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Publication Number
US-9326820-B2
Publication Date
2016-05-03
Expiration Date
Abstract
A therapeutic diathermy applicator is proposed which minimizes the common problem of burning of patients' skin. The heat distribution arising as a result of unwanted capacitive effects is modeled as a manifestation of ‘conservative’ energy. A specific spatial characteristic of RF stimulation is determined and incorporated into the design of the applicator in order to achieve these goals.
Core Innovation
A diathermy applicator garment is described that provides RF stimulation produced by a sequence of coils of a continuous conductor. The coils are wound with respect to an axis and reach a termination, and the spacing of the coils is varied as the coils approach the termination.
The design addresses unwanted capacitive effects (EQS) that can cause superficial skin burning at the skin-fabric interface temperature, while preserving beneficial deep inductive heating (MQS). A modeling approach characterizes adverse heat behavior as a conservative/Laplacian potential problem, and conformal mapping is used to relate a temperature boundary condition to fringing-field effects at finite applicator ends.
Temperature and isotherm behavior are derived, and an isotherm-density/fringe characterization is provided including elbow points and an exponential approximation. Based on these results, the coil-wire spacing is characterized as being tightened near the termination/fringe and closer to the skin-facing heat-loss region to minimize burning without significantly reducing deep heating.
Claims Coverage
The claim set includes one independent claim and several dependent claims. The main inventive coverage is the coil-based RF diathermy applicator garment where coil spacing is varied approaching a termination using a distance u and a perturbation factor v′ defined relative to even spacing and determined from tabulated v/v′ values.
Coil sequence with termination-varying spacing
A diathermy applicator garment comprising RF stimulation produced by a sequence of coils of a continuous conductor wound with respect to an axis, where the coils reach a termination and the spacing of the coils is varied approaching the termination.
Local spacing reduction using distance u and perturbation factor v′
At least one point along the conductor is characterized according to a distance u measured from the termination along the length of the applicator, and spacing of the point with respect to a nearest section of greater u is reduced according to a perturbation factor v′ from an evenly distributed spacing.
Perturbation factor v′ determined by tabulated values
The perturbation factor v′ is determined according to a table of v values and corresponding v′ values.
RF stimulation target with skin-facing surface
The diathermy applicator garment includes an RF radiation target having a surface of skin.
Medical treatment target for RF stimulation
The RF stimulation target is characterized as a medical treatment target.
Warming body part in a cold environment
The RF radiation target area is configured for warming a body part in a cold environment.
Cylindrical coil winding shape with axis parallelism
At least part of the coils are wound substantially in the shape of a cylinder with an axis parallel to the cylinder’s axis.
Across the claim set, the inventive features center on varying coil spacing approaching a termination using distance u and perturbation factor v′ relative to even spacing. Dependent claims further specify the RF radiation target, medical treatment use, warming a body part in a cold environment, and cylindrical winding geometry.
Stated Advantages
Minimizes superficial skin burning associated with unwanted capacitive (EQS) effects.
Preserves deep inductive heating (MQS) without significantly reducing deep heating.
Documented Applications
Medical-treatment target for the RF stimulation.
Warming a body part in a cold environment via the RF radiation target area.
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