Patent ID: 8239016

Claim:
Method for monitoring the state of the autonomous nervous system of a sedated patient, the method being executed by a processing device in an apparatus for monitoring the state of the autonomous nervous system of the sedated patient, the method comprising the steps of: measuring a skin conductance signal at an area of the patient's skin during a measurement interval using a skin conductance measuring device, inputting the skin conductance signal in the processing device, said processing device being adapted to identify local minimum points in the skin conductance signal through the measurement interval, causing the processing device to identify local minimum points in the skin conductance signal through the measurement interval, causing the processing device to select intervals between said identified, subsequent minimum points as integrating intervals, for each integrating interval, causing the processing device to calculate a linear ramp function defined by the skin conductance signal at the starting point and the ending point of the integrating interval, in subsets of the integrating interval wherein the skin conductance signal exceeds the linear ramp function, calculating the integral of the difference between the skin conductance signal and the linear ramp function, and causing the processing device to calculate the sum of said integrals through the measurement interval as a first measure, whereby the result provided by the processing device reflects the state of the autonomous nervous system of said sedated patient.