| Entries |
| Document | Title | Date |
|---|
| 20080208058 | ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of the present invention includes: an ultrasound transmitting/receiving unit for receiving an echo signal; dynamic blood flow detection unit for calculating a predetermined detection value based on dynamic blood flow in a test subject based on the echo signal; a luminance value conversion unit for converting the predetermined detection value into a luminance value; a luminance value replacement unit retaining luminance value conversion information; and a comparison unit for comparing a first luminance value in one frame with a second luminance value in the frame immediately preceding the one frame, out of the luminance values outputted from the luminance value conversion unit, wherein the comparison unit is adapted to output either the first luminance value or a third luminance value which is not larger than the absolute value of the second luminance value, based on the comparison result and the luminance value replacement information. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080221452 | Method for inducing and monitoring long-term potentiation and long-term depression using transcranial doppler ultrasound device in head-down bed rest - The present invention provides a method for monitoring long-term potentiation and long-term depression, comprising placing a subject in head down rest position and monitoring in real-time cerebral mean blood flow velocity using a transcranial Doppler device during psychophysiologic tasks. The method involves using Fourier analysis of mean blood flow velocity data to derive spectral density peaks of cortical and subcortical processes. The effect of head-down rest at different time intervals is seen as accentuation of the cortical peaks in long-term potentiation and attenuation of subcortical peaks in long-term depression. The effect of different interventions could be evaluated for research, diagnosis, rehabilitation and therapeutic use. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20080242996 | Method and apparatus for measuring flow in multi-dimensional ultrasound - A method and system are provided for estimating velocity of flow within an ultrasound dataset. A sample volume gate is defined on a two-dimensional (2D) image. The 2D image is based on an ultrasonic dataset. Spectral Doppler velocity estimates of flow are detected within the sample volume gate in first and second dimensions that are orthogonal with respect to each other. A true velocity estimate of the flow within the sample volume gate is determined based on the Doppler velocity estimates. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080249416 | TREATMENT INSTRUMENT SYSTEM - A treatment instrument system according to the present invention includes: an endoscope having a treatment instrument channel; an ultrasound probe inserted through the treatment instrument channel of the endoscope; an ultrasound observing apparatus having a blood flow display function and a distance measuring function; a treatment instrument having, at a distal end portion, an ultrasound scattering portion for scattering ultrasound; and an over tube having an endoscope insertion path through which the endoscope can be inserted and a treatment instrument insertion path through which the treatment instrument can be inserted, and having, at a distal end portion, an ultrasound scattering portion for scattering ultrasound. | 10-09-2008 |
| 20080269611 | Flow characteristic imaging in medical diagnostic ultrasound - Flow is characterized in medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging. The flow information over time for each spatial location may be broken down into component parts using Fourier analysis. For example, the average or steady state component of the flow at each location may be determined and used for imaging. The first harmonic may likewise be used. Imaging using one or more component parts of the flow information over time may provide diagnostically useful information. In addition or independently, the flow information may be analyzed to identify a vortex. The vortex characteristics may provide diagnostically useful information. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20080281204 | System and Method for Treating Hemorrhoids - A system and method are presented for treating branches of the superior hemorrhoidal artery by photocoagulation using laser energy. The inflamed dilated blood vessels in and around the anal region, often called hemorrhoids or piles, are caused due to a connective tissue disorder, a relative increase in pressure in the superior hemorrhoidal artery and a weakening of the vessels' valves. A suitable treatment system and a method are given for treating such conditions in a minimally invasive manner. The treatment system photocoagulates the branches of a superior hemorrhoidal artery in the anal and rectal regions using laser energy while causing minimal pain or discomfort to the patient. The system is provided with a transparent operational window. The distal end of the fiber and Doppler system channel are at the operational window. The system also includes a viewing window. The post operative recovery is faster than alternative approaches with no complications. In contrast to most other successful methods of the prior art, general anesthesia is no longer required, thereby significantly reducing complications and simplifying treatment. | 11-13-2008 |
| 20080287799 | Method and apparatus for measuring volumetric flow - An ultrasound system comprises an ultrasound probe, a user interface and a processor. The ultrasound probe comprises a transducer face emitting ultrasound beams into a patient. The probe acquires a volume of ultrasound data comprising a blood vessel. The user interface defines a surface on an image that is based on the volume. The surface bisects the blood vessel and further comprises a plurality of points where at least some of the points are located at unequal distances with respect to the transducer face. The processor is configured to steer a subset of the ultrasound beams to intersect the surface at a 90 degree angle and calculate volumetric flow information through the blood vessel based on the ultrasound data corresponding to the surface. | 11-20-2008 |
| 20080287800 | DOPPLER MOTION SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD OF USING SAME - An apparatus for, and method of, sensing characteristics of a vessel and a fluid conveyed therein. | 11-20-2008 |
| 20080319319 | Intraocular Ultrasound Doppler Techniques - Systems and methods are disclosed providing for the use of ultrasound energy to measure blood flow within blood vessels by Doppler velocity measurement. Directional high-frequency pulsed-wave Doppler measurements can be made with a suitable ultrasonic needle transducers for in vivo measuring of blood flow. A needle probe can include a ultrasonic material such as PMN-PT. Such blood flow measurements can be made in any part of the body, e.g., in the central retinal vein and branch retinal veins. | 12-25-2008 |
| 20090012399 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the invention evaluates a shape or qualitative property of an organism's arterial wall tissue and includes: a delay control section | 01-08-2009 |
| 20090024037 | ULTRASONIC IMAGING APPARATUS AND A METHOD OF ACQUIRING ULTRASONIC IMAGES - Transmitting and receiving ultrasound with repetition frequency that corresponds to velocity range indicating the measurable velocity to and from a diagnostic site that contains moving fluid within a body to be examined. Generating Doppler spectrum image showing velocity of moving fluid based on signals obtained from transmission and reception of ultrasound. Storing modeled value based on model correlating standard blood velocity waveform with an ECG waveform. Calculating measured blood velocity waveform based on spectrum image of a specified patient. Acquiring ECG waveform at timing corresponding to measured blood velocity waveform. Estimating blood velocity waveform excluding effects of valve signals of patient based on measured blood velocity waveform, ECG waveform, and modeled value. Comparing measured blood velocity waveform with estimated blood velocity waveform, to exclude excess parts of the difference over a threshold from measured blood velocity waveform, and to interpolate excluded parts of measured blood velocity waveform. | 01-22-2009 |
| 20090030319 | DOPPLER SIGNAL SPECTRUM CALCULATING METHOD AND APPARATUS - A method and apparatus is disclosed for calculating a Doppler signal spectrum. The method includes a step of estimating parameters of a Doppler signal, and a step of resolving a predefined spectrum function using the parameters, the spectrum function being at least a function of the parameters characterizing the strength, frequency center, and frequency deviation of the Doppler signal. The apparatus includes an estimating module, a smoothing module, and a calculating module. According to the Doppler signal spectrum calculating method and apparatus of the present disclosure, the obtained spectrogram has very high time and frequency resolution without requiring any complicated operation. Thus, a higher quality spectrogram can be obtained at a very low cost. | 01-29-2009 |
| 20090030320 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of quantitatively obtaining a blood flow velocity unaffected by angle dependence. The apparatus includes: an ultrasonic probe including ultrasonic transducers for receiving ultrasonic echoes to output reception signals; a first movement information calculating unit for calculating first movement information on movement of a mobile element in a sound ray direction within the object based on the reception signals; a signal calculating unit for calculating azimuth direction component signals representing components of ultrasonic echoes in an azimuth direction based on the reception signals; a second movement information calculating unit for calculating second movement information on movement of the mobile element in the azimuth direction within the object based on the azimuth direction component signals; and a two-dimensional velocity calculating unit for calculating two-dimensional velocity information of the mobile element moving within the object based on the first and second movement information. | 01-29-2009 |
| 20090030321 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS AND SOUND OUTPUT METHOD FOR ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - A vector norm N, an azimuthal angle θ and an angle of elevation φ which represent the velocity (blood flow velocity) of a specimen such as blood flow are acquired by a three-dimensional angle correction velocity vectorization section as three-dimensional fluid vector data indicating the three-dimensional flow direction and flow volume of the specimen such as the blood flow on the basis of Doppler signals corresponding to reception beams F | 01-29-2009 |
| 20090048518 | DOPPLER MOTION SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD OF USING SAME - An apparatus for, and method of, sensing characteristics of a vessel and a fluid conveyed therein. | 02-19-2009 |
