Motion analysis of the digestive tract
AssigneeMotilent Limited
InventorsAlexander Menys, Thomas S. Robbins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for analyzing a digestive tract of a patient using ultrasound. The method includes receiving a plurality of ultrasound images taken over a time series, determining movement characteristics of objects within the ultrasound images based on movement of one or more pixels in the ultrasound images over the time series, and outputting a visual data that describes the movement characteristics.
Claims20
A method for analyzing a digestive tract of a patient comprising:
- receiving a plurality of brightness beamformed ultrasound images representative of a structure of the digestive tract taken over a time series;
- determining movement characteristics of the structure of the digestive tract based on movement of one or more pixels in the plurality of brightness beamformed ultrasound images over the time series comprising:
- determining a vector optical flow for the one or more pixels in the plurality of brightness beamformed ultrasound images through algorithmic image analysis of the one or more pixels;
- and
- generating a flow magnitude matrix for the vector optical flow;
- and
- outputting a visual data that describes the movement characteristics.
A system for analyzing a digestive tract comprising:
- an ultrasound machine including a probe, wherein the ultrasound machine is configured to capture a plurality of image frames representative of a structure of the digestive tract at different points in time;
- and
- a processor in electrical communication with the ultrasound machine, wherein the processor is configured to:
- analyze the plurality of image frames to determine motion characteristics of the structure of the digestive tract over the different points in time using movement of one or more pixels of the plurality of image frames over the different points in time;
- and
- transmit for display a visual output representative of the motion characteristics of the structure.
One or more non-transitory computer readable media encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- receive a plurality of ultrasound images of an abdominal area of a patient, the plurality of images captured over a time series;
- select a set of pixels in the plurality of ultrasound images, the set of pixels representing a structure of a digestive tract in the abdominal area of the patient;
- determine movement characteristics of the structure of the digestive tract within the plurality of ultrasound images based on movement of the set of pixels in the plurality of ultrasound images;
- and
- output a visual data that describes the movement characteristics of the structure of the digestive tract.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.