In one aspect, an apparatus for stimulating and/or monitoring a nerve is described herein. In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises a top substrate layer, a bottom substrate layer in facing opposition to the top substrate layer, and a channel disposed between the top substrate layer and the bottom substrate layer. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of electrodes disposed on one or more interior surfaces of the channel. Additionally, the channel is defined by the top substrate layer, the bottom substrate layer, and a retaining wall extending at least partially between the top substrate layer and the bottom substrate layer. The retaining wall retains the nerve within the channel.

A cannula has an electrically conductive material that runs along the cannula. This material has an electrical terminal, which can be wired or wirelessly connected with a measuring device. This makes it possible to acquire the position of the cannula in a human body, and generate a warning signal given a dislocation of the cannula.

An apparatus for assessing the severity of stenosis in a blood vessel includes an elongate body including a distal portion and a centering assembly. The centering assembly is actuatable to selectively center the elongate body in the vessel. A pressure sensor is disposed adjacent the centering assembly and is configured to detect fluid pressure in the vessel. A processing system receives the measured pressure from the pressure sensor, receives data representing the cross-sectional area of the vessel, receives data representing the size of the distal portion, calculates a offset correlation based on the size of the distal portion and based on the size of the vessel, and calculates a fractional flow reserve (FFR) for the vessel as an index of stenosis severity taking into account the offset correlation and the measured fluid pressure from the pressure sensor.

Embodiments for crossing an occlusion by controlling a guide with the aid of optical coherence tomography (OCT) data are described. Embodiments include transmitting one or more beams of radiation via one or more waveguides on a flexible substrate within a guide wire. One or more beams of scattered or reflected radiation may be received from a sample via one or more waveguides. Depth-resolved optical data of the sample may be generated based on the received beams of scattered or reflected radiation. The depth-resolved data may be used for determining at least one of a distance between the guide wire and a wall of the artery and a distance between the guide wire and an occlusion within the artery. A position of the guide wire within the artery may then be controlled based on the determined distance or distances.

The signal quality of an electrophysiological signal can be determined from information regarding proximal stability of an electrophysiology catheter at the time the signal is acquired and temporal stability of the electrophysiological signal. The proximal stability information can include a distance between the electrophysiology catheter and an anatomical surface, a velocity of the electrophysiology catheter, and/or contact force between the electrophysiology catheter and the anatomical surface. Graphical representations of signal quality scores can be output to a display in order to enable visualization thereof by a practitioner.

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for measuring impedance across a plurality of electrodes and assessing proximity or contact between electrodes of a medical device and patient tissue. In one embodiment, contact is assessed individual electrodes and cardiac tissue using bipolar electrode complex impedance measurements. Initially, baseline impedance values are established for each of the individual electrodes based on the responses of the electrodes to the applied drive signals. After establishing the baseline impedance values a series of subsequent impedance values are measured for each electrode. For each electrode, each subsequent impedance value may be compared to a previous baseline impedance value for that electrode. If a subsequent impedance value is less than the baseline impedance value for a given electrode, the baseline impedance value may be reset to the subsequent impedance value. Such systems and method are particularly applicable to medical devices having numerous electrodes.

The present invention relates to a device, system and method for determining a vital sign of a person. To improve accuracy and reliability of vital sign determination, the device comprises an input unit (20) for obtaining a vital sign related signal of at least a body part of the person, from which a vital sign can be derived, a body part position determining unit (21) for determining if said body part of the person is in contact with a support or not and generating a contact signal indicating if said body part is in contact with the support or not, a quality metric setting unit (22) for setting, based on said contact signal, a quality metric for use in the determination of a vital sign of the person, and a vital sign deriving unit (23) for deriving a vital sign from the obtained vital sign related signal, wherein the set quality metric is used in the derivation of the vital sign and/or in a judgment of the reliability of a derived vital.

An apparatus includes a current source, an electronic circuit and a circuit board. The current source is configured to flow an electrical current having a selected frequency between a pair of electrodes coupled to a medical probe. The electronic circuit is configured to measure a single-ended voltage relative to ground that is formed on at least one of the electrodes in the pair in response to the electrical current, and, based on the measured voltage, to assess physical contact between the at least one of the electrodes and tissue. The circuit board includes the current source and the electronic circuit, and includes a layout that produces, at the selected frequency, a predefined capacitance between the current source and ground, thus forming a reference for measurement of the single-ended voltage.

A computer implemented system and method include one or more processors configured to receive a plurality of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from one or more subcutaneous implantable medical devices (IMDs) and combine at least two of the plurality of ECG signals to form a first composite ECG signal.

Heart tissue electrical activity mapping used to guide the placement of devices to intervene in (treat) structural heart disease. In some embodiments, the intervention comprises placement of an implantable device, and/or positioning of a therapeutic device used to remove and/or remodel tissue. In some embodiments, electrical activity mapping is performed along with spatial mapping of a body cavity. In some embodiments, the intervention device position is compared to the measured positions of anatomical structures critical to heart electrical function to assess and/or prevent complications due to the device damaging heart electrical function.