The present disclosure is associated with monitoring health of a patient. An example photoacoustic monitoring device includes a light-guiding component to guide light energy toward tissue to cause the light energy to be absorbed by the tissue; an ultrasound transmission component to transmit acoustic energy toward the tissue to cause a biological response from the tissue; and a sensing component to perform one or more of ultrasound or photoacoustic imaging to sense the biological response from the tissue and permit a status of the tissue to be determined. In some implementations, the biological response is sensed based on the light energy absorbed by the tissue during the biological response caused by the acoustic energy transmitted toward the tissue.

Described herein are systems and methods for contraction monitoring. For example, a system for contraction monitoring includes an electrode patch including at least two electrodes, and a sensor module configured to be connected to the electrode patch. In some embodiments, the sensor module includes a signal acquisition module, a signal processing module, a power management module, a sensor control module, and a memory module and/or a data transmission module. In some embodiments, a method for contraction monitoring includes measuring, using the signal acquisition module, bio-potential signals by providing at least two electrodes on the abdomen of a pregnant woman. In some embodiments, a method for contraction monitoring includes processing, using the signal processing module, the bio-potential signal to extract electrohysterogram signals, maternal electrocardiogram signals and fetus electrocardiogram signals, and processing, using the signal processing module, the individual signals to extract uterine contraction.

A wearable sensor apparatus comprises a motion sensor configured to sense two or three dimensional movement and orientation of the sensor and a vibration sensor configured to sense acoustic vibrations. The apparatus includes means for attaching the motion sensor and the vibration sensor to a body. The sensor apparatus enables long term monitoring of mechanomyographic muscle activity in combination with body motion for a number of applications.

A seamless, smart fetal monitoring garment and methods of using thereof. The system includes a knitted or interwoven garment having a multiplicity of conductive textile electrodes for sensing maternal and fetal electrical vital signals. The maternal and fetal electrical vital signals are selected from a group including maternal heart rate, fetal heart rate and electromyogram (EMG) activities including uterine activities. The method includes wearing the garment, acquiring electrical mixed common, maternal and fetal vital signals from surface region of a pregnant woman, using the plurality of textile electrodes, optimally weighted summing-up the acquired signals, analyzing the summed-up signals to thereby extract the maternal signal and the fetal signal, including determining their heart rates, and including detecting health hazards and in some embodiments, including detecting a uterine contraction sequence suggesting the need to be hospitalized for birth giving.

A method of estimating fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) signals utilizes a plurality of ECG signals measured along the mother's abdomen. The method includes defining an MECG (ECG) dictionary of symbols and projecting the plurality of abdominal ECG signals onto the MECG dictionary to estimate MECG signals within each of the plurality of abdominal ECG signals. The estimated MECG signals are subtracted from the plurality of measured abdominal ECG signals to estimate FECG signals and the plurality of estimated FECG signals are combined to generate a representation of the FECG source signal.

Techniques for optimizing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols are described herein. An example method can include receiving one or more MRI scanner settings for an imaging sequence; selecting at least one objective function from a plurality of objective functions; selecting an acquisition train length; selecting a k-space strategy; selecting one or more imaging parameters; and acquiring a magnetic resonance (MR) image using at least one of an optimized k-space strategy, an optimized acquisition train length, or optimized imaging parameters.

Provided are a medical diagnosis apparatus and a medical diagnosis method using the same. According to an embodiment, the medical diagnosis apparatus may include: a main body; a chair unit movably supported by the main body and on which an object is positioned; a diagnosis part that is movably connected to the main body and is spaced apart from the chair unit by a preset first distance in one plane; a controller configured to generate a control signal for moving the diagnosis part according to preset information; and a first driving device configured to generate a driving force for moving the diagnosis part according to the control signal.

A risk stratification method for a patient in a disease state and specifically patients presenting a tumor, includes determining if the patient is a homozygote or heterozygote and further determining the allelic expression for the patient, CC, T/C, or C/T. For patients having the cytosine methylated, they have a TIC allelic expression and patients without a methylated cytosine have a C/T allelic expression. A patient with a TT allelic expression is classified as a highest risk patient, a patient with a TIC allelic expression is classified as a second highest risk patient, a patient with a C/T allelic expression is classified as a third highest risk patients and a patient with a CC allelic expression is classified as a lowest risk patient. The risk stratification method may further include identification of an abnormal expression or mutation/function of a gene product produced by CTCF binding site 6.

An apparatus for identifying the level of fetal risk during labor, the apparatus comprising: at least one computer operative to receive input signals indicative of at least fetal heart rate (FHR) and maternal uterine activity in a patient, the computer operative (i) to determine baseline FHR variability, FHR accelerations, and FHR decelerations, and (ii) to determine when each of at least (a) FHR, (b) baseline FHR variability, (c) FHR accelerations, (d) FHR decelerations, and (e) maternal uterine activity exhibit at least one non-reassuring characteristic from among a plurality of pre-defined non-reassuring characteristics for at least the parameters (a) through (e). The computer is further operative to (iii) receive user-inputs indicative of the presence in the patient of one or more (f) maternal risk factors, (g) obstetrical risk factors, and (h) fetal risk factors which elevate the level of fetal risk during labor, and (iv) to determine at a given point in time during labor a present level of risk to the fetus which takes into account only: the total number of the parameters (a) through (e) that are each simultaneously, independently exhibit at least one of the non-reassuring characteristics at the given point in time during labor, and the total number of the parameters (f) through (h) which are present. An output depicts in a single graphical user interface one or more of the parameters (a) through (h) over time during labor, and the appearance of which single graphical user interface includes indicia for indicating the determined present level of risk to the fetus at any given point in time during labor and signaling the need for possible intervention in labor.

A patient monitoring system includes: a biomedical sensor including: a transducer configured to produce a signal corresponding to a biological function; a sensor converter configured to convert the signal to a converted signal; and a transmitter configured to produce a communication, based on the converted signal, that is indicative of one or more values of the biological function, and to send the communication wirelessly; and a base station including: a receiver configured to receive the communication wirelessly and to produce a receiver output signal; a base station interface configured to produce a base station output signal indicative of the one or more values of the biological function; and at least one output port to receive the base station output signal and configured to be hard-wire connected to a display that is configured to display information indicative of the biological function.