| 20090062653 | Ultrasound System And Method Of Forming Ultrasound Image - The present invention relates to an ultrasound system and a method of forming an ultrasound image. The ultrasound system includes: a transmit/receive unit operable to transmit ultrasound signals to a target object and receive ultrasound echo signals to form receive signals based on the received ultrasound echo signals; a signal processing unit operable to form Doppler signals based on the receive signals; and an image processing unit operable to obtain information on a plurality of blood flow velocities at the target object from the Doppler signals, set a reference velocity, compute a dispersion of the plurality of the blood flow velocities with respect to the reference velocity, and form a 3-dimensional image indicating velocity changes at the respective locations in the target object by using the reference velocity and the dispersion. | 03-05-2009 |
| 20090105593 | FRAME AVERAGING CIRCUIT FOR USE IN AN ULTRASOUND IMAGING SYSTEM - A frame averaging circuit adapted for a color blood flow frame in a medical ultrasound imaging system. The frame averaging circuit comprises two sections, i.e., a recursive calculation section and a non-recursive section. The recursive calculation section employs an IIR filter in combination with a look-up table, and is adapted for dealing with the cases where no change occurs to the blood flow velocity direction. The non-recursive section compares the blood flow velocity, the energy and the energy prior to wall filtering of the color blood flow echo signal to various threshold values. Different from the recursive calculation section, the non-recursive section is employed when a change occurs to the blood flow velocity direction. | 04-23-2009 |
| 20090105594 | Blood Vessel Finder - Various methods and systems are provided for finding blood vessels. In one embodiment, a method includes extracting a plurality of pulsed wave Doppler data streams, where each data stream corresponds to one of a plurality of depths; determining blood flow information for each of the plurality of depths based on the corresponding data stream, the blood flow information including flow velocity, flow direction, and amplitude of the data stream; and providing a visual display based upon the determined blood flow information, where the visual display includes the determined flow velocity, flow direction, and amplitude of the data stream corresponding to at least one of the plurality of depths. | 04-23-2009 |
| 20090112095 | Ultrasound imaging system with pixel oriented processing - An ultrasound imaging system with pixel oriented processing is provided in which an acoustic signal is generated, echoes from the acoustic signal are received at a plurality of receiving elements to obtain echo signals that are then stored, a given pixel is mapped into a region of the stored signals, the mapped region of the stored echo signals is organized into array for the given pixel after which the array is processed to generate a signal response for the given pixel to obtain acoustic information for the given pixel. The system can be implemented entirely on plug-in cards for a commercial PC motherboard. The system and method can be implemented for pixel-oriented or voxel-oriented image processing and display, eliminating intermediate data computations and enabling extensive use of software processing methods. Advantages include improved acquisition of signal dynamic range, flexible acquisition modes for high frame rate 2D, 3D, and Doppler blood flow imaging. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090112096 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ULTRASOUND IMAGING - A system and method is disclosed that examines Doppler spectrum signals output by an ultrasound system when measuring blood flow velocity to determine a proper Doppler gain and to suppress noise manifest in the Doppler spectrum. Noise present in the Doppler spectrum is examined and used as a criterion for optimal gain. If the Doppler gain is too high or too low in accordance with predetermined levels, overall gain is adjusted accordingly. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090149758 | Gain Setting in Doppler Haemodynamic Monitors - This invention relates to a method of automatically setting the gain of an echo signal in a Doppler ultrasound haemodynamic monitor. In essence the invention comprises monitoring the strength of velocity components measured by the apparatus, and identifying a group of such components occupying a particular band within the overall velocity spectrum. The signal gain is then adjusted so that the perceived with of the band falls within predetermined limits. The monitoring or assessment of the velocity components is preferably undertaken when the overall flow velocity is high e.g. during systole. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090149759 | ULTRASONIC IMAGING APPARATUS AND A METHOD OF GENERATING ULTRASONIC IMAGES - A processor generates a first Doppler spectrum image representing the velocity of a moving body at each observation point by analyzing the frequency of signals received at the plurality of observation points acquired via Doppler scanning. An interpolator acquires a second Doppler spectrum image consecutively at each observation point time when the ultrasound has not been transmitted to and received from each observation point by the Doppler scanner transmitting and receiving the ultrasound toward and from the plurality of observation points at a plurality of respective times, based on interpolation of the first Doppler spectrum image at each observation point. The interpolator generates a third Doppler spectrum at each observation point by combining the first Doppler spectrum at each observation point and the second Doppler spectrum image at each observation point per observation point. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090177090 | ENDOVASCULAR DEVICES AND METHODS OF USE - A method for evaluating flow characteristics in a vessel of a patient includes the steps of positioning a catheter having a balloon at a measuring location within the vessel; transmitting an ultrasound signal into the vessel while the balloon catheter is within the measuring location; evaluating a reflection of the ultrasound signal to determine a flow parameter within the vessel while the catheter is in the measuring position; expanding the balloon within the vessel at the measuring location; and stopping the expanding step when the result of the evaluating step is that the flow through the vessel is substantially stopped. In some embodiments, the method may further comprise the step of detecting an endovascular electrogram signal. The method may be designed for evaluating flow characteristics in a vessel of a patient while enabling the prevention of a balloon from over-expanding and/or over-distending a vessel of a patient. | 07-09-2009 |
| 20090270734 | Apparatus And Method Of Non-Invasive Cerebrovascular Autoregulation Monitoring - A non-invasive method for monitoring of cerebrovascular blood flow autoregulation state includes sensing intracranial blood volume waves, filtering a slow wave, respiratory wave, and pulse wave informative components from said intracranial blood volume waves, filtering slow wave and respiratory wave reference components from the pulse wave envelope, calculating a first phase shift between said slow wave informative component and said slow wave reference component, calculating a second phase shift between said respiratory wave informative component and said respiratory wave reference component, and calculating the index of evaluation of the status of cerebral autoregulation state (ICAS) from said first phase shift and said second phase shift. | 10-29-2009 |
| 20090281427 | Flexible Oesophageal Doppler Monitoring Probe - An oesophageal Doppler monitoring probe is comprised of an elongated flexible shaft having a distal end and a proximal end. In one embodiment, the elongated flexible shaft includes a pitched spring. The probe further includes a probe tip coupled to the distal end, wherein the probe tip includes an ultrasound transducer assembly, and a connector coupled to the proximal end, wherein the connector is configured to electrically couple the monitoring probe to a host processor. In one embodiment, the ultrasound transducer assembly may be configured to detect blood flow characteristics based on the Doppler effect. | 11-12-2009 |
| 20090287084 | Method and Apparatus for Continuously Monitoring Intracranial Pressure - A method and apparatus for continuously measuring the absolute intracranial pressure in a non-invasive manner is described by using an ultrasonic Doppler device which detects the pulsatility indexes of the blood flow inside the eye artery for both intracranial and extracranial eye artery portions. The eye in which the blood flow is monitored is subjected to a small pressure, sufficient to equalize the pulsatility index measurements of the internal and external portions of the eye artery. The pressure at which such equalization occurs is used as a reference for autocalibration of the apparatus so that continuous absolute intracranial pressure measurements may be taken over a particular sampling period. | 11-19-2009 |
| 20090292208 | Automated detection of asymptomatic carotid stenosis - Peak blood velocity measurement for automated stenosis detection is provided. Ultrasound measurements of the peak blood velocity are corrected by a calculation of the Doppler angle, which exists from misalignment of the ultrasound transducer axis and the true blood velocity. The direction of the blood velocity and the Doppler angle are found by imaging a set of planar cross-sections of a blood vessel, such as the carotid artery, to obtain velocity maps of the blood flowing in the blood vessel. Peak blood velocity can be correlated with an amount of stenosis therefore accurate peak blood velocity measurements are necessary for medical diagnosis. Automated stenosis detection allows for implementation in many medical settings. A capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer array is also provided to measure the planar cross-sectional images. | 11-26-2009 |
| 20090306513 | Multi-Plane/Multi-Slice Processing For 2-D Flow Imaging in Medical Diagnostic Ultrasound - A volumetric method for 2-D flow imaging is provided in medical diagnostic ultrasound. Flow data for a volume is acquired. For more rapid acquisition, broad beam transmission and reception along many scan lines distributed in the volume is used. The volumetric flow data is filtered, such as by calculating statistical information, to generate a planar/2-D flow image. The statistical information from the three-dimensional flow data is used to determine the display values for the flow imaging. | 12-10-2009 |
| 20100022886 | CPR Guided by Vascular Flow Measurement - An ultrasonic sensor is attached to the body to detect flow in a blood vessel. Signals from the sensor are processed to produce measures of flow during the administration of CPR such as flow velocity and flow pulsatility. The flow measures are compared with flow characteristics desirable during CPR and the result used to produce audible instructions guiding a caregiver in the administration of CPR. The flow measures may be used in conjunction with other detected physiological parameters such as compression force or depth, chest impedance, blood pressure, and ECG data to guide CPR. | 01-28-2010 |
| 20100022887 | Method for imaging intracavitary blood flow patterns - A method for identifying blood flow patterns based on contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging and, in particular, echocardiography. The method includes indicating a blood flow type in the cavity through which imaged blood is flowing by correlating the identified blood flow pattern with a selected pattern. Further, a report indicative of a condition of the cavity can be generated based on the indicated blood flow type. | 01-28-2010 |
