High efficiency external counterpulsation apparatus and method for controlling same

Claim 2

An external counterpulsation apparatus for treating a patient, comprising: a balloon assembly adapted to be received about the lower extremities of the patient, said balloon assembly including a plurality of inflatable devices; a source of compressed fluid; a fluid reservoir interconnected with said source of compressed fluid for inflating said inflatable devices; and a fluid distribution assembly interconnected with said fluid reservoir for distributing compressed fluid from said source of compressed fluid to said inflatable devices; said fluid distribution assembly including a selectively operable inflation/deflation valve interconnected between each of said inflatable devices and said fluid reservoir, each of said inflation/deflation valves having a pneumatically actuable power operator thereon and being interconnected with said balloon assembly and separately operable such that each of said inflatable devices is separately sequentially inflatable and deflatable, each of said inflation/deflation valves having an input interconnected with said fluid reservoir, an inflation/deflation port interconnected with one of said inflatable devices, and a deflation exhaust port in fluid communication with the atmosphere, said deflation exhaust port being normally open so as to default to said normally open condition upon loss of power to said power operator.

Claim 3

An apparatus according to claim 1 , further including a movable table upon which the patient is situated during treatment, said inflation/deflation valves being attached to said movable table for movement therewith.

Claim 4

An apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said movable table is movable upon a plurality of wheels attached thereto.

Claim 5

An apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said inflation/deflation valves are mounted on an underside of said table, and the patient being situatable upon an upper side of said table.

Claim 6

An apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said table further includes an articulatable portion thereof and a main portion thereof allowing selective angulation of said articulatable portion with respect to said main portion.

Claim 7

An apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein said table includes a power-operable elevation assembly selectively operable to adjust the height thereof.

Claim 8

An apparatus according to claim 1 , further including a computer-implemented system for recording patient information for the patient receiving the treatment, said computer-implemented system including: a patient data structure for storing demographic information for one or more patients receiving treatment; a patient treatment data structure for storing treatment information for one or more patients receiving treatment; and a computing device connected to the apparatus for controlling operation of the apparatus, said computing device further operative to receive at least one of demographic information and treatment information and to store the information in the corresponding patient data structure or patient treatment data structure.

Claim 9

An apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said computing device is receptive of patient demographic information and operable to store the patient demographic information into the patient data structure.

Claim 10

An apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the patient demographic information includes a patient identifier, a patient name, and at least some patient medical data.

Claim 11

An apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the computing device is receptive of patient treatment information and operable to store the patient treatment information into the patient treatment data structure.

Claim 12

An apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the patient treatment information includes at least one of ECG data from the patient, blood pressure data from the patient, heart rate data from the patient and inflation/deflation cycle data associated with the external counterpulsation device.

Claim 13

An apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the computing device is adapted to communicate at least one of the patient demographic information and the patient treatment information over a communication link to a second computing device.

Claim 14

An apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said computing device controls the distribution of the compressed fluid to the balloon assembly, thereby inflating and deflating the inflatable devices.

Claim 15

An external counterpulsation apparatus for treating a patient, comprising: a balloon assembly adapted to be received about the lower extremities of the patient, said balloon assembly including a plurality of inflatable devices; a source of compressed fluid; a fluid reservoir interconnected with said source of compressed fluid for inflating said inflatable devices; and a fluid distribution assembly interconnected with said fluid reservoir for distributing compressed fluid from said source of compressed fluid to said inflatable devices; said fluid distribution assembly including a selectively operable inflation/deflation valve interconnected between each of said inflatable devices and said fluid reservoir, each of said inflation/deflation valves having a power operator thereon and being interconnected with said balloon assembly and separately operable such that each of said inflatable devices is separately sequentially inflatable and deflatable, each of said inflation/deflation valves having an input interconnected with said fluid reservoir, an inflation/deflation port interconnected with one of said inflatable devices, and a deflation exhaust port in fluid communication with the atmosphere, said deflation exhaust port being normally open so as to default to said normally open condition upon loss of power to said power operator, wherein each of said inflation/deflation valves is a rotary actuable valve.

Claim 16

An external counterpulsation apparatus for treating a patient, comprising: a balloon assembly adapted to be received about the lower extremities of the patient, said balloon assembly including a plurality of inflatable devices; a source of compressed fluid; a fluid reservoir interconnected with said source of compressed fluid for inflating said inflatable devices; and a fluid distribution assembly interconnected with said fluid reservoir for distributing compressed fluid from said source of compressed fluid to said inflatable devices; said fluid distribution assembly including a selectively operable inflation/deflation valve interconnected between each of said inflatable devices and said fluid reservoir, each of said inflation/deflation valves having a power operator thereon and being interconnected with said balloon assembly and separately operable such that each of said inflatable devices is separately sequentially inflatable and deflatable, each of said inflation/deflation valves having an input interconnected with said fluid reservoir, an inflation/deflation port interconnected with one of said inflatable devices, and a deflation exhaust port in fluid communication with the atmosphere, said deflation exhaust port being normally open so as to default to said normally open condition upon loss of power to said power operator, wherein each of said inflation/deflation valves is a rotary actuable valve.

