temperature sensor and DAQ card to be used for patient temperature monitoring

[anasparks777@gmail.com]

Which is the best possible temperature sensor to be used for monitoring the temperature of a patient using Labview? 

Which is the best cost effective DAQ card that can be used for a patient monitoring system monitoring all the vital parameters such as temperature, ECG, HRV, SPO2 and cuffless BP?

[johnsold]

The correct answer is probably: NONE. No standard DAQ card is designed or built to meet the standards required for medical equipment. If you have medical grade signal conditioners to connect to the electrodes and they provide isolated output signals then any DAQ device with enough channels and suitable voltage ranges and sampling rates will do. The signal conditioning will cot an order of magnitude more than the DAQ.

Leakage currents of tens of microamperes through the patient electrodes (which significanty reduce the effective impedance of the skin) can be lethal. Do not take any chances!

Lynn

[anasparks777@gmail.com]

From an example program discussed on this forum, I came to know that we can use DAQ Kit NI PCI-6221 for HRV Analysis. If the NI PCI-6221, can be used to acquire raw ECG signals from the output terminals of ECG sensors, then I guess we can use the same sensor for patient monitoring device right ? 

Anu

[johnsold]

Doing HRV analysis is not the same thing as patient monitoring. 

When you connect to ECG electrodes you have an imedance of a few hundred ohms or less between the body and your equipment. At that impedance level a difference of a few tens of millivolts between the ground of the DAQ device (and computer) and the patient could lead to dangerous currents through the heart, especially if the patient has any invasive connections like an external pacemaker or central venous pressure monitoring.

Just because someone may have posted a note saying they used the device to measure HRV, does not mean they connected it directly to the patient. 

The only safe way to use something like the PCI-6221 for ECG measurements is to use medical grade, isolated signal conditioning between the electrodes and the DAQ device.  Contact your NI Sales representative for more information.

Lynn