| 20100036254 | Spectrum analysis of coronary artery turbulent blood flow - A method includes acquiring vibrational cardiac data from an array of N transducers wherein the transducers are coupled to a human. A master replica is selected from a segment of the vibrational cardiac data. The master replica is correlated with the segment to obtain a plurality of local maxima. Vibrational cardiac data that were emitted during a diastolic interval are extracted from each heart cycle with the aid of the plurality of local maxima. A two-dimensional space-time frequency power spectrum is processed for Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth, which provides estimates of the energy produced by turbulent blood flow through a coronary stenosis. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100049052 | NON-INVASIVE CARDIAC PARAMETER MEASUREMENT - Non-imaging mode system for acquiring cardiac parameters using Doppler acoustic signals. Some embodiments use only a single transducer, optionally aimed in an apical view. Some embodiments detect specifically peak events in the heart. | 02-25-2010 |
| 20100056922 | Method and diagnostic ultrasound apparatus for determining the condition of a person's artery or arteries - A method and diagnostic apparatus for determining the condition of a patient's artery or arteries by the use of an ultrasound imaging system which operates in the triplex mode, with a B-mode image of a selected artery location, an A-mode perpendicular to the plane of the artery, at the selected location and a pulsed doppler, at the selected location at an angle to the plane of the artery, with the signals combined, the artery physically or chemical stimulated, the percent dilation of the artery is determined after stimulation, and therefore the condition of the artery is obtained. | 03-04-2010 |
| 20100056923 | ADAPTIVE COLOR DOPPLER IMAGE FORMATION - Embodiments for adaptively forming color Doppler images in an ultrasound diagnostic system are disclosed. A method of forming a color Doppler image in an ultrasound diagnostic system comprises: scanning a first set of scan lines set at a full scan region to detect at least one scan line that passes a moving object in the full scan region among the first set of scan lines; setting a second set of scan lines based on the detected scan lines; and scanning the second set of scan lines to form a first color Doppler image. | 03-04-2010 |
| 20100069757 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, including a first imaging unit for configuring plural pieces of first-image data based on reception signals received by an ultrasound probe, a velocity vector detector for measuring blood and tissue velocity vectors based on the plural pieces of first-image data inputted from the first imaging unit, a blood-flow image extracting unit for configuring a blood-flow image based on the velocity vectors measured, a histogram unit for calculating number of pixels for each brightness with respect to the blood-flow image configured, a threshold controller for inputting a brightness threshold value, an information processing unit for color-mapping pixels whose brightness are higher than the brightness threshold value, and configuring second-image data by adding the pixels to at least the one piece of first-image data, and a display for displaying the second-image data configured. | 03-18-2010 |
| 20100099991 | 3D Ultrasonic Color Flow Imaging With Grayscale Invert - An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces 3D images of blood flow which depict both the location of blood pools and flow velocity in one image. B mode data is acquired over a volumetric region and inverted to a range of grayscale value which highlights anechoic regions relative to regions of strong echo returns. Flow data is acquired over the same volumetric region and both data sets are volume rendered. The two volume renderings are then merged into a single 3D image in which the B mode pixel values are tinted in accordance with flow at the pixel locations. | 04-22-2010 |
| 20100099992 | CARDIAC OUTPUT MONITOR WITH COMPENSATION FOR TISSUE PERFUSION - A non-invasive system and method for determination of cardiac output and blood volume of a patient includes compensating for a change in the fluorescence of an indicator circulating in the bloodstream of a tissue or organ that is caused by a variation of the blood content at the site of the measurement. | 04-22-2010 |
| 20100125206 | METHODS FOR DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF VESSEL OCCLUSION - A method for predicting whether ultrasound insonation is likely to be effective in treating the symptoms of small vessel occlusion, including opening an occluded blood vessel. The method involves the steps of: identifying vessel occlusion in a patient; insonating the appropriate vessel using m-mode ultrasound, identifying on the ultrasound image the area of occlusion, and identifying whether there is blood flow beyond the area of occlusion. Identification of blood flow beyond the area of occlusion is by way of a directional flare signal. This identification indicates that ultrasound insonation is likely to be effective in treating the symptoms of small vessel occlusion, including opening the occluded blood vessel. | 05-20-2010 |
| 20100137717 | Automatic Flow Tracking System and Method - A method of determining the blood flow characteristics from a monitoring signal indicative of blood flow in the vicinity of a heart, the method including the steps of: (a) extracting a flow envelope from the monitoring signal; (b) extracting a series of temporal markers from the flow envelope. (c) removing extraneous flows such as valve opening and closing flows from the flow envelope; (d) extracting features from the flow envelope and monitoring signal, such as peak velocity; (e) Producing cardiac parameters based on said monitoring signal. | 06-03-2010 |
| 20100152586 | Spatial Array of Sensors Mounted on A Tool - Systems and methods described herein include an array of sensors positioned on a tool. In one embodiment, among others, a tool includes a handle configured to be manipulated by a user. The tool also includes an end portion arranged in mechanical communication with the handle. In addition, the tool includes an array of sensors mounted on the end portion, in which the array of sensors is configured to sense a property of an object. The tool also comprises a processing device configured to process the properties of the object sensed by the array of sensors and to obtain spatial information of the object. The processing device is further configured to communicate the spatial information to the handle. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100210947 | Vascular Flow Sensor With Acoustic Coupling Detector - A vascular flow sensor assembly includes an ultrasound transducer ( | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100210948 | ULTRASONOGRAPH - Provided is an ultrasonograph that can automatically optimize the sweep rate of Doppler images and M-mode images according to the heart rate of a test subject, without the need for an operator to perform a troublesome operation. The ultrasonograph is provided with a means for sending an ultrasonic beam into body tissue, a means for receiving an ultrasonic signal that has been reflected off the body tissue and a blood flow, a means for constructing a cross-sectional image of the body tissue from the received ultrasonic signal, a means for performing phase detection on an ultrasonic Doppler blood flow signal that has been reflected off the body tissue by the blood flow, a means for calculating a frequency component of the Doppler blood flow signal on which phase detection has been performed, and a means for performing a sweeping display of the calculated frequency component as Doppler images in a time series. The ultrasonograph has a heart rate measuring means for measuring the heart rate of the test subject at a predetermining timing, and the ultrasonograph also includes an optimum sweep rate calculating means for calculating an optimum sweep rate based on the heart rate obtained by the heart rate measuring means, and an optimum sweep rate setting means for setting the sweep rate of at least either of the Doppler images and M-mode images. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100222681 | Synchronization of Repetitive Therapeutic Interventions - A medical device of the type used for assisting a user in manually delivering repetitive therapy to a patient (e.g., chest compressions or ventilations in cardiac resuscitation), the device comprising a feedback device configured to generate feedback cues to assist the user in timing the delivery of the repetitive therapy, at least one sensor or circuit element configured to detect actual delivery times, at which the user actually delivers the repetitive therapy, and a processor, memory, and associated circuitry configured to compare the actual delivery times to information representative of desired delivery times to determine cue times at which the feedback cues are generated by the feedback device. | 09-02-2010 |
| 20100234731 | Automatic Ultrasonic Doppler Measurements - An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces a spectral Doppler display on which automated measurements may be made. The waveform is analyzed by the ultrasound system to identify the peak velocity of each cardiac cycle of the sequence, and the cardiac cycle with the highest peak velocity value. When a measurement tool is launched, the system displays the highest peak velocity cycle and makes the selected measurement on the data of that heart cycle. The system may advantageously use a peak velocity tracing algorithm in support of this feature. The technique can be used with a variety of measurement tools. | 09-16-2010 |
| 20100234732 | METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DETERMINING THE POSITION AND VELOCITY OF OBJECTS - The present invention relates to a method for simultaneously determining the position and velocity of objects. Moreover the method comprising the steps of: 1) simultaneously generating a first signal for determining the velocity and a second signal for determining the position; 2) mixing the first signal with the second signal to form a mixed signal and subsequently transmitting the mixed signal towards an object using a transmitter, so that the mixed signal can be at least partially reflected by the object; and 4) evaluating an echo signal. Such a method may be used for various applications, such as monitoring blood vessel access and/or for pericardiocentesis, as well as for determining the blood flow velocity and the position of blood vessels. | 09-16-2010 |
| 20100241000 | Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, method of measuring pressure gradient, and method of measuring blood vessel elasticity - An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of obtaining information on a pressure gradient in a blood vessel based on only reception signals of ultrasonic echoes reflected within an object. The apparatus includes: an ultrasonic probe for outputting reception signals; a measuring unit for measuring an inside radius of a blood vessel within the object and blood flow velocities in plural locations in a radial direction substantially at the same time based on the reception signals; and a computing unit for computing a velocity gradient in the radial direction at an inner wall point of the blood vessel by differentiating the blood flow velocities measured by the measuring unit in the radial direction, and computing a pressure gradient at ends of a predetermined length of the blood vessel based on the computed velocity gradient, the measured inside radius of the blood vessel, and a predetermined viscosity of blood. | 09-23-2010 |
