Rapidly quantifying the relative distention of a human bladder

A device for rapidly quantifying the relative distention of the bladder of a human subject, which device comprises:

• ultrasonic transducer means for positioning on the external abdomen of the subject in proximity to the bladder, for the purpose of launching acoustic waves into the subject followed by receiving reflected acoustic waves from the subject:
• pulser/receiver means communicating with a source of power and the ultrasonic transducer means for exciting the ultrasonic transducer means to launch the acoustic waves and for amplifying and processing the reflected waves received by the ultrasonic transducer means, and for providing analog signals representative of at least one reflected ultrasonic waveform over a respective time interval;
• converter means communicating with the pulser/receiver means for digitizing the analog signal from the pulser/receiver means to provide a corresponding digital signal representative of said at least one waveform:
• memory means communicating with the converter means for storage of the digital signal therefrom;
• input means for providing a digital input signal representative of a characteristic of said subject related to the relative distention of the bladder:
• and
• logic means communicating with the pulser/receiver means for commanding excitation of the ultrasonic transducer means the logic means communicating additionally with the converter means for commanding the digitization of the analog signals from the pulser/receiver means;
• the logic means communicating additionally with the memory means for receiving said digital input and said stored signals for processing said stored signals to provide a function signal related to the value of the digitized signals and their time of occurrence within said respective time intervals, and for comparing said function signal with said digital input signal;
• thereby quantifying the relative distention of the bladder of the human subject as a function of the propagated ultrasonic energy.