Method of measuring regional tissue blood flow
AssigneeRaizot University Authority for Applied Research & Industrial Development Ltd.
InventorsSolange Akselrod, Victor Mor-Avi, Daniel David
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of measuring blood flow through tissue in a region of interest including the steps: injecting an ultrasonic tracer into the blood upstream of the region of interest and also upstream of a specified reference region; utilizing the tracer-produced echo intensity function to compute: (i) the mean transit time of the tracer through the region of interest; and (ii) the blood volume within the region of interest; and dividing the results of computation (ii) by computation (i) to produce a quantitative measurement of the blood flow through the tissue in the region of interest.
Claims10
A method of measuring blood flow through the tissue in a region of interest, comprising the following steps:
- (a) injecting an ultrasonic tracer substance into the blood upstream of the region of interest and also upstream of a specified reference region;
- (b) subjecting the region of interest and the specified reference region to ultrasonic waves;
- (c) simultaneously detecting the echo intensity at the region of interest and the reference region at the same phase of a series of successive heartbeats, to produce echo intensity values as a function of time for the region of interest and for the reference region;
- (d) measuring the mean background value in each region before the injection, and subtracting the mean background values from the detected echo intensity values at both regions to produce a measurement of the tracer-produced echo intensity functions;
- (e) utilizing said latter echo intensity functions to compute:
- (i) the mean transit time of the tracer through the region of interest;
- and (ii) the blood volume within the region of interest;
- (f) dividing the results of (e) (ii) by (e) (i) to produce a quantitative measurement of the blood flow through the tissue in the region of interest.
A method of measuring blood flow through the tissue in a region of interest, comprising the steps:
- (a) injecting an ultrasonic tracer substance into the blood upstream of the region of interest and also upstream of a specified reference region;
- (b) subjecting the region of interest and the specified reference region to two-dimensional ultrasonic imaging, and processing the acquired images to produce a regional video intensity independent of tracer concentration in the surrounding region;
- (c) simultaneously detecting the echo intensity at the region of interest and the reference region at the same phase of a series of successive heartbeats, to produce echo intensity values as a function of time for the region of interest and for the reference region;
- (d) measuring the mean background value in each region before the injection, and subtracting the mean background values from the detected echo intensity values at both regions to produce a measurement of the tracer-produced echo intensity functions;
- (e) utilizing said measurement to compute:
- (i) the mean transit time of the tracer through the region of interest;
- and (ii) the blood volume within the region of interest;
- (f) dividing the results of (e) (ii) by (e) (i) to produce a quantitative measurement of the blood flow through the tissue in the region of interest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.