| 20100249597 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMAGING VESSELS - A method and system of imaging of a vessel is provided. The system can include a matrix transducer array ( | 09-30-2010 |
| 20100274133 | DETECTING A STENOSIS IN A BLOOD VESSEL - Doppler ultrasound may be used to detect stenosis in a blood vessel using a variety of approaches. In one approach, the flow envelope is extracted from the Doppler ultrasound measurements, and the extracted flow envelope is parameterized. Classification is then done based on those parameters (and optionally other parameters), to determine whether a stenosis exists. A second approach uses Doppler data that is acquired in a direction that is perpendicular to the direction of blood flow, and detects artifacts that are consistent with turbulences that usually appear downstream from stenoses. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100280385 | DOPPLER BASED FLOW MEASUREMENTS - A new approach to processing and displaying received Doppler signals is disclosed. This approach starts with a set of N power spectra corresponding to each of N times. Those power spectra are then used to create of set of pixels for display with respect to an X axis and a Y axis so that the X coordinate of each pixel in the set corresponds to a time and the Y coordinate of each pixel in the set corresponds to a quantized power level. An attribute (e.g., color or intensity) of each pixel in the set is set to represent the highest velocity for the time-and-quantized-power-level combination that corresponds to the X and Y coordinates of each pixel in the set. | 11-04-2010 |
| 20100280386 | Ultrasound System And Method For Adaptively Performing Clutter Filtering - Embodiments of adaptively performing clutter filtering are disclosed. In one embodiment, by way of non-limiting example, an ultrasound system comprises: an ultrasound data acquisition unit configured to transmit and receive ultrasound signals to and from a target object to thereby output a plurality of ultrasound data for obtaining a color Doppler mode image, wherein the target object includes at least one of a tissue and a blood flow; and a processing unit placed in communication with the ultrasound data acquisition unit and being configured to locate the plurality of ultrasound data on a complex plane, the processing unit being further configured to perform a circle fitting upon the plurality of ultrasound data located on the complex plane and perform a downmixing and a clutter filtering upon the circle-fitted ultrasound data in consideration of speed of the tissue. | 11-04-2010 |
| 20100305446 | Monitoring the Injection of Fluid - A method of monitoring the intended injection of a fluid into a blood vessel, the method including the steps of conveying the fluid to a point of injection, introducing a disturbance into the fluid flow prior to injection, and monitoring the fluid flow in the blood vessel downstream of the point of injection using a Doppler ultrasound sensor. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20100324424 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS, ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC METHOD AND DATA PROCESSING PROGRAM FOR ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a data acquisition unit, a correction unit and a display unit. The data acquisition unit acquires phase signals as Doppler data from a moving object in an object by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from the object. The correction unit performs global aliasing correction processing of the phase signals based on a continuity in a two-dimensionally phase change. The display unit displays phase signals after the aliasing correction processing. | 12-23-2010 |
| 20100331700 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS, AUTOMATIC SUPPORT APPARATUS, AND AUTOMATIC SUPPORT METHOD - According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes a storage unit, a ultrasonic probe, a transmission/reception unit, a measured value calculation unit, a distance calculation unit, and a determination unit. The storage unit stores data of a state space based on a first measured values of a measurement item associated with an able-bodied person. The transmission/reception unit transmits ultrasonic waves to a subject via an ultrasonic probe, and generates reception signals corresponding to an ultrasonic waves reflected by the subject. The measured value calculation unit calculates a second measured value of the measurement item associated with the subject based on the reception signals. The distance calculation unit calculates a Mahalanobis distance of the subject based on the state space and the second measured value. The determination unit compares the Mahalanobis distance with a threshold to determine whether the subject has the disease evaluated by the measurement item. | 12-30-2010 |
| 20100331701 | THREE-DIMENSIONAL ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS - According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic scanning unit configured to repeatedly scan an interior of an subject with an ultrasonic wave via the ultrasonic probe and repeatedly acquire echo signals. An image generation unit generates data of blood flow images based on the echo signals. An interpolation processing unit identifies at least one pixel in which clutter components occupy the majority of the pixel value, and to interpolate a pixel value of the identified pixel based on pixel values of at least two other blood flow images corresponding to a substantially same cardiac phase as that of the blood flow image including the identified pixel. | 12-30-2010 |
| 20110009749 | SYSTEM FOR DIAGNOSING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS - A system for determining at least one index out of a blood reflux rate index and increased blood resistance index in cerebral veins in a patient including a detection source set (TCCS, ECD) for detecting: —i) a blood reflux in at least one of the deep cerebral veins, —ii) a blood reflux in at least one of the internal jugular and/or vertebral veins; —iii) a stenose in at least one of the internal jugular vein; —iv) a lack of Doppler detectable blood flow in at least one of the internal jugular and/or vertebral veins; and —v) a negative difference between the cross-sectional area of at least one of the internal jugular veins in the supine posture and in the erect posture of said patient. The system further includes a processing module (PC) operatively connected to the detection source set (TCCS, ECD) to sense the condition where at least two of indexes i) to v) are positive so that the processing module (PC) emits an advice signal in case said condition is sensed. | 01-13-2011 |
| 20110021922 | MONITORING THE FLOW OF FLUID - A method of monitoring the intended injection of fluid into a blood vessel during a scanning or imaging procedure, the method including the steps of receiving an indication of the start of an injection of fluid into the blood vessel, measuring the flow velocity in the blood vessel downstream of the point of injection, and automatically controlling the scanning or imaging procedure based on the measured flow velocity. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20110040188 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ULTRASOUND IMAGING - Some embodiments include acquisition of color Doppler data, and detection of one or more transitions of the color Doppler data, each of the one or more transitions being between a first area representing flow velocity in a first direction and a second area representing flow velocity not in the first direction. A normalized energy function across one or more of the one or more transitions is calculated, a configuration of flow areas within the color Doppler data is determined, and aliasing corrections for the color Doppler data are determined based on the normalized energy functions and the configuration of flow areas. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110060224 | NON-INVASIVE CONTINUOUS DOPPLER MONITORING DEVICE FOR ARTERIAL BLOOD FLOW TO DISTAL BODY PARTS - A Doppler sensor for non-invasive continuous Doppler monitoring for arterial blood flow to a distal body part of a patient that employs a Doppler transducer for placement at the distal body part of the patient and an adhesive conductive gel for placement between the Doppler transducer and the distal body part of the patient. The adhesive conductive gel holds the Doppler transducer in position at the distal body part of the patient during medical procures so that continuous monitoring of arterial blood flow is provided via a Doppler monitor. | 03-10-2011 |
| 20110082373 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR THE DETECTION OF CARDIOPULMONARY DEFECTS - A diagnostic system for detecting a right-to-left cardiopulmonary shunt in a patient. The system includes at least one Doppler ultrasound transducer, a transducer housing, a transducer housing placement device to affix the Doppler ultrasound transducer housing over a peripheral blood vessel, and a control system configured to receive and process the echoes and transform the echoes into data indicative of the presence or absence of a bubbles within the peripheral blood vessel, thereby determining whether or not the patient has a right-to-left cardiopulmonary shunt. A method of detecting a right-to-left cardiopulmonary shunt in a patient is also provided. | 04-07-2011 |
| 20110092819 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS AND ULTRASOINC DATA ACQUISITION METHOD - According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe, a transmission/reception unit, an echo signal storage unit, a reception delay addition processing unit, a Doppler signal generating unit, and a focus position decision unit. The echo signal storage unit stores a plurality of echo signals obtained by the transmission/reception unit. The reception delay addition processing unit generates a plurality of reception signals corresponding to a plurality of reception focus positions by performing delay addition of the plurality of stored echo signals. The Doppler signal generating unit generates a plurality of Doppler signals corresponding to the plurality of reception focus positions from the generated reception signals. The focus position decision unit performs selection of a Doppler signal from the plurality of generated Doppler signals based on a blood flow characteristic and decides a reception focus position corresponding to the selected Doppler signal. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110137173 | Method and Apparatus for Hemodynamic Monitoring Using Combined Blood Flow and Blood Pressure Measurement - Combined blood flow and blood pressure measurements are used for the calculation of central vascular blood flow parameters. Blood flow measurements may be made simultaneously with arterial pressure measured either centrally or peripherally and central venous pressure for the monitoring of human subjects. A combined blood flow and blood pressure measurement device for hemodynamic monitoring may include a Doppler ultrasound probe utilizing a continuous wave or pulse wave ultrasound beam for the measurement of blood flow in the aorta, combined with arterial pressure measurement, or signal input from a suitable pressure transducer system from one of either the radial, brachial, dorsalis pedis or femoral artery. The ultrasound probe may comprise either an esophageal or suprasternal ultrasound probe, while the blood pressure measurement may be either an electronic transducer blood pressure sphygmomanometer on the arm, or a finger cot infrared light optical pulse detector. | 06-09-2011 |
