Diagnosis and Prediction of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Abstract

A tongue location monitoring system, including, one or more position circuits that respond to transmissions from a transceiver, a transceiver that transmits to the one or more position circuits, a control circuit coupled to the transceiver; wherein the control circuit determines the location of a person's tongue based on the responses of the position circuits; and wherein either the transceiver or the position circuits are implanted in the muscle of the person's tongue or placed on the tongue, and the latter is placed outside the person's head.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates generally to a system and method of diagnosing and predicting obstructive sleep apnea based on the position of the tongue muscle.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Typically obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is diagnosed in a sleep laboratory by attaching the patient to various measurement devices, which measure parameters such as an Electroencephalography (EEG), an Electromyography (EMG) of respiratory muscles, a device for measuring blood Oxygen saturation and devices for measuring other parameters while the patient sleeps.[0003]Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type of sleep apnea. One of its causes is the collapse of the tongue muscle, wherein the collapsed tongue muscle obstructs the airway and causes an OSA event.[0004]Various devices have been designed to enable diagnosing the occurrence of OSA without going to a sleep laboratory. One example is a device that monitors changes in the peripheral arterial tone as manif...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

One of its causes is the collapse of the tongue muscle, wherein the collapsed tongue muscle obstructs the airway and causes an OSA event.

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