Abstract: An inductive sensing device comprises first (16) and second (24) loops, the first loop (16) being coupled with a capacitor to form a resonator circuit (20), and the resonator circuit and second loop being coupled via an active buffering component (28). The active buffering component provides voltage to current amplification, and an output of the buffering component drives a current in the second loop. Conductive lines forming each of the first and second loop parts are radially spaced apart.

Abstract: An ultrasound controller unit (22) for controlling an ultrasound transducer unit (24) in acquiring ultrasound data for the purpose of deriving one or more physiological parameter measurements. The controller is adapted to control weighting coefficients applied to transmit and receive signals of each of a plurality of transducer elements (26) of the transducer unit. The controller is adapted to detect any artifact in received data affecting (e.g. obscuring) the output path of one or more of the transducers, and to identify the affected transducer elements. The weighting coefficients of the non-affected transducer elements are then adjusted so as to minimize an estimated noise component in the parameter measurement, if derived using only the non-affected transducer elements. Measurements of the one or more parameters are then derived by collecting data from the non-affected transducers only, these being configured with the optimized weighting coefficients.

Abstract: For the purpose of obtaining information about a person's sleep and wake states, an arrangement (100) comprising a video camera (10) and a processing unit (20) is used. The video camera (10) serves for capturing a sequence of video frames during a time period, and the processing unit (20) is configured to process video frames provided by the video camera (10) and to provide output representative of the person's sleep and wake states during the time period. In particular, the processing unit (20) is configured to execute an algorithm according to which (i) a motion value-time relation, (ii) sets of features relating to respective epochs in the motion value-time relation and (iii) classifiers of the respective epochs are determined, wherein the algorithm is further configured to apply an adaptive prior probability determined for the particular person in dependence of the motion values of the respective epochs to the classifiers.

Abstract: A medical device (10) configured for attachment to skin of a patient includes a vital sign sensor or drug delivery patch (14); and a plurality of suction cells (12) arranged around a periphery of the vital sign sensor or drug delivery patch.

Abstract: There is provided a method of improving a measurement of the flow velocity of blood in a blood vessel of a subject, the method comprising using an ultrasound transducer to emit an ultrasound beam to measure flow velocity in a part of a body of a subject; forming a spatial time velocity profile for the part of the body from the measured flow velocity; and analyzing the spatial time velocity profile to determine a correction to the angle of the ultrasound beam with respect to the subject, the correction being based on a difference between the position of a peak in the spatial time velocity profile and the center of the spatial time velocity profile.

Abstract: An inductive sensing device (22) is for sensing at two different frequencies. The device includes an antenna (24) which comprises at least two loop parts (30, 32), each loop part coupled to a different respective tuning capacitor (36a, 36b) to thereby provide different respective resonant frequencies for the first and second loop parts. The two loop parts are jointly connected to a shared input connection (38) for receiving driving signals for driving both antenna parts. A control means (44) controls a drive circuit (34) to supply the antenna, via the shared input connection, drive signals of each of the frequencies, implementing switching between the two.

Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided a device for measuring a physiological characteristic of a first subject, the device comprising a first electrode for contacting a part of the body of the first subject; a second electrode for contacting a part of the body of a second subject; and a control unit for obtaining an electrocardiogram, ECG, signal using the electrodes and for processing the ECG signal to determine a measurement of a physiological characteristic of the first subject; wherein the signal comprises a first ECG signal component relating to the first subject and a second ECG signal component relating to the second subject, and the control unit is configured to process the ECG signal obtained from the electrodes to extract the first ECG signal component relating to the first subject and to process the first ECG signal component to determine a measurement of the physiological characteristic of the first subject.

Abstract: A wearable bladder monitoring device is disclosed (1) comprising securing means (27, 29) for securing the device to a subject's (40) body; a phased array (11) of ultrasound transducers (10) having configurable output frequencies; a configurable phased array controller (13) adapted to control the phased array to direct ultrasound beams (30, 30?, 30?) into the subject's body under a plurality of discrete beam angles and to collect echo signals (31, 31?, 31?) of said ultrasound beams, wherein the phased array controller (13) is adapted to direct a set of ultrasound beams (30, 30?, 30?) into the subject's body for at least a subset of said discrete beam angles in response to a configuration instruction defining the respective output frequencies of the ultrasound beams in said set; and a device communication module (21) for communicating data pertaining to said echo signals to a remote device (5) to facilitate the remote processing of said data and to receive said configuration instruction from the remote device.

Abstract: According to an aspect there is provided a method of determining the health of a subject, the method comprising determining the absolute humidity and volume of air exhaled by the subject over time; and analysing the determined absolute humidity and volume of air exhaled by the subject to determine a characteristic of the air that was above the isothermic saturation boundary, ISB, of the subject.

Abstract: A system for monitoring blood distribution in a subject, the system comprising a processor(38) responsive to Doppler ultrasound data representing arterial blood flow in at least two different locations of the subject, such as the neck and the arm, to obtain velocity (C, B1, B2, B3) or volumetric flow rate at each location, to monitor changes in a predetermined function of the blood flows, and to provide an output indicative of the monitored changes which may result from blood volume centralization. This can indicate the onset of hypovolemia or hypervolemia.

Abstract: A monitoring apparatus for monitoring a blood pressure information of a subject is disclosed. The monitoring apparatus comprises an ultrasound transducer for emitting ultrasound waves to a volume of the subject that includes a blood vessel and for receiving ultrasound waves from said volume of the subject, and for providing a first signal on the basis of ultrasound waves received from the volume of the subject. A light source is included for emitting light to the subject and a light sensor is included for detecting light received from the subject and for providing a second signal on the basis of the light received from a skin of the subject.

