Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1992-03-11
1994-03-15
Hindenburg, Max
Surgery
Truss
Pad
374133, A61B 500
Patent
active
052938778
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to medical instrumentation, and more particularly, to a system and method for measuring the core temperature of the human body by detecting and analyzing infrared emissions in the external ear canal of a patient.
BACKGROUND ART
The diagnosis and treatment of many diseases depends upon accurate reading of the internal or core temperature of a patient's body, and in some instances, upon a comparison to a previous body temperature reading. For many years, the most common way of taking a patient's temperature involved the utilization of a Mercury-filled thermometer. They must be sterilized, shaken down, inserted and maintained in the patient's mouth or rectum for several minutes, and then carefully inspected when removed to determine the extension of the column of Mercury. Because of these many drawbacks, electronic thermometers were developed and have been widely used over the last twenty years. The first widely successful electronic thermometers were of the oral predictive type. Examples of these thermometers are those sold under the trademarks IVAC and DIATEC. Typically they have a thermally conductive probe connected by wires to a remote unit containing an electronic circuit. The probe is sheathed in a protective, disposable cover before being inserted into the patient's mouth or rectum. Using predictive techniques, the patient's temperature reading is taken in a significantly shorter time period, for example, thirty seconds, compared to the several minutes required for conventional Mercury thermometers. Such electronic thermometers normally have meters or other displays which enable the operator to determine the temperature much more readily than reading the position of the terminal end of a column of Mercury in a glass tube. Also, electronic thermometers of the foregoing type may provide, in some instances, more accurate temperature readings than Mercury thermometers. Furthermore, the protective covers are disposable, thus allowing the same thermometer to be used over and over without autoclaving or other sterilization.
The tympanic membrane is generally considered by the medical community to be superior to oral, rectal or axillary sites for taking a patient's temperature. This is because the tympanic membrane is more representative of the body's internal or core temperature and more responsive to changes in the core temperature. U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,106 of Barnes long ago suggested the desirability of a tympanic thermometer which would measure human body temperature by sensing infrared emissions in the external ear canal. However, it was not until the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,642 of Gary J. O'Hara et al. was commercialized under the federally registered trademark FirstTemp by Intelligent Medical Systems, Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., that a clinically accurate tympanic thermometer was actually made available to the medical community.
The FirstTemp clinical thermometer comprises three units, i.e., a probe unit having an infrared sensor, a chopper unit having a target, and a charging unit. In addition, a heating control means for preheating the infrared sensor and the target to a reference temperature (36.5 degrees C.) close to that of the external ear canal is provided, and is driven by charged energy from the charging unit. The probe unit is normally seated in the chopper unit, wherein the infrared sensor and the target are preheated by the heating control means. In this state, calibration is performed. Thereafter, the probe unit is detached from the chopper unit and is inserted in the external ear canal to detect infrared radiation from a drum membrane. A body temperature measurement is performed by comparing the detected infrared radiation with that from the target.
Temperature measurement precision is achieved by the above-described FirstTemp thermometer for the reasons described below. Various error factors are eliminated by preheating the probe unit having the infrared sensor and the target to a reference temperature (36.5 degrees C.) close to a no
REFERENCES:
patent: 4602642 (1986-07-01), O'Hara et al.
patent: 4722612 (1988-02-01), Junkert et al.
patent: 4784149 (1988-11-01), Berman et al.
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patent: 4895164 (1990-01-01), Wood
patent: 4932789 (1990-06-01), Egawa et al.
patent: 5012813 (1991-05-01), Pompei et al.
patent: 5017018 (1981-05-01), Iuchi et al.
Crill Peter A.
Korff John J.
O'Hara Gary J.
Hindenburg Max
Sherwood IMS, Inc.
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