Design and Implementation of a Reconfigurable Defibrillation System

摘要

Defibrillators are medical equipments which are widely used to resume normal pacemaking activities of the heart in patients with myocaridal abnormalities. It has been well established that successful defibrillation depends on the amount of electrical current that flows through the heart; defibrillation fails when this current is insufficient. However, the duration and shape of the current flow (the waveform) also influence efficiency to a lesser degree. Energy serves as a good overall measure of defibrillation effectiveness for it reflects, among other things, the current amplitude, duration and shape of the current flow. Successful and safe defibrillation process requires the delivery of correct level of current and energy to the patient. An intelligent defibrillator can measure dynamically the Transthoracic Resistance (TTR) of the patient and adapt its parameters to ensure successful operation regardless of patient variability. In this paper, a development and test of a reconfigurable defibrillator system is discussed. The system can measure the transthoracic resistance (TTR) of the patient accurately during the defibrillation pulse where the breakdown phenomenon of the skin resistance occurs. Then it is followed by the adjustment of the defibrillator parameters to ensure the correct current flow through the heart to completely depolarise all myocardial cells without any associated tissue damage being caused by heating regardless of the patient variability.