| 20110137174 | ULTRASOUND COLOR DOPPLER IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FILTERING CLUTTER SIGNAL OF THE SAME - Disclosed is an ultrasound color Doppler image system. The ultrasound color Doppler image system includes a calculation unit that calculates a mean value associated with an I/Q signal corresponding to a pixel of a color image in an ultrasound image and generates a multiplication value using the calculated mean value; a comparison unit that compares the generated multiplication value with the mean value; and a masking unit that performs masking of the pixel based on a comparison result, and, the calculation unit calculates the mean value of the I/Q signal for each frame, selects a reference mean value based on scales of the calculated mean values, and generates the multiplication value by multiplying the selected reference mean value and a scale factor. | 06-09-2011 |
| 20110137175 | TRACKED ULTRASOUND VESSEL IMAGING - A medical imaging apparatus, such as including a processor circuit, can be used to construct a first image of a plane parallel to the surface of an ultrasonic imaging transducer, the plane corresponding to a locus at a specified depth within a first region of tissue. The apparatus can obtain information about a location of a vessel in the first image, then obtain, from a second region of tissue, imaging information corresponding to loci in planes parallel to the surface of the transducer, the planes at depths automatically determined at least in part using the obtained information about the location of the vessel in the first image. In an example, the apparatus can automatically determine an adjusted depth corresponding to the location of the vessel in the second region, and construct a second image of a plane corresponding to the adjusted depth within the tissue. | 06-09-2011 |
| 20110152689 | COLOR DOPPLER ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS - According to one embodiment, a color Doppler ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe, a transmission/reception unit, a quadrature phase detection unit configured to perform quadrature phase detection of an output from the transmission/reception unit, a filter unit configured to perform first orthogonal transformation for an output from the quadrature phase detection unit in a depth direction, perform second orthogonal transformation for a result obtained by the first orthogonal transformation in an ensemble direction, apply a two-dimensional filter to obtained frequency data to extract a blood flow component from the frequency data, and sequentially perform inverse transformation of the second orthogonal transformation and inverse transformation of the first orthogonal transformation for an output from the two-dimensional filter, and a blood flow component information calculation unit configured to calculate blood flow component information based on an output from the filter unit. | 06-23-2011 |
| 20110196237 | ULTRASOUND PULSE-WAVE DOPPLER MEASUREMENT OF BLOOD FLOW VELOCITY AND/OR TURBULENCE - Apparatus and methods for measuring and analyzing blood flow in vessels in the bodies of living subjects are provided. The true velocity vector, or a projection thereof onto a scan plane, for blood flowing at a location in a vessel is determined from multiple Doppler velocity components. The true velocity vector is displayed as a directional marker on an image comprising the vessel. The true velocity magnitude and angle, and scalar blood flow characteristics derived therefrom, are plotted as a functions of time and/or position across the depiction of the blood vessel in the image. Time intervals for which blood flow characteristic data is displayed and/or determined may be user configurable. | 08-11-2011 |
| 20110230764 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS, DOPPLER MEASUREMENT APPARATUS, AND DOPPLER MEASUREMENT METHOD - According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises a Doppler processing unit which generates a Doppler spectrum from an ultrasonic signal reflected from a predetermined region in a heart, a trace waveform generation unit which generates temporal changes in a predetermined spectrum component in the Doppler spectrum as a plurality of trace waveforms, a corrected trace waveform generation unit which generates a corrected trace waveform with the loss being interpolated by using a trace waveform, of the plurality of trace waveforms, which has a loss portion, and at least one estimation point input for the trace waveform, and an output unit which outputs a plurality of trace waveforms including the corrected trace waveform. | 09-22-2011 |
| 20110263985 | Dual Path Color Doppler Imaging System and Method for Simultaneous Invasive Device Visualization and Vasculature Imaging - An ultrasound imaging system ( | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110282210 | THREE-DIMENSIONAL DERIVATION OF A PROXIMAL ISOKINETIC SHELL OF A PROXIMAL FLOW CONVERGENCE ZONE AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL PISA FLOW MEASUREMENT - The invention relates to a device and to a method for adaptive three-dimensional derivation of a proximal isokinetic shell of a proximal flow convergence zone that forms in an observation area in a moving fluid, wherein the magnitude of the velocity of the fluid at each point of the proximal isokinetic shell is identical and equal to a velocity reference value, the method including: a) preparing locally distributed velocity measurements in a surrounding area of the observation area, the measurements representing at least one directional component of the local velocity of the fluid in a respective measurement direction, b) preparing an approximation surface as an initial proximal isokinetic shell in such a way that the entire flow, at least substantially, in the flow convergence zone penetrates the approximation surface, c) establishing a plurality of approximation points on the approximation surface, d) determining the respective velocity measurements at the respective approximation points, e) calculating a corrected velocity (v | 11-17-2011 |
| 20110301466 | CARDIAC FLOW QUANTIFICATION WITH VOLUMETRIC IMAGING DATA - A method quantifies cardiac volume flow for an imaging sequence. The method includes receiving data representing three-dimensions and color Doppler flow data over a plurality of frames, constructing a ventricular model based on the data representing three-dimensions for the plurality of frames, the ventricular model including a sampling plane configured to measure the cardiac volume flow, computing volume flow samples based on the sampling plane and the color Doppler flow data, and correcting the volume flow samples for aliasing based on volumetric change in the ventricular model between successive frames of the plurality of frames. | 12-08-2011 |
| 20110319766 | MEASURING DEVICE, BIOLOGICAL TESTING DEVICE, FLOW VELOCITY MEASURING METHOD, AND PRESSURE MEASURING METHOD - A measuring device includes an ultrasonic sensor with ultrasonic arrays each having a linear array structure in which ultrasonic elements are arranged along a linear scanning direction with the linear scanning directions of at least two of the ultrasonic arrays being different from each other, a transmission/reception control unit that controls transmission/reception of ultrasonic waves by the ultrasonic arrays, and a computation part that measures a frequency shift amount based on a reception signal from the ultrasonic arrays. The transmission/reception control unit includes a signal delay circuit that controls a transmission angle of ultrasonic waves. The computation part includes a frequency shift amount calculating part that calculates, for each of the ultrasonic arrays, a frequency shift amount based on a reception signal from each of the ultrasonic arrays, and a maximum shift amount obtaining part that obtains a maximum frequency shift amount from the calculated frequency shift amounts. | 12-29-2011 |
| 20120016242 | ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes a frame data generation device configured to generate a frame data of a blood flow image based on echo signals obtained by transmissions and receptions of ultrasonic waves on a same acoustic ray, a processed frame data generation device configured to generate a processed frame data using current data excluding an error data having a higher brightness, a faster blood speed, or a higher blood flow power than a brightness, a blood speed, or a blood flow power of standard data within pixel data corresponding to each other in a plurality of frame data at different time phases, and an image display control device configured to display a blood flow image based on the processed framed data. | 01-19-2012 |
| 20120059264 | ULTRASONIC BLOOD FLOW DOPPLER AUDIO WITH PITCH SHIFTING - An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces audio Doppler from detected Doppler signals. The Doppler signals are detected in a band of frequencies which corresponds to the velocity of blood flow signals, and Doppler information is displayed based on the detected band of frequencies. The audio Doppler system produces Doppler audio in a frequency band which is shifted in pitch from the detected band of frequencies. The operator of the ultrasound system is provided with a user control by which the degree of pitch shifting can be controlled. The ultrasound system displays Doppler blood flow velocities referenced to a transmit Doppler frequency f | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120065514 | Cardiohealth Methods and Apparatus - Methods and apparatus for improving measurements of cardiovascular health status in a given individual are provided. The comprehensive assessment of cardiovascular health includes at least two components: risk factor assessment based on epidemiologic studies and functional status of the individual. Structural studies of the individual can also be included in the comprehensive assessment of cardiovascular health. The invention aims to improve detection, treatment, devices, and administration of cardiovascular risk assessment. | 03-15-2012 |
