Apparatus and method for estimating bio-information, ultrasonic device, and mobile device

#This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0019097, filed on Feb. 17, 2020, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.

#Example embodiments relate to estimating bio-information, and more particularly, to estimating bio-information based on a change in a diameter of a blood vessel based on ultrasonic waves.

#Patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, heart disease, or obesity may have atherosclerosis when endothelial cell-dependent vasodilation is impaired due to a decreased vascular endothelial function. In general, there are invasive and non-invasive methods of diagnosing a vascular endothelial dysfunction. An invasive diagnostic method may acquire a relatively accurate test result, but the test procedures are complicated and is generally difficult to use as a screening method for endothelial examination. A flow mediated dilation (FMD) test method is one of typical non-invasive diagnostic methods. An FMD test requires proficient measurement skills of an examiner or the like, such as measuring an inner diameter and a blood flow velocity of a blood vessel by continually finding the blood vessel at the same location during the test, and has a limitation in that test results between examiners may be inconsistent.

#The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain example embodiments of the disclosure will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for estimating bio-information according to an example embodiment;

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for estimating bio-information according to another example embodiment;

#Details of example embodiments are provided in the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings. The disclosure may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of example embodiments and the accompanying drawings. Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwise described, the same drawing reference numerals will be understood to refer to the same elements, features, and structures. The relative size and depiction of these elements may be exaggerated for clarity, illustration, and convenience.

#The disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that the disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the disclosure will only be defined by the appended claims.

#It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. Also, the singular forms are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In the specification, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word “comprise” and variations such as “comprises” or “comprising,” will be understood to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements. Terms such as “unit” and “module” denote units that process at least one function or operation, and they may be implemented by using hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.