sensing is not possible.

Abstract: The telephonic pacemaker monitoring device of the present invention eliminates the need for external electrodes that wrap around the fingers or wrists, or make contact with the skin on the chest. The monitoring unit has four finger touchpads and a communications station including a transmitter and a visual display located on the face of the device. The monitoring device also has a feedback system which enables the operator at the receiving center to immediately notify the patient via the visual display if a proper transmission or a faulty transmission is occurring. The feedback system and the visual display also enable the operator at the receiving center to notify the patient if increased finger pressure on the touchpads is needed or if the telephone handset should be picked-up for verbal communication. This feedback system and visual display eliminate the delay in notifying the patient that a faulty transmission has occurred.

Abstract: A disposable laparoscopic single acting scissors is provided, and generally includes a hollow aluminum tube, a clevis coupled to a first end of the aluminum tube and including a pivot rod, a first scissors blade element having a pivot hole for pivotally engaging the pivot rod of the clevis, and having a through-hole in a base section of said first scissors blade element, a second scissors blade element fixedly engaging the clevis, a thin wire rod extending at least partially through the aluminum tube with a first end of the rod having a longitudinally offset terminal portion for engaging the through-hole of the base section of the first scissors blade element, and a plastic actuator engaged to the other end of the rod for imparting reciprocal motion to the rod relative to the aluminum tube which is translated at the clevis into pivotal motion of the first scissors blade element. The first scissors blade element is preferably formed from investment cast bronze.

Abstract: An esophageal displacement electrode comprises a flexible tubular member designed to be inserted into the esophagus. An electrode is carried by the tube in the region of its distal end. The tube is hinged near the distal end which enables that end of the tube to displace laterally in the esophagus and laterally displace the esophagus. A displacement mechanism is disposed in the tube in the region of the hinge and is controlled from a point externally of the body for causing the distal end of the tube to displace laterally, and engage and displace the esophagus with it.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method of use are disclosed which assist in pulsating blood to a patient during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery and assists in weaning a patient after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery by counterpulsating. The apparatus includes a blood pump with a collapsible bladder and a bladder support ring with a plurality of openings to permit the entering of continuous flowing blood, the exiting of a pulsatile blood flow and the release of any air bubbles trapped within the blood supply. The pulsating blood flow is created by the compression of the collapsible bladder when filled with blood. The method consist of connecting the apparatus to the aortic return line of a cardiopulmonary bypass circuitry and to the aortic cannula of the patient. The apparatus is positioned near to the patient to maximize pulsatile output. Compression of the bladder can be synchronized to create the physiologic blood pressure of the patient or to counterpulsate with the patient's heart.

Abstract: The magnetic cardiac pacemaker utilizes bisphasic pulses of mixed frequencies and waveforms that are applied to a field coil to generate magnetic pulses of relatively low intensity (less than 200 Gauss) without the use of leads. The device can be worn externally on the chest near the heart to enable the magnetic field to penetrate the body and control the heart muscle as a non-invasive cardiac pacemaker or it can be inserted subcutaneously as a permanent non-lead system cardiac pacemaker.

Abstract: End effectors for an endoscopic surgical instrument are provided and comprise a pair of identical elongate longitudinally extending arms having tooth-like terminal projections which closely mesh in a closed position. A preferred embodiment of the end effectors are hermaphroditic claw extractors which grasp and pierce tissue without endangering nearby tissue.

Abstract: For the purpose of improving the interference resistance capability of a therapeutically and/or diagnostically operational unit, specifically of a cardiac pacemaker with an input circuit and an output circuit, a decoupling circuit is provided. The decoupling circuit allows the output circuit to be decoupled from the terminal connector pair of the unit. The decoupling of the asymmetrically limiting output circuit always occurs independent of the presence of possible interfering signals for the entire duration of the impulse period.

Abstract: A positioning device for positioning an instrument in three dimensions, the device comprising at least one arm which is essentially rigid having a first end and a second end, the second end being hinged relative to a support stand via at least one hinge axis, and said instrument being mounted on a support which is connected to the second end of the arm via at least one hinge axis, wherein said instrument comprises an exploration probe and said support for the instrument comprises a device for motion in translation enabling the instrument comprising the exploration probe to be moved in translation relative to the second end of the arm, making it possible to perform exploration for each of the translation positions.

Abstract: Determining the fetal heart rate comprises irradiating an ultrasound beam in the direction of the fetal heart. The moving parts of the fetal heart cause a Doppler shift which is used to determine the fetal heart rate via an autocorrelation function. Moving parts of the fetal heart with different velocities and Doppler shifts originating from other physiological sources generate secondary maxima in the autocorrelation function, so that an accurate heart rate determination becomes nearly impossible. This problem is overcome by parallel processing of the demodulated ultrasound signal in various pass-bands, for which purpose the signal is fed to filters (28, 30) of different frequency characteristics. The output of the pass band with the better result is used for fetal heart rate circulation.

