Patent No. 4495950 QREEG Process matrix synchronizer system

 

Patent No. 4495950  QREEG Process matrix synchronizer system (Schneider, Jan 29, 1985)

Abstract

A QREEG matrix synchronizer system under the aegis of a "master" QREEG tracing has electrodes and sensors for obtaining new computational diagnostic relationships between EEG, EKG, and other life-process data signals from a person's body. A controllable matrix carried by the person's body (into home, field, factory or military operational areas) assembles the data signals on separate channels, one of which carries the "master" combination of the EEG and EKG data signals denominated a QREEG signal. A signal processor makes feasible computing changes in magnitudes and ratios of these signals to detect the loss of or deviation in synchronization between different data signals on the separate channels, and between a data signal obtained at one time and stored for use at a later time and the data signal obtained on the same channel at the later time. These data include those of the waking state and those of the sleep-dream state. All matrix data pertinent to computational diagnostic programs are integrated to forewarn against brain, heart, or other disease if loss or deviation of synchrony occurs. The matrix computation (as well as any isolated tracing or the entire data matrix) is capable of being transmitted from portable instrumentation used in the field to private physicians' offices and/or military and naval bases or to civilian hospitals where confirmation by the accumulated knowledge and expertise in classical EEG-EKG configurations and with reference to data banks may be available.

Notes: 

QREEG process matrix synchronizer system. Filed January 1983, granted January 1985. Not on previous list/s. Mentions that it has military applications. Monitors sleep-dream state EEGs, EKGs, etc. Goes along with using artifacts filtered out of EEG and interpreting them or using them to monitor other physiological functions and also all brain functions at one time to determine entire surroundings.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a new diagnostic and computational system for collecting and processing a person's life-process data such as electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram, temperature and respiratory data, during waking states and sleep-dream states and portable for use at home, in the field, factory and among the armed forces of the nation.

In U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,125 issued Oct. 28, 1980 to Daniel E. Schneider, M.D., the inventor also hereof, there is described a method and apparatus for obtaining from a person's body a combined electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (EKG) signal--both integrated into a single continuous tracing--denominated therein a QREEG signal. The QREEG signal is uniquely obtained, moreover, by obtaining the EEG signal component in the usual way from one or more electrodes appropriately positioned on the person's head, but obtaining the EKG signal component with an electrode uniquely in region of the seventh cervical vertebra. In this way, between any two heart QR peaks (the signal-tracing of the heart's left ventricle), there are normally interposed eight alpha waves of lower voltage than the QR's.

In the patent, the QREEG signal components are combined directly for a common display device or a common amplifier for signal processing. The displayed QR signal-tracing of the QREEG is absolutely simultaneous with the QR wave component of the EKG tracing. Between these QR major peaks the eight smaller voltage waveforms of the alpha wave frequency of the EEG signal component, as already noted above. If the displayed QREEG signal tracing were to be superimposed upon any simultaneous EKG tracing, the QR peaks of the two tracings would match precisely, under normal conditions. The patent suggests that it is therefore possible to identify those alpha waves from the QREEG which correspond to those waves of the EKG commonly designated the P and S-T waves.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The correlation is implemented automatically here, however, without superimposed tracings, by a precise, regular timing ordinate making clear which alpha waves correlate to the P and S-T waves normally during a person's waking state. The more erratic, large, and rapid "spindles" (14-16/sec) associated with a person's Phase I of sleeping and, particularly, the REM waves of the later dream-state (4-6/sec) may also be put into the total synchronous account for the first time in relation to the QR peaks. (REM refers to "rapid eye movements" characteristic of the dream-state.)

In the patent, the QR and alpha wave frequencies in relation to each other and other data are determined and applied to equations in a computer to develop and compare the person's heart and brain weight and body volume to standard values for the person's age. Different categories of deviations from the standard, or pulsing volumes, give forewarning of brain, heart, and other disorders of the person's body.

It remains, therefore, to be disclosed what the new correlations between the QREEG alpha waves and EKG P and S-T waves are and why they are significant when measured by a QREEG matrix synchronizer. Furthermore, if the correlations are to be instantly useful, a way to avoid laboriously comparing tracings visually alone, should be achieved. This is made possible by matricial cross-reference to all the data instantaneously and efficiently integrated in the framework of the precise, regular timer.

