An acoustic otoscope generates volume change excitations of either a trapezoidal or sinusoidal waveforms which are coupled into a sealed ear canal using a speculum tip. The change in volume results in a pressure change, for which a pressure measurement is taken during the volume change excitation interval. In one example, a trapezoidal time-domain volume change is presented, and a pressure measurement waveform is stored, the pressure measurement waveform thereafter examined to find a change of slope point in time, after which the pressure measurement waveform is scaled to be equal to the volume change waveform at that same point in time, a difference between scaled pressure measurement and volume excitation is formed, and examined for peak value prior to the earlier determined change in slope point in time.

Provided are bone quality and/or strength measuring devices. In some embodiments, the devices include a body and a detector disposed therein designed to interact with a bone, determine the quality and/or strength thereof, and communicate an evaluation thereof to a user. The presently disclosed devices can also include a torque and/or force sensor that facilitates placement of the device and/or that is in communication with the detector to cause the detector to evaluate the bone; an output that feedback to a user based on the quality and/or strength of the bone determined by the detector, and/or a piston that interacts with the detector to cause the detector to interact with and thereby evaluate the bone. Also provided are methods for determining if a region of a bone is appropriate for placement of an orthopedic hardware piece and methods for reducing risk of a complication of spinal surgery associated with failure of an orthopedic hardware piece.

The present disclosure provides a device for evaluating a mechanical property of a material. The device comprises a sensing layer that has a contact surface for contacting a surface area of the material. The sensing layer has a property or dimension that is pressure sensitive. The device also comprises a detector arranged to detect electromagnetic radiation that propagates through at least the sensing layer. The device is arranged such that, when the contact surface of the sensing layer is in contact with the surface area of the material and a load is applied on at least a portion of the surface area of the material, the detected electromagnetic radiation can be used to determine stress within a portion of the sensing layer, the determined stress being indicative of the mechanical property of the material.

A cannula insertion system for inserting a cannula into a human or animal body, includes a cannula and a cannula insertion device to hold and insert the cannula into the human or animal body in an insertion direction. The cannula insertion system includes a safety device configured to retract the cannula or to release the cannula from the cannula insertion device when a force exerted on the cannula in a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction results in exceeding a respective safety threshold value.

The disclosure features adaptive sleeves that include a sensor, an electronic processor connected to the sensor, an adjustable voltage source connected to the electronic processor, and a sleeve formed of a fabric material and including one or more deformable elements attached to or embedded within the fabric material and connected to the adjustable voltage source, where during operation of the adaptive sleeve, the electronic processor is configured to apply a force to a portion of a body of a sleeve wearer in proximity to a contracted muscle in the wearer's body by receiving an input electrical signal from the sensor, and adjusting the voltage source to apply an output electrical signal to the one or more deformable elements, the output electrical signal having a magnitude that is correlated with a magnitude of the input electrical signal.

A health monitoring garment is provided. The health monitoring garment includes an article of clothing comprising at least one compression section to provide a snug fit against a person wearing the article of clothing and a sensor island. The sensor island includes stretchable circuitry, two or more sensors, one or more power supplies, and optionally one or more wireless communication modules within a self-contained unit. At least one of the sensors comprises a stretchable sensor which may be a respiration sensor. The sensor unit may be provided independent of the health monitoring garment or as a complete system. The sensor island and compression section of the article of clothing also include fasteners of complementary geometries for reversible attachment and disengagement of the sensor island from the compression section.

A cannula insertion system for inserting a cannula into a human or animal body, includes a cannula and a cannula insertion device to hold and insert the cannula into the human or animal body in an insertion direction. The cannula insertion system includes a safety device configured to retract the cannula or to release the cannula from the cannula insertion device when a force exerted on the cannula in a direction perpendicular

Systems, methods, and interfaces are described herein for noninvasively determining an optimal coronary sinus branch to cannulate for a medical electrical lead. One exemplary method involves applying an electrode apparatus having a plurality of electrodes to a torso of a patient. One of a right ventricular (RV) lead is introduced to a right ventricle or a right atrial (RA) lead is introduced to a right atrium. Noninvasively ultrasonic energy is introduced to a target tissue selected from a set of target tissues. In response to delivering ultrasonic energy to the cardiac tissue, a processing unit receives a torso-surface potential signal from each of a plurality of electrodes distributed on a torso of a patient for the target tissue. Signals are sensed from one of the RA lead and the RV lead in response to delivering ultrasonic energy. For at least a subset of the plurality of electrodes, calculating, with the processing unit, a torso-surface activation time based on the signal sensed from the electrode. Determining whether the tissue site or the another tissue site provides optimal cardiac resynchronization.

The present invention relates to ultrasound imaging, and in particular to a device for imaging bodily tissue under load. The device has a platform (10), for at least partially supporting a part of the body (2), at least one ultrasound device (20) for imaging of the part of the body (2) in contact with the platform (10), and means (32) for measuring the pressure exerted on the platform (10).

Aspects of the present disclosure are presented for a surgical instrument having one or more sensors at or a near an end effector and configured to aide in the detection of tissues and other materials and structures at a surgical site. The detections may then be used to aide in the placement of the end effector and to confirm which objects to operate on, or alternatively, to avoid. Examples of sensors include laser sensors used to employ Doppler shift principles to detect movement of objects at the surgical site, such as blood cells; resistance sensors to detect the presence of metal; monochromatic light sources that allow for different levels of absorption from different types of substances present at the surgical site, and near infrared spectrometers with small form factors.