Claim 17

An external counterpulsation apparatus for treating a patient, comprising: a balloon assembly adapted to be received about the lower extremities of the patient, said balloon assembly including a plurality of inflatable devices; a source of compressed fluid; a fluid reservoir interconnected with said source of compressed fluid for inflating said inflatable devices; and a fluid distribution assembly interconnected with said fluid reservoir for distributing compressed fluid from said source of compressed fluid to said inflatable devices; said fluid distribution assembly including a selectively operable inflation/deflation valve interconnected between each of said inflatable devices and said fluid reservoir, each of said inflation/deflation valves having a power operator thereon and being interconnected with said balloon assembly and separately operable such that each of said inflatable devices is separately sequentially inflatable and deflatable, each of said inflation/deflation valves having an input interconnected with said fluid reservoir, an inflation/deflation port interconnected with one of said inflatable devices, and a deflation exhaust port in fluid communication with the atmosphere, said deflation exhaust port being normally open so as to default to said normally open condition upon loss of power to said power operator, wherein each of said inflation/deflation valves is a rotary actuable butterfly valve.

Claim 18

An external counterpulsation apparatus for treating a patient, comprising: a balloon assembly adapted to be received about the lower extremities of the patient, said balloon assembly including a plurality of inflatable devices; a source of compressed fluid; a fluid reservoir interconnected with said source of compressed fluid for inflating said inflatable devices; and a fluid distribution assembly interconnected with said fluid reservoir for distributing compressed fluid from said source of compressed fluid to said inflatable devices; said fluid distribution assembly including a selectively operable inflation/deflation valve interconnected between each of said inflatable devices and said fluid reservoir, each of said inflation/deflation valves having a power operator thereon and being interconnected with said balloon assembly and separately operable such that each of said inflatable devices is separately sequentially inflatable and deflatable, each of said inflation/deflation valves having an input interconnected with said fluid reservoir, an inflation/deflation port interconnected with one of said inflatable devices, and a deflation exhaust port in fluid communication with the atmosphere, said deflation exhaust port being normally open so as to default to said normally open condition upon loss of power to said power operator, wherein each of said inflation/deflation valves is a rotary actuable butterfly valve.

Claim 19

An apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein each of said rotary actuable butterfly valves includes a rotatable rotor and a butterfly valve element rotatably attached to said rotor for rotation therewith, said rotor being rotatable through a maximum rotation angle of approximately 60 degrees between open and closed positions of said butterfly valve element.

Claim 20

An apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein each of said rotary actuable butterfly valves includes a pair of said butterfly valve elements attached to said rotor for rotation therewith, a first of said butterfly valve elements being in fluid communication between said input and said inflation/deflation port and being normally closed, and a second of said butterfly valve elements being in fluid communication between said deflation exhaust port and said inflation/deflation port and being normally open.

Claim 21

An apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein an inflation passageway through each of said butterfly valves between said input port and said inflation/deflation port is more restricted than a deflation passageway between said inflation/deflation port and said deflation exhaust port.

Claim 22

An external counterpulsation apparatus for treating a patient, comprising: a balloon assembly adapted to be received about the lower extremities of the patient, said balloon assembly including a plurality of inflatable devices; a source of compressed fluid; a fluid reservoir interconnected with said source of compressed fluid for inflating said inflatable devices; and a fluid distribution assembly interconnected with said fluid reservoir for distributing compressed fluid from said source of compressed fluid to said inflatable devices; said fluid distribution assembly including a selectively operable inflation/deflation valve interconnected between each of said inflatable devices and said fluid reservoir, each of said inflation/deflation valves having a power operator thereon and being interconnected with said balloon assembly and separately operable such that each of said inflatable devices is separately sequentially inflatable and deflatable, each of said inflation/deflation valves having an input interconnected with said fluid reservoir, an inflation/deflation port interconnected with one of said inflatable devices, and a deflation exhaust port in fluid communication with the atmosphere, said deflation exhaust power being normally open so as to default to said normally open condition upon loss of power to said power operator; said source of compressed fluid including a compressor, said apparatus further including a power ramp-up device that upon startup of said apparatus converts electrical power to said compressor from 110/120 VAC 50/60 hz to three-phase 220 VAC at a variable frequency and increases the electrical power to a preselected full power level over a period of approximately three to approximately five seconds.

Claim 23

An external counterpulsation apparatus for treating a patient, comprising: a balloon assembly adapted to be received about the lower extremities of the patient, said balloon assembly including a plurality of inflatable devices; a source of compressed fluid; a fluid reservoir interconnected with said source of compressed fluid for inflating said inflatable devices; and a fluid distribution assembly interconnected with said fluid reservoir for distributing compressed fluid from said source of compressed fluid to said inflatable devices; said fluid distribution assembly including a selectively operable inflation/deflation valve interconnected between each of said inflatable devices and said fluid reservoir, each of said inflation/deflation valves having a power operator thereon and being interconnected with said balloon assembly and separately operable such that each of said inflatable devices is separately sequentially inflatable and deflatable, each of said inflation/deflation valves having an input interconnected with said fluid reservoir, an inflation/deflation port interconnected with one of said inflatable devices, and a deflation exhaust port in fluid communication with the atmosphere, said deflation exhaust power being normally open so as to default to said normally open condition upon loss of power to said power operator; said source of compressed fluid including a compressor, said apparatus further including a power ramp-up device that upon startup of said apparatus converts electrical power to said compressor from 110/120 VAC 50/60 hz to three-phase 220 VAC at a variable frequency and increases the electrical power to a preselected full power level over a period of approximately three to approximately five seconds.

Claim 28

The method of claim 21 , further comprising the step of adjusting the timing of the inflation/deflation cycle of the external counterpulsation system.

Claim 29

The method of claim 21 , wherein the external counterpulsation device further comprises: at least one adaptable balloon device adapted to be received about a lower extremity of the patient; a fluid distribution device connected to the balloon device for distributing a compressed fluid thereto; and a computing device connected to the fluid distribution device for controlling the distribution of the compressed fluid to the balloon device, thereby inflating and deflating the balloon device.