Ultrasound Methods and Systems for Measuring Physiological Properties
AssigneeFujifilm Sonosite, Inc.
InventorsYong Zhou, Jean Tsou
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Ultrasound methods and systems for measuring physiological properties are disclosed. The ultrasound methods and systems measure one or more characteristics of a vessel, such as vessel-wall displacement over time or blood-flow velocity over time, based on a pulse wave propagating through the vessel. In aspects, the characteristics are measured at two locations of the same vessel with a known distance between the two locations. A time shift between the measured characteristics at the two locations is calculated and used, along with the known distance, to determine one or more physiological properties, such as pulse-wave velocity or blood pressure. These physiological properties can be measured without the assistance of ECG data.
Claims20
An ultrasound system comprising:
- an ultrasound scanner configured to generate ultrasound data based on received echoes of ultrasound signals transmitted by the ultrasound scanner at an anatomy of a patient;
- one or more processors configured to use a plurality of ultrasound modes to process the ultrasound data, the plurality of ultrasound modes including at least a first mode and a second mode, the one or more processors configured to:
- process the ultrasound data using the first mode to generate a first ultrasound image;
- determine one or more image factors corresponding to the first ultrasound image;
- determine a confidence factor associated with the one or more image factors;
- and
- determine a score for the first ultrasound image based on the one or more image factors and the confidence factor;
- and
- a controller configured to generate a mode selection that selects the second mode based on the score, the mode selection configured to cause the one or more processors to process the ultrasound data using the second mode to generate one or more subsequent ultrasound images.
A method comprising:
- generating, by an ultrasound scanner, ultrasound data based on received echoes of ultrasound signals transmitted by the ultrasound scanner at an anatomy of a patient;
- processing the ultrasound data using a first mode of a plurality of ultrasound modes to generate a first ultrasound image
- determining, by one or more processors, one or more image factors corresponding to the first ultrasound image;
- determining, by the one or more processors, a confidence factor associated with the one or more image factors;
- generating a score for the first ultrasound image based on the one or more image factors and the confidence factor;
- generating a mode selection that selects a second mode of the plurality of ultrasound modes based on the score;
- and
- causing the one or more processors to process the ultrasound data using the second mode to generate one or more subsequent ultrasound images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.