Abstract: An ultrasonic blood flow measuring and imaging system comprises a transmit-receive transducer for transmitting ultrasonic pulses toward and into the human body and for receiving reflected echo signals which are then processed for use in a Doppler blood flow imaging and display system. Multiple ultrasonic pulses are transmitted into the body at each of a number for angles in an area under diagnosis. For each angle, a plurality of reflected echo signals are received during successive predetermined time intervals. Each received echo signal has a tissue motion Doppler component representative of reflection from moving tissue and a blood flow Doppler component representative of relfection from both moving tissue and flowing blood. The reflected echo signals are processed in a system which includes tissue velocity determining elements for estimating the velocity of the tissue motion, and tissue velocity canceller elements for removing a tissue velocity component from the received echo signals.

Abstract: A mechanical scan type ultrasonic probe is disclosed, in which a rotational force transmitting shaft for transmitting the rotational force of a motor to an ultrasonic transducer, and a guide pipe for guiding the rotational force transmitting shaft are improved. The guide pipe is a spiral spring. The rotational force transmitting shaft is a highly conductive double spiral spring. Since the guide pipe is constituted by a spiral spring, the pipe can follow any bending movement of the rotational force transmitting shaft to guide the shaft. In addition, since the rotational force transmitting shaft is constituted by a highly conductive double spiral spring, it can properly supply and extract electrical signals to and from an ultrasonic transducer, and can properly transmit the rotational force to the transducer.

Abstract: A ventricular assist device for documenting compressive forces on the right and left ventricular surface of a heart in terms of pressure reactions transmitted from fluid contents in sacs adjacent to these ventricular surfaces to apparatus for displaying the reactions, and a method of monitoring these pressure forces and their effects on the ventricular surfaces for circulating the blood from the ventricular blood pools into the right and left arterial systems.

Abstract: Electrode structure for use in a wireless patient monitoring system having an electrically non-conductive patch electrode having first and second sides. First and second conductive elements are carried by the patch electrode in spaced relationship to each other and are disposed on the first side of the patch electrode. A battery is provided which has at least one voltage terminal and a ground terminal carried on the second side of the patch electrode. A micro-chip amplifier is carried on the second side of the patch electrode and has a signal input terminal coupled to the first conductive element for receiving heart signals therefrom and having an output terminal. A micro-chip encoder-modulator is carried on the second side of said patch electrode and has an input terminal coupled to the output terminal of said amplifier and an output terminal. A micro-chip transmitter is carried by the patch electrode on the second side of the patch electrode and has an input terminal and an output terminal.

Abstract: A system for tracing uterine contraction is disclosed. The system comprises a probe and an electronics module. The electronics module includes a drive circuit and an output section having a frequency counter. The output section also includes a strip-chart recorder driven by a frequency-to-voltage converter. The probe includes an electro-mechanical transducer which is driven at resonance by the action of the drive circuit. When the probe contacts the abdomen of a pregnant subject, changes in the mechanical impedance of bodily tissue during a contraction affect the resonant frequency of the probe and thus the frequency output by the drive circuit. This frequency can be read directly from the frequency counter and recorded on the strip-chart so that contractions can be traced.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to obtain an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including a CFM system which is designed so that the algorithm for computing a flow velocity or the like can be changed easily.The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention comprises an A/D converter that converts a Doppler signal obtained by coherent detection of the echo reflected from an object of inspection into a digital signal, and a flow velocity computing section that determines a blood flow velocity and velocity dispersion on the basis of the Doppler signal from the A/D converter. The flow velocity computing section includes an MTI filter and a computing unit that determines a blood flow velocity and velocity dispersion by processing an output signal from the filter, both the MTI filter and the computing unit comprising respective digital signal processors (DSPs).

Abstract: An improved method for delivering a drug or beneficial agent transdermally to humans by iontophoresis is provided. The method includes selecting and iontophoretically delivering the drug through a skin site which optimizes the transdermal delivery rate of the drug while minimizing inter-patient variability in skin resistance.

Abstract: A device for positioning a measuring element is provided in which the measuring element is suspended by two parallelogram linkage systems in a pivotable manner, the parallelogram linkage systems being arranged at an angle relative to one another. Each lever of the parallelogram linkage systems is provided with a ball joint and is drivingly connected via the ball joint to a respective threaded spindle. The threaded spindles are drivable by a reversible stationary stepping motor. With this arrangement it is possible for the measuring element to perform planar and circular movements in addition to the commonly performed pivoting movements. Furthermore, an adjustment of the pivoting point is possible, and each individual lever of the parallelogram linkage system may be adjusted individually.

Abstract: In ultrasonic apparatus has a large aperture annular transducer array which is mechanically rotated in a scanning motion. The ultrasound beam is electronically steered to compensate for angular position error caused by the scanning motion by means of preselected delay patterns to thereby produce an ultrasound beam which undergoes a discrete step scan pattern of an object of interest. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing the transducer array which involves segmenting the transducer after assembling the transducer components.