An extracorporeal blood cooling or heating circuit includes an intravenous catheter for withdrawing a patient's blood coupled to a combined pump/heat exchanger device. One or more sensors are provided upstream and/or downstream of the pump/heat exchanger device for measuring pressure, temperature, fluid flow, blood oxygenation, and other parameters. A controller is operatively coupled to the pump/heat exchanger device and the one or more sensors to control the speed of the pump inside the pump/heat exchanger device and regulate the blood temperature by controlling the operation of the heat exchanger. The combined pump/heat exchanger device includes a housing having at least one inlet and at least one outlet, a pump portion defining a blood circuit inside the housing, and a heat exchanger portion contained within the housing for selectively heating or cooling the blood.

A cold therapy system including a cooling bath; a therapy pad in fluid communication with the cooling bath; a pump positioned and arranged to pump water from the cooling bath to the therapy pad and back to the cooling bath; and a control unit controlling the pump, the control unit programmed to operate the pump according to a cycle in which the pump is operated at less than maximum to cause the therapy pad temperature to be raised and to conserve a cooling resource within the cooling bath.

An extracorporeal blood cooling or heating circuit includes an intravenous catheter for withdrawing a patients blood coupled to a combined pump/heat exchanger device. One or more sensors are provided upstream and/or downstream of the pump/heat exchanger device for measuring pressure, temperature, fluid flow, blood oxygenation, and other parameters. A controller is operatively coupled to the pump/heat exchanger device and the one or more sensors to control the speed of the pump inside the pump/heat exchanger device and regulate the blood temperature by controlling the operation of the heat exchanger. The combined pump/heat exchanger device includes a housing having at least one inlet and at least one outlet, a pump portion defining a blood circuit inside the housing, and a heat exchanger portion contained within the housing for selectively heating or cooling the blood.

A method for determining an aberrancy in at least one of a body and a brain. The method includes positioning a sensor on a brain thermal tunnel of a human and measuring a thermal output of the brain thermal tunnel. The sensor sends a signal representing the thermal output to a controller which performs a frequency analysis on the thermal signal to identify power peaks in the frequency range. A slope of a line drawn through at least two of the power peaks is determined, and exceeding a predetermined non-zero slope indicates a medical condition of the human.

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling the inner temperature of a patient, comprising the steps of creating a fluid circuit that comprises a patient and a heat exchanger, the power supply thereto being controlled by a controller; subjecting at least a portion of the fluid in said circuit to the heat exchanger; directing the subjected fluid to and into the patient to control the temperature of the patient; estimating the organ temperature of the patient by a model that has been obtained on a mammal other than the patient; and controlling the power supply to the heat exchanger such that the estimated organ temperature does not exceed a threshold organ temperature, potentially taking into account estimated future organ temperatures. The invention further relates to a method and apparatus for controlling the inner temperature of a patient when subject to whole body hyperthermia, and to a method for obtaining the model.

A biological parameter monitoring system is provided that includes a medical monitoring device that measures and generates a biological signal representative blood pressure, eye pressure, heart rate, temperature, oxygen, blood gas, chemical compounds, drugs, analytes, glucose, oxygen saturation, or blood components. The system also includes a household appliance that communicates with the medical monitoring device, and includes a display that displays customary information and an indicator representative of the signal generated by the medical monitoring device.

Methods, devices, and systems employ cryolysis of oropharyngeal adipose tissues to selectively remove fat cells from the tissues causing obstructive sleep apnea. In various embodiments, a chilled liquide.g., a liquid or airis applied to the target tissue at a temperature and for a duration sufficient to cause cryolysis.

A method and apparatus for manipulating a temperature set-point of a human or homeothermic-animal for increasing or decreasing the body temperature above or below the prevailing body temperature for therapeutic purposes. The method includes the steps of warming or cooling sphenoid sinuses remotely resulting in manipulation of the temperature of the pituitary gland without manipulation of the hypothalamus temperature which in turn results in manipulation of the body-temperature set-point and the body temperature manipulates accordingly to the new temperature set-point. A heat exchange medium can be used to warm or cool sphenoid sinuses and thus the pituitary gland. The heat exchange fluid can be liquid, or gas maintained at a predetermined temperature. Alternatively, a temperature-controlled probe can be used that upon contact with the sphenoid sinuses provides for the heat exchange.