| 20120078106 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR NON-INVASIVE MONITORING OF PATIENT PARAMETERS - A method for continuous non-invasive monitoring of multiple arterial parameters of a patient is provided. The method includes continuously acquiring ultrasound data via an ultrasound transducer attached to the patient for detecting a blood vessel using color flow processing within a monitoring scan plane. Further, the method includes processing the continuously acquired ultrasound data to generate continuous quantitative waveforms based on an estimated cross-sectional area of the blood vessel and an estimated volumetric flow rate of blood through the vessel and displaying the generated continuous quantitative waveforms for monitoring the arterial parameters of the patient in real-time. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120078107 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR COLOR FLOW IMAGING - Methods and systems for color flow imaging are provided. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120078108 | PROVIDING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CORRESPONDING TO CHANGE OF BLOOD FLOW WITH A TIME IN ULTRASOUND SYSTEM - There are provided embodiments for providing additional information. In one embodiment, an ultrasound system comprises: an ultrasound data acquisition unit configured to acquire first ultrasound data and second ultrasound data corresponding to a living body; and a processing unit configured to form a brightness mode image based on the first ultrasound data, set at least one sample volume on the brightness mode image, and form blood flow information corresponding to blood flow in the living body based on the second ultrasound data corresponding to the at least one sample volume, the processing unit being further configured to form additional information corresponding to a change of the blood flow with a time based on the blood flow information. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120095345 | BLOOD VESSEL DIAMETER MEASUREMENT DEVICE - A control part includes a transmission angle control unit that controls a transmission angle of ultrasonic waves transmitted from three ultrasonic arrays, a first reflected wave measuring unit that measures a first arrival time of a first reflected wave which is reflected by a blood vessel and is first to arrive at the ultrasonic arrays, a second reflected wave measuring unit that measures a second arrival time of a second reflected wave which arrives at the ultrasonic arrays after a predetermined time from the first arrival time, an outside diameter computation unit that computes an outside diameter of the blood vessel based on the first arrival time of three first reflected waves, and an inside diameter of the blood vessel computation unit that computes an inside diameter based on the second arrival time of three second reflected waves. | 04-19-2012 |
| 20120101387 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR NON-INVASIVE INTRACRANIAL PRESSURE MONITORING - Disclosed embodiments include a system and a method for determining intracranial pressure (ICP) of a subject that comprises: (a) applying transcranial Doppler (TCD) to determine the middle cerebral artery (MCA) velocity of the subject and estimating changes in the ICP continuously based on a functional mapping that relates arterial blood pressure (ABP) and cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) to ICP, resulting in an estimated ICP trend; (b) generating a flash visual evoked potential (FVEP) on the subject, processing a detected FVEP signal and obtaining an estimated ICP; and (c) combining the estimated ICP trend from TCD CBFV and ABP with the estimated ICP obtained by signal processing of the detected FVEP signal to periodically correct the trend and obtain a non-invasive measure of ICP. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20120123271 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MAKING AND USING ROTATIONAL TRANSDUCERS FOR CONCURRENTLY IMAGING BLOOD FLOW AND TISSUE - A method for generating a composite image using an intravascular imaging device includes receiving reflected echo signals from at least one transducer along a first of a plurality of radial scan lines. The received echo signals are passed through a plurality of signal processing channels to form a plurality of filtered signals. The filtered signals include a high-resolution tissue structure signal and at least one first pre-blood-flow-mask signal. High-resolution tissue structure signals are processed to form a high-resolution tissue structural image. First pre-blood-flow-mask signals are cross-correlated with second pre-blood-flow-mask signals from an adjacent radial scan line to form blood-flow-mask signals. Blood-flow-mask signals are processed to form a blood-flow mask. For each pixel of the composite image, it is determined whether to use a corresponding pixel of the high-resolution tissue structural image or a corresponding pixel of the cross-correlated blood flow mask to generate the composite image pixel. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120130248 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MULTIPLE-WAVE DOPPLER VELOCITY METER - A method and system for determining a velocity of a moving object such as a body or a stream. The object is irradiated in a non-collinear configuration with multiple ultrasound waves overlapping in a region-of-interest (ROI) of the object. An response wave, resulting from the non-linear interaction among the incident waves and the object, is detected and the frequency variations of the response wave are determined. Data representing a Doppler-shift of this frequency is further determined and processed to calculate the velocity of the moving object. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130249 | PROVIDING COLOR DOPPLER IMAGE BASED ON QUALIFICATION CURVE INFORMATION IN ULTRASOUND SYSTEM - There are provided embodiments for providing a color Doppler image based on qualification curve information. In one embodiment, an ultrasound system comprises: an ultrasound data acquisition unit configured to acquire ultrasound data corresponding to a living body including a moving target object; a storage unit for storing qualification curve information for determining blood flow signals of the target object, clutter signals and noise based on velocity and power components of Doppler signals; and a processing unit configured to form first Doppler signals based on the ultrasound data, perform a clutter filtering process upon the first Doppler signals to form second Doppler signals, calculate velocity and power components of the second Doppler signals, form a color Doppler image based on the calculated velocity and power components, and perform a blending process upon the color Doppler image based on the calculated velocity and power components and the qualification curve information. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120157852 | ULTRASOUND SIGNAL COMPRESSION - A method and an apparatus for an ultrasound system provide compression of ultrasound signal samples after analog to digital conversion and before beamforming. The analog ultrasound signals received from an array of ultrasound transducer elements are digitally sampled by a plurality of analog to digital converters (ADCs) to produce a plurality of sequences of signal samples. Each sequence of signal samples is compressed to form a corresponding sequence of compressed samples. The resulting sequences of compressed samples are transferred via a digital interface to an ultrasound signal processor. At the ultrasound signal processor, the received sequences of compressed samples are decompressed. The typical processing operations, such as beamforming, downconversion and detection, are applied to decompressed samples. This abstract does not limit the scope of the invention as described in the claims. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120165675 | Method For Diagnosis And Treatment Of Vessel Occulsion - A non-invasive method of diagnosing and treating vessel occlusion and, in particular, small vessel occlusion by using transcranial Doppler ultrasound scanning. The method can be used for all forms of small vessel ischaemia, including all sub-types of ischaemic stroke, ischaemia secondary to primary intracerebral hemorrhage and intracerebral tumour, diagnosis and treatment is carried out by the identification of abnormal signals during ultrasound intonation. | 06-28-2012 |
| 20120165676 | Neuravionic System for Life Support in High Performance Avionics - A system for life support in high performance avionics that utilizes cerebral blood flow velocity measurements and responses to real-time neuropsychological tests of brain function, to accomplish prevention of gravitational loss of consciousness, determination of cognitive state-of-being of the crewmember, regulation of autonomy-decision making level, while taking into account individualized +Gz-tolerance and cognitive abilities under +Gz-stress, comprising a transcranial Doppler device, attached to a microcomputer, operatively connected to the mainframe avionic computer. | 06-28-2012 |
| 20120184854 | ULTRASONIC VASCULAR FLOW SENSOR WITH TRIANGULAR SENSOR GEOMETRY - An ultrasonic blood flow sensor includes a plurality of adjacent triangular shaped transducer elements which transmit ultrasound waves into a blood vessel and receive reflected ultrasound waves from the blood flow in the vessel. Preferably the transducer elements are paired in pairs of transmit and receive elements. The elements are fixed in a matrix which may be attached in acoustic coupling contact with the skin The matrix retains adjacent transducer elements slightly spaced apart so that the matrix of transducer elements may bend and conform to the shape of the skin surface. The spacing between the triangular elements is neither parallel nor orthogonal to the length dimension of the matrix so that a blood vessel will not be aligned with a space between transducer elements when the matrix is affixed across the location of a blood vessel. In addition the geometry of the elements creates a beam pattern that provide more overlap between transmit and receive beam profiles, thereby increasing the area of sensor coverage. | 07-19-2012 |
| 20120184855 | Method for Ultrasound Color Doppler Imaging - Methods for color Doppler imaging in an ultrasound imaging system are disclosed herein. Ultrasound radio frequency RF data is demodulated using a nested processing loop including an inner loop and an outer loop. A plurality of Wall filter coefficients are fetched from ultrasound imaging system memory in a single memory access cycle. The plurality Wall filter coefficients are applied to a plurality of complex ultrasound data values in a single execution cycle. The Wall filtered ultrasound data are provided to a flow estimator. | 07-19-2012 |
| 20120184856 | System for Ultrasound Color Doppler Imaging - Systems for color Doppler imaging in an ultrasound imaging system are disclosed herein. An ultrasound imaging system includes color Doppler imaging circuitry. The color Doppler imaging circuitry is configured to estimate flow parameters. The imaging circuitry includes a radio frequency (“RF”) demodulator configured to produce in-phase and quadrature components of an ultra-sound data vector. The RF demodulator includes a table in memory that stores interleaved sine and cosine values. The RF demodulator maintains an index value for the table having higher precision than is used to index the table. The RF demodulator rounds the index value for each access of the table. Each table access retrieves a sine value and a cosine value. | 07-19-2012 |
| 20120197129 | Flow Measurement Apparatus and Method - The velocity of fluids containing particles that scatter ultrasound can be measured by determining the Doppler shift of the ultrasound scattered by the particles in the fluid. Measuring fluid flow in cylindrical vessels such as blood vessels is an important use of Doppler ultrasound. This invention teaches using various configurations of cylindrical diffraction-grating transducers and cylindrical non-diffraction-grating transducers that suppress the Doppler shift from non-axial components of fluid velocity while being sensitive to the Doppler shift produced by axial velocity components. These configurations thus provide accurate measurement of the net flow down the vessel, even when the fluid flow is curved or not parallel to the vessel wall. | 08-02-2012 |