Abstract: Disclosed is a patient monitor control unit (10) comprising a processor arrangement (11, 13) adapted to receive a series of ultrasound measurements received from a sensor (30) comprising at least one configurable ultrasound transducer; process said series of ultrasound measurements to obtain haemodynamic data of a patient coupled to the sensor; control a patient monitor (20) to display the obtained haemodynamic data; evaluate the obtained haemodynamic data to detect a variance in said data; and generate a reconfiguration signal for the at least one configurable ultrasound transducer, wherein the timing of said generation is a function of said evaluation. Also disclosed are a patient monitoring system, a method of operating a patient monitor control unit and a computer program product for implementing such a method.

Abstract: Apparatus and method comprising an ultrasound transmitter, for placement at a first location on the body of a subject, to emit an ultrasound pulse; an ultrasound receiver, for placement at a second location on the body, to detect an emitted ultrasound pulse; and a controller in communication with the transmitter and receiver. The controller causes an ultrasound pulse to be emitted by the transmitter; receives a measurement signal from the receiver; determines, based on the received measurement signal, a time of arrival at the receiver, T1 s of a first part of the emitted ultrasound pulse; determines, based on the received measurement signal, a time of arrival at the receiver, T2, of a second part of the ultrasound pulse; and calculates, using T1 and T2, a flow velocity of blood in a blood vessel between the first location and the second location.

Abstract: In a sensor system (12), output signals of at least one PPG sensor (14) are processed to derive a modified pulse amplitude variation (PAV) value, being modified to take account of a baseline variation of the PPG sensor output signal. In particular, the modified PAV is derived through performing a modification step (42) in which either: a baseline variation of the PPG sensor output is derived and combined with a previously derived PAV, or, a PPG sensor output is first processed to perform baseline variation compensation, in advance of then deriving a PAV from the compensated signal.

Abstract: The present application discloses a bladder monitoring system comprising a wearable bladder monitoring device (1) including securing means (27, 29) for securing the device to a subject's (40) body; a phased array (11) of ultrasound transducers (10); and a phased array controller (13) adapted to control the phased array to direct a plurality of ultrasound beams (30, 30?, 30?) into the subject's body under a range of beam angles, as well as a signal processor (23) adapted to receive data pertaining to echo signals (31, 31?, 31?) of said ultrasound beams from the phased array.

Abstract: There is provided a measurement apparatus for estimating a value of a physiological characteristic of a subject. The apparatus comprises a radio-frequency (RF) power generating apparatus, a detector, and a controller in communication with the RF power generating apparatus. The RF power generating apparatus comprises a transmit antenna for emitting RF radiation; an RF signal generator; and a transmission line connecting the RF signal generator to the transmit antenna. The detector is arranged to measure the variation of at least one parameter correlated with attenuation of the emitted RF radiation, during the measurement period. The controller is arranged to: cause the RF power generating apparatus to emit RF radiation during a measurement period; receive measurements of the variation of the at least one parameter from the detector; and calculate a value of a physiological characteristic of a subject based on the received measurements.

Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided a stethoscope apparatus stethoscope apparatus, the stethoscope apparatus comprising a sound sensor for measuring sounds produced by the breathing of a subject and for outputting a sound signal representing the measured breathing sounds; an antenna for receiving a modulated electromagnetic signal from the body, wherein the modulated electromagnetic signal is modulated by movement of air, fluid and/or tissue in the body; a processing unit that is configured to receive the sound signal from the sound sensor and the modulated electromagnetic signal from the antenna; and normalise the sound signal using the modulated electromagnetic signal.

Abstract: A vital sign monitoring device (10) includes a radio frequency (RF) loop coil (12) that is resonant at both a low frequency and a high frequency that is different from and higher than the low frequency. An annular Faraday shield (18) is arranged to shield the RF loop coil. An oscillator circuit (22) is connected to the both lower and higher oscillation frequency determining RF loop. Readout electronics (24) are connected to measure an electrical response of the RF loop coil energized by the voltage source at both the low frequency and the high frequency and to: extract at least one signal component of the electrical response at the low frequency; extract at least one signal component of the electrical response at the high frequency; and generate vital sign data using both the at least one signal component of the electrical response at the low frequency and the at least one signal component of the electrical response at the high frequency.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device, system and method for determining pulse pressure variation of a subject. To enable more reliably determining pulse pressure variation of a subject the device comprises a signal input (11) configured to obtain an input signal representing a hemodynamic signal of the subject, a processor (12) configured to process the input signal and compute a pulse pressure variation and a signal output (13) configured to output the computed pulse pressure variation. The pulse pressure variation is computed by deriving a pulse height signal from the input signal, deriving a pulse height baseline and a de-trended pulse height signal from the pulse height signal as the ratio between the difference between extrema of the de-trended pulse height signal and the respective value of the pulse height baseline signal, and computing the pulse pressure variation from the de-trended pulse height signal and the pulse height baseline.

Abstract: Presented are concepts for monitoring cardio-respiratory function of a patient. One such concept employs an optical sensor unit (10) for sensing light from tissue of the patient in response to temporary airway pressure changes provided via a respiratory support unit (50). By sensing variations in blood volume in the central site vein in response to temporary airway pressure changes, venous information of the person may be obtained.