Oral and Poster Papers Submitted for Presentation at the 5th Congress of the EUGMS “Geriatric Medicine in a Time of Generational Shift September 3–6, 2008 Copenhagen, Denmark

Flat panel displays for medical monitoring systems

Flat panel displays are ideal for demanding hospital and clinic applications like vital sign monitoring and bedside administration. They take up much less space than conventional monitors (CRT based) and can be wall-mounted, cart-mounted or used on a desk stand. User friendly interface demands easy to use input device, rotary position encoders and touch screen panels offers simplicity replacing bulky keyboards. This article will present an overview about today's medical monitoring systems tendencies, describing as an example, a custom medical monitoring module developed to be integrated in an assisted ventilation system.

Adapting power consumption to performance requirements in a MSP430 microcontroller

Microcontroller based low power systems using batteries must run at low clock frequencies with short activity periods to extend battery life. These constraints reduce the microcontroller computational capabilities and limit the complexity of algorithms that can be used. New microcontroller architectures, as the Texas Instruments MSP430 family, allow to adapt power consumption to application performance requirements combining several low power modes with the capability of switching the clock frequency dynamically. A complete characterization of power consumption vs. performance has been obtained for the MSP430. A method to determine the range of clock frequencies that meets a consumption and…

Experimental study on the effects of physical training on the defibrillation threshold

Background: Chest compression artifacts during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) deteriorate the rhythm diagnosis of automated external defibrillators (AED). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation must therefore be interrupted for a reliable shock/no-shock decision. However, these hands-off intervals adversely affect the defibrillation success, and, in addition, pauses in chest compressions compromise circulation. An accurate diagnosis of the rhythmwhile performing CPR is therefore needed to minimize these hands-off intervals. Methods: The characteristics of the CPR artifact are very variable, and the artifact presents an important spectral overlap with human cardiac arrest rhythms. Consequently, …

Comparative analysis in terms of computational cost for different discrimination algorithms in implantable defibrillators

Implantable defibrillators (ICDs) use very low computational cost criteria (rate, stability and onset) offering good sensitivity for arrhythmia detection. Although, the specificity of these combined criteria decreases in difficult arrhythmia discrimination as in case of discrimination between ventricular tachycardia (VT) and supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Several morphological published algorithms enhance arrhythmia discrimination but most algorithms are developed in personal computers and cannot be used in ICDs because of computational cost requirements compared with limited ICD capabilities. A general method to determine the possibility of ICD implementation for a discrimination algo…