| 20120203111 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS, ULTRASONIC IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND ULTRASONIC IMAGE ACQUISITION METHOD - According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a detection unit configured to detect a distribution of velocity information at each position in a predetermined area in an object over a predetermined interval by scanning the predetermined area with an ultrasonic wave, a calculation unit configured to calculate at least one feature amount based on at least one of a maximum flow velocity value, a minimum flow velocity value, and a mean flow velocity value at the each position in the predetermined interval by using velocity information at each position over the predetermined interval, and a display unit configured to display the feature amount in a predetermined form. | 08-09-2012 |
| 20120220877 | DATA COMPRESSION METHOD AND DATA COMPRESSION APPARATUS - One embodiment provides a data compression apparatus for compressing Doppler data including a plurality of types of measurement data obtained by ultrasound measurement, the apparatus including: a first compression unit configured to compress first measurement data according to a first compression parameter to thereby generate first compressed data; a second compression unit configured to compress second measurement data according to a second compression parameter different from the first compression parameter to thereby generate second compressed data; and a combining unit configured to combine the first compressed data and the second compressed data. | 08-30-2012 |
| 20120226163 | MEDICAL DOPPLER ULTRASOUND SYSTEM FOR LOCATING AND TRACKING BLOOD FLOW - Systems and methods for processing echo signals in a Doppler ultrasound system from a region of interest. An ultrasound beam is electronically steered to deliver ultrasound to and receive echo signals from a plurality of sample locations in the region of interest. The echo signals for each sample location are processed to extract Doppler shift signals and Doppler shift data representing the Doppler shift signals are generated. The Doppler shift data accumulated for the sample locations can be used to detect the presence of blood flow in the region of interest, and identify the location in the region of interest at which the presence of blood flow is detected. The blood flow can be tracked by updating the location of the detected blood flow in the region of interest. The blood flow can be further monitored by combining the locating and tracking functionality with an m-mode ultrasound image. | 09-06-2012 |
| 20120265075 | METHOD OF TRANSFORMING A DOPPLER VELOCITY DATASET INTO A VELOCITY VECTOR FIELD - A method and device for transforming a Doppler velocity dataset into a velocity vector field, the including: (a) providing a 2D or 3D Doppler velocity dataset, acquired by means of 2D or 3D ultrasonography from an object; b) calculating a velocity vector field by assuming the velocity at each point of the dataset to be the sum of the provided Doppler velocity and an additional vector field derived from an irrotational flow velocity, and by assuming the velocity vector field to be mathematically continuous, therefore solving an elliptical equation of the Poisson type. | 10-18-2012 |
| 20120296216 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF AIMING SENSOR(S) FOR MEASURING CARDIAC PARAMETERS - A placement mechanism for placing a sensor for non invasive measurement of at least one parameter. The placement mechanism comprises a angling unit which angles a sensor in relation to a sensor positioning site on a skin of a target patient in proximity to the ribs while maintaining a front side contact zone of the sensor in contact with the sensor positioning site and an attachment element for attaching the placement mechanism to a body of the target patient so that the front side contact zone being in contact with the sensor positioning site. | 11-22-2012 |
| 20130030300 | Combination Sensor Guidewire and Methods of Use - The present invention provides for an improved combination sensor tip that includes an ultrasound transducer and a pressure sensor both disposed at or in close proximity to the distal end of the combination sensor tip. The present invention also provides for an improved connector to couple a guide wire to a physiology monitor that reduces torsional resistance when maneuvering the guide wire. | 01-31-2013 |
| 20130109972 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS | 05-02-2013 |
| 20130137987 | ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment includes a detector, a determination unit, a retention controller, and a display controller. The detector is configured to detect a peak flow velocity of blood flow velocities acquired from Doppler waveforms collected in a time-serial manner or a peak value of average flow velocities of the blood flow velocities as a representative flow velocity for each predefined period. The determination unit is configured to determine a maximum value in a predefined polarity of a plurality of representative flow velocities. The retention controller is configured to control a memory unit to retain maximum waveform information that is Doppler waveform information of Doppler waveforms collected for a period in which the maximum value was detected. The display controller is configured to control a display unit to display the maximum waveform information with Doppler waveform information having been collected by a present time point. | 05-30-2013 |
| 20130172754 | PROVIDING COMPOUND IMAGE OF DOPPLER SPECTRUM IMAGES IN ULTRASOUND SYSTEM - There are provided embodiments for providing a compound image of Doppler spectrum images corresponding to at least two sample volumes. In one embodiment, by way of non-limiting example, an ultrasound system comprises: a processing unit configured to form at least two Doppler spectrum images corresponding to at least two sample volumes based on ultrasound data corresponding to the at least two sample volume, the processing unit being further configured to perform an image process for forming a compound image upon the at least two Doppler spectrum images to form the compound image. | 07-04-2013 |
| 20130172755 | PROVIDING TURBULENT FLOW INFORMATION BASED ON VECTOR DOPPLER IN ULTRASOUND SYSTEM - There are provided embodiments for providing turbulent flow information based on vector Doppler. In one embodiment, by way of non-limiting example, an ultrasound system comprises: a processing unit configured to form vector information of a target object based on ultrasound data corresponding to the target object, the processing unit being further configured to form turbulent flow information for representing a degree of turbulent flow of the target object. | 07-04-2013 |
| 20130184588 | DETECTING A STENOSIS IN A BLOOD VESSEL - Doppler ultrasound may be used to detect stenosis in a blood vessel using a variety of approaches. In one approach, the flow envelope is extracted from the Doppler ultrasound measurements, and the extracted flow envelope is parameterized. Classification is then done based on those parameters (and optionally other parameters), to determine whether a stenosis exists. A second approach uses Doppler data that is acquired in a direction that is perpendicular to the direction of blood flow, and detects artifacts that are consistent with turbulences that usually appear downstream from stenoses. | 07-18-2013 |
| 20130197367 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCATING AND DISTINGUISHING BLOOD VESSEL - A apparatus and a method are disclosed for transmitting a signal directed to a blood vessel via a Doppler ultrasound waveform apparatus, receiving, by the Doppler ultrasound waveform apparatus, a reflected signal from the blood vessel; and determining, by a processing device, whether the blood vessel is an artery or a vein based on a blood flow velocity in the blood vessel. | 08-01-2013 |
| 20130204139 | SYSTEMS, DEVICES AND METHODS FOR NONINVASIVE OR MINIMALLY-INVASIVE ESTIMATION OF INTRACRANIAL PRESSURE AND CEREBROVASCULAR AUTOREGULATION - The systems, devices, and methods described herein provide for the estimation and monitoring of cerebrovascular system properties and intracranial pressure (ICP) from one or more measurements or measured signals. These measured signals may include central or peripheral arterial blood pressure (ABP), and cerebral blood flow (CBF) or cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV). The measured signals may be acquired noninvasively or minimally-invasively. The measured signals may be used to estimate parameters and variables of a computational model that is representative of the physiological relationships among the cerebral flows and pressures. The computational model may include at least one resistive element, at least one compliance element, and a representation of ICP. | 08-08-2013 |
| 20130218015 | Method and a System for Monitoring, Contractions and/or a Birth Process and/or the Progress and/or Position of a Fetus - A method of monitoring a pregnant woman by identifying a moving organ in the woman and tracking or monitoring a movement of said organ using ultrasound. Optionally, the identifying is non-imaging. Optionally or alternatively, the moving organ is part of a fetus and a position of a head is optionally calculated form a heart position which is directed detected. | 08-22-2013 |
| 20130226003 | FRACTIONAL FLOW RESERVE ESTIMATION - Approaches for assessing hemodynamic characteristics for an organ of interest are related. In one implementation, a fluid dynamics model may be provided with data derived from an anatomic imaging modality and blood flow information derived by ultrasound to derive the desired hemodynamic characteristics. In one such implementation, a fractional flow reserve is estimated. | 08-29-2013 |
| 20130237828 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING MOVEMENT VELOCITY AND DIRECTION OF TISSUE - A method of obtaining a movement velocity and direction of a tissue, the method including: obtaining vector Doppler data from a target by transmitting and receiving an ultrasound signal; and detecting the movement velocity and direction of the tissue included in the target based on the obtained vector Doppler data. | 09-12-2013 |
| 20130237829 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR COLOR FLOW DYNAMIC FRAME PERSISTENCE - Methods and systems for color flow dynamic frame persistence in ultrasonic imaging are provided. | 09-12-2013 |
| 20130274605 | METHOD OF USING A DOPPLER BLOOD FLOW METER SYSTEM HAVING A FLAT PROBE APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING BLOOD FLOW DATA - A method of obtaining blood flow data from an individual using a Doppler blood flow meter system having a main unit in operative communication with a probe apparatus having at least one flat probe configured to be attached to the individual is disclosed. The flat probe has a substantially flat configuration and includes a transmitter transducer for transmitting ultrasound signals and a receiver transducer for receiving reflected Doppler ultrasound signals. The flat probe is configured for attachment to the individual being examined. At least one inflatable cuff in operative communication with the main unit is attached to the individual and the pressure in the inflatable cuff is raised such that the blood pressure of the individual is elevated. The main unit includes a processor that processes the reflected Doppler ultrasound signals received from the flat probe to determine the systolic pressure of the individual. | 10-17-2013 |
