Method adapted to diagnose airway obstruction and system thereof

A system for determining a width of a respiratory tract, comprising:

• an ultrasound imaging device for collecting an ultrasound image of a region of the respiratory tract, the ultrasound image having a plurality of pixels, and each pixel having a color scale value;
• and
• a computing device coupled to the ultrasound imaging device, comprising:
• an input module for receiving the ultrasound image, allowing a user to select a region of interest, and calculating a first statistic value of color scale value of the pixels therein;
• a classifier module for identifying pixels in the region of interest which have a color scale value larger than or equal to the first statistic value to define an airspace region, and for calculating a width of the respiratory tract based on the distribution of the pixels in the airspace region;
• and
• an output module for outputting the width of the respiratory tract and displaying the ultrasound image.

A method adapted to diagnose airway obstruction in a subject, comprising:

• a. providing a plurality of cross-sectional ultrasound images of a region of the respiratory tract during the subject's normal breathing, each ultrasound image having a plurality of pixels, and each pixels having a color scale value;
• b. selecting a region of interest in each ultrasound image, and calculating a respective first statistic value of color scale value of the pixels therein;
• c. identifying pixels in each the region of interest which have a color scale value larger than or equal to the respective first statistic value to define a respective airspace region;
• d. calculating a respective width of the respiratory tract based on the distribution of the pixels in the respective airspace region;
• e. calculating a second statistic value of the widths of the respiratory tract;
• and
• f. classifying the status about an airway obstruction in the subject based on the second statistic value.

A system adapted to diagnose airway obstruction in a subject, comprising:

• an ultrasound imaging device for obtaining an ultrasound image of a region of the respiratory tract, the ultrasound image having a plurality of pixels, and each pixel having a color scale value;
• a first computing device coupled to the ultrasound imaging device, comprising:
• an input module for receiving the ultrasound image, allowing a user to select a region of interest, and calculating a first statistic value of color scale value of the pixels therein;
• a classifier module for identifying pixels in the region of interest which have a color scale value larger than or equal to the first statistic value to define an airspace region, and for calculating a width of the respiratory tract based on the distribution of the pixels in the airspace region;
• and
• an output module for outputting the width of the respiratory tract and displaying the ultrasound image;
• a second computing device coupled to the first computing device, for calculating a second statistic value of the widths of the respiratory tract;
• and
• an identifying device coupled to the second computing device and adapted to classify the status about an airway obstruction in the subject.