Patent ID: 11931142
Assignee: VIVAQUANT, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 9:
10. An apparatus for detecting apnea-hypopnea events, the apparatus comprising:
communication circuitry for receiving data characterizing activity of a beating heart of a patient;
communication circuitry for receiving data characterizing oxygen saturation measurements from the patient; and
computing circuitry configured and arranged to:
compute a time series of interbeat intervals from the data characterizing the activity of the beating heart;
decompose the time series into subcomponents and select a subset of the subcomponents with central frequencies corresponding to a range of frequencies exhibited during periodic breathing in the apnea-hypopnea events as indicated by the data characterizing the oxygen saturation measurements;
select at least one subcomponent in the subset based upon characteristics of the patient's periodic breathing during the apnea-hypopnea events, by
computing emphasis signals obtained during one of the apnea-hypopnea events;
evaluating coherence between the computed emphasis signals and the data characterizing the oxygen saturation measurements from the patient; and
selecting an emphasis signal from the computed emphasis signals based on coherence between the computed emphasis signals and the data characterizing the oxygen saturation measurements from the patient, and selecting the at least one subcomponent from subcomponents of the selected emphasis signal; and

detect the apnea-hypopnea events in further data characterizing the activity of the beating heart, based upon amplitude and frequency characteristics of the at least one subcomponent.