The QREEG matrix synchronizer system provides an immediate net print-out indicating the probabilities as to whether danger to health and/or life is present--or not present. The presence of danger would be indicated by a red light properly placed on a keyboard, after computation. A green light similarly placed would indicate no immediate danger.

To these and still further ends, the invention then provides what has been here designated as a "QREEG matrix synchronizer system". The system has electrodes for contacting a person's body--in addition to the "master" QREEG emplacements--in places appropriate for obtaining simultaneous EKG signals, and sensors for sensing the body's variations--waking and sleeping--in temperature and respiration. The electrodes are preferably arranged about the body in accord with the concept that the brain-heart biomagnetic interdynamic is based upon a sphere rather than the old Einthoven triangles alone. In combination with a peripherally and radially controllably interconnectable matrix, the wirings from the electrodes thus positioned according to this concept are denominated herein "circles of circuitry".

The electrodes and sensors are connected individually, or in selected interconnected groups, to the controllable matrix through which the signals from the electrodes and sensors, or groups thereof, can be obtained individually or in combinations as determined by the control of the matrix. This allows immediate or real-time synchronization of the various life-process data (QREEG, EKG, respiration, and temperature) obtained from the electrodes and sensors, invariably and always under the hegemony of the "master" QREEG signal produced as described in the above-referenced prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,125 of the same inventor, Daniel E. Schneider, M.D.

In addition to head, shoulders, spine and neck electrodes properly placed the matrix is implemented on a printed circuit board or similar structure which may be worn by the person on the chest and/or back over the heart area. This permits additionally and variously directed "leads". It also provides mobility which is crucial for immediate data gathering from the person at home, in a hospital, at school, in industry, at sports, in military/naval situations, and the other places the person may be.

The QREEG synchronizer matrix also provides convenient versatility, therefore, in obtaining versatile combinations of the signals from the electrodes and sensors for new explorations of, for example, the physiologic and crucial, life-preserving repair and restoration powers of the sleep-dream cycles. This is accomplished through the flexible arrangement and grouping of the electrodes and sensors about the hypothetical sphere of brain-heart biomagnetic interdynamics. The control of the matrix completes the "circles of circuitry" in all possible combinations, and real-time synchronization is thus obtained.

In the system, the matrix "circles of circuitry" connect to a signal processor which, preferably, is also an integrated device of relatively small size to be portably worn by the person. Three processor-embodiments are contemplated. In one, the processor is responsive to the abnormal loss of immediate or real-time synchronization between the QREEG and various segments of the EKG signal components to trigger an alarm reflecting the stress-parameters which might be associated with such loss or deviation from synchronization.

In a second embodiment, the processor includes a memory which stores one or more of the electrode and sensor signals from the circles of circuitry for comparison with the same or another signal at a later time. For example, a "master" QREEG signal compared to EKG signals which are identifiable in the processor as having been obtained while the patient is awake, may also be compared with a "master" QREEG signal in relation to EKG signals identified as from a sleep state. In this way, variable sleep and dream waves may show loss of QR segment synchrony and thus may be used to trigger the alarm.

The preferred form of the memory embodiment also has a sampling device which samples at least the signal for storage over time-separated intervals or "time-slices". Because the life-process data are continuously available, collecting and processing all the data is unwieldly. Sampling the data over discrete "time-slices", for example one, two, or three minutes every hour, therefore provides a way of reducing the continuous data to manageable proportions while retaining all the information of the data over the interval during which it is collected.

The third embodiment of the processor has a modem for connecting the processor to a further processor. The modem, for example, can link a portable processor worn by the person over telephone lines to a more powerful processor at a remote facility, for example a doctor's office or military field or civilian hospital, for further evaluation. Stress upon key or strategically and critically placed personnel may thus be discerned and transmitted to data banks at base.

The three processor embodiments may be combined, of course, to have the features of more than one of the separate embodiments described. Indeed, the full system now contemplated as the best mode has the features of each.