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Does your ECT device deliver the dose you specify?
Do you train doctors or nurses in ECT quality? |
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Device malfunction can cause ineffective ECT treatments or excessive side-effects. Now you can check your ECT device yourself with Somatics’ easy-to-use, patented EctoBrain™ II, which performs the same output check professional engineers use. A single button press instantly tells you if your ECT device is operating safely — providing reassurance and peace of mind. EctoBrain™ II works with any Thymatron® or MECTA device.
EctoBrain™ II also features a Patient Simulator mode that generates EEG, ECG, and EMG signals derived from real patients for testing up to 4 channels of your monitor/printer tracing display and for training and demonstration purposes. Both good- and poor-quality seizures can be selected. The good-quality seizure shows a high amplitude EEG followed by electrical silence at termination, with a pronounced tachycardia response and a high-amplitude EMG that terminates shortly before EEG termination. The poor-quality recording exhibits a low-amplitude abortive-type EEG seizure lasting only 10 sec, followed by continued but lower-amplitude EEG fluctuations after termination; there is no tachycardia response, and an initial low-amplitude EMG response lasts only a few seconds. A device checkup can cost $600 to $800 but real costs are more. How often does the question arise in treating a difficult patient whether the ECT device is stimulating properly or the EEG tracing recording correctly? Most ECT units sent to us for presumed malfunction have nothing wrong with them! EctoBrain™ II can quickly determine whether or not the device is working. It can reveal problems in technique (e.g., recording electrode application) that are correctable on site or with user-replaceable parts (e.g., leadwires). Just connect the stimulus and recording cables and press the TREAT button as for a patient. The chart recorder of your ECT device will display samples of EEG, ECG, and EMG tracings as described above. The printed report will show the values of the stimulus parameters and other printed variables of your ECT device, including the measured stimulus charge output in mC. |
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