| 20130274606 | ANALYSIS OF MITRAL REGURGITATION BY ULTRASONIC IMAGING - An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is described which quantifies regurgitant flow through a mitral valve. A flow quantification processor ( | 10-17-2013 |
| 20130274607 | AUTOMATED DOPPLER VELOCIMETRY USING A LOW-COST TRANSDUCER - An automatic, stand-alone, hand-held ultrasound blood-vessel examination device ( | 10-17-2013 |
| 20130281861 | Enhanced Electronic External Fetal Monitoring System - The present invention relates to fetal monitoring and, more particularly, to an electronic external fetal monitoring system that includes a self adhering single use dermal patch including embedded sensors that can be attached to the skin of an expectant maternal patient and is configured to record fetal heart rate, uterine activity, and uterine integrity. | 10-24-2013 |
| 20130281862 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND APPARATUS - An image processing method and an image processing apparatus are provided. The image processing method measures a myocardial performance index (MPI), the image processing method including: obtaining a region of interest (ROI) for measuring the MPI, based on signal levels of an input signal and an output signal of a heart spectrum image; obtaining a plurality of marker areas, within the obtained ROI, wherein at least one marker for measuring the MPI is located in each of the plurality of marker areas, based on at least one from among a feature value of the input signal and a feature value of the output signal; and obtaining the at least one marker for each of the plurality of marker areas. | 10-24-2013 |
| 20130303916 | CARDIAC OUTPUT MONITORING SYSTEM AND CARDIAC OUTPUT MEASUREMENT METHOD - A processing device included in a cardiac output monitoring system includes an arterial diameter measurement ultrasonic probe that is attached to a neck of a subject, and measures the diameter of the carotid artery, and an arterial diameter measurement control section. A carotid artery diameter control section analyzes an ultrasonic echo to calculate the diameter of the artery (DOA), and outputs the diameter of the artery (DOA) to an ejection time/mean arterial pressure calculation section. The ejection time/mean arterial pressure calculation section calculates the ejection time (ET) from a temporal change in the diameter of the artery (DOA), and calculates the cardiac output. The temporal change waveform of the diameter of the artery (DOA) is clearer than the waveform of the blood flow velocity in the aorta or the ventricular outflow tract measured using an ultrasonic Doppler method, and the ejection time (ET) can be automatically calculated with high accuracy. | 11-14-2013 |
| 20130331702 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR POSITIONING A DOPPLER ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCER FOR BLOOD FLOW MEASUREMENT AND A SYSTEM FOR BLOOD FLOW MEASUREMENT - The method of positioning a Doppler ultrasound transducer for performing blood flow measurement according to the invention comprises the steps of: detecting a pressure oscillation signal from an inflated cuff placed on patient's artery; detecting an ultrasound pulse signal from the Doppler ultrasound transducer placed along the artery; deriving a first signal from the pressure oscillation signal and the ultrasound pulse signal, the first signal indicating the degree of synchronization between the pressure oscillation signal and the ultrasound pulse signal; and outputting an indication signal to indicate the Doppler ultrasound transducer is in a desired position when the first signal satisfies a predefined condition. Since the synchronization property of the cuff pressure oscillation signal and the ultrasound signal caused by the blood flow is utilized to determine whether the transducer is well positioned or not, ultrasound signal, which is a pulse signal but not reflecting the blood flow of the artery, could be determined as not in synchronization with the oscillation signal and therefore the accuracy of the positioning could be improved. | 12-12-2013 |
| 20140039320 | ULTRASONIC SYSTEM FOR ASSESSING TISSUE SUBSTANCE EXTRACTION - The present invention relates to an ultrasonic system for measuring a micro-vascular flow distribution of a tissue portion of a mammal comprising an ultrasonic transducer ( | 02-06-2014 |
| 20140046189 | FREQUENCY DOMAIN ANALYSIS TRANSFORM OF RENAL BLOOD FLOW DOPPLER SIGNAL TO DETERMINE STRESS LEVELS - A method of determining stress based on renal blood flow. The method includes receiving data indicating renal blood flow of a subject. The method also includes calculating a power spectrum of a signal derived from the data. The power spectrum indicates a stress level of the subject. | 02-13-2014 |
| 20140058267 | NON-INVASIVE CONTINUOUS DOPPLER MONITORING DEVICE FOR ARTERIAL BLOOD FLOW TO DISTAL BODY PARTS - A Doppler sensor for non-invasive continuous Doppler monitoring for arterial blood flow to a distal body part of a patient that employs a Doppler transducer holder for placement at the distal body part of the patient. The holder is adapted to allow the sensor to be inserted and removed, enabling a sterile sensor for each new use. The holder may be disposable after each use, may be provided with a cover for disposal of the cover after each use and re-use of the holder, and the sensor may be provided with a cover for sterile placement against the patient's body. | 02-27-2014 |
| 20140081143 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GUIDING SCAN LINE BY USING COLOR DOPPLER IMAGE - Provided are a method and apparatus for guiding a scan line. The method includes: detecting a bloodstream region indicating a flow of blood from a color Doppler image; determining a central axis of the bloodstream region; measuring an angle between the central axis and a scan line used to obtain the color Doppler image; and displaying the angle on a screen. | 03-20-2014 |
| 20140081144 | MEDICAL DOPPLER ULTRASOUND SYSTEM FOR LOCATING AND TRACKING BLOOD FLOW - Systems and methods for processing echo signals in a Doppler ultrasound system from a region of interest. An ultrasound beam is electronically steered to deliver ultrasound to and receive echo signals from a plurality of sample locations in the region of interest. The echo signals for each sample location are processed to extract Doppler shift signals and Doppler shift data representing the Doppler shift signals are generated. The Doppler shift data accumulated for the sample locations can be used to detect the presence of blood flow in the region of interest, and identify the location in the region of interest at which the presence of blood flow is detected. The blood flow can be tracked by updating the location of the detected blood flow in the region of interest. The blood flow can be further monitored by combining the locating and tracking functionality with an m-mode ultrasound image. | 03-20-2014 |
| 20140148702 | METHOD, DEVICE AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE OPEN/CLOSED SWITCH MOMENT OF AN ARTERY OF INTEREST UNDER A CHANGING PRESSURE - The method of determining the open/closed switch moment of an artery of interest under a changing pressure comprises: detecting a first Doppler ultrasound signal from the blood flow in the artery of interest using a first Doppler ultrasound transducer, which is placed on the artery of interest in one limb which is provided with a cuff that is capable of being inflated or deflated to provide the changing pressure to the artery of interest; detecting a second Doppler ultrasound signal from the blood flow in a reference artery using a second Doppler ultrasound transducer, the reference artery being in any one of the other three limbs; deriving a third signal from the first Doppler ultrasound signal and the second Doppler ultrasound signal, the third signal indicating the degree of synchronism between the first Doppler ultrasound signal and the second Doppler ultrasound signal; and out-putting a fourth signal to indicate the artery of interest is closed or reopened at the moment when the third signal satisfies a predefined condition. By utilizing the second ultrasound signal as a reference and deriving a signal indicating the synchronization property between the two ultrasound signals, the open/closed status of the artery of interest under a changing pressure can be determined more stably and more reliably regardless of the detailed condition of the patient. | 05-29-2014 |
| 20140163379 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETECTING AND ASSESSING BRAIN INJURIES USING VARIABILITY ANALYSIS OF CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW VELOCITY - Disclosed herein are method and system for detecting and assessing brain injuries and conditions. The medical system is capable of detecting and assessing the severity of TBI is present. The determination is performed by multiscale analysis of complexity of cerebral blood flow velocity oscillations. | 06-12-2014 |
| 20140163380 | ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC METHOD AND ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS USING VOLUME DATA - A method and apparatus for measuring a Doppler signal by using volume data. In detail, the method and apparatus measure a Doppler signal by obtaining a sub volume by using a color component of volume data and locating a sample volume on a scan line of a cell whose corresponding sub volume is scanned. | 06-12-2014 |
| 20140163381 | ULTRASONOGRAPH - An ultrasonograph that can automatically optimize the sweep rate of Doppler images and M-mode images according to the heart rate of a test subject. The ultrasonograph includes means for sending an ultrasonic beam into body tissue, a means for receiving an ultrasonic signal reflected off the body tissue and a blood flow, a means for constructing a cross-sectional image of the body tissue from the received signal, a means for performing phase detection on an ultrasonic Doppler blood flow signal, a means for calculating a frequency component of the Doppler blood flow signal, and a means for performing a sweeping display of the calculated frequency component as Doppler images in a time series. The ultrasonograph has a heart rate measuring means, an optimum sweep rate calculating means and an optimum sweep rate setting means. | 06-12-2014 |
| 20140180114 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DETECTING OCCLUSION/REOPENING OF AN ARTERY AND SYSTEM FOR MEASURING SYSTOLIC BLOOD PRESSURE - This invention provides a method and a device for detecting occlusion and/or reopening of an artery of a body caused by a changing pressure applied on the artery as well as a system for measuring the systolic blood pressure of an artery of a body. The method comprises the steps of: obtaining a blood flow signal indicative of a change of the blood flow in the artery caused by the changing pressure, using a Doppler Ultrasound transducer attached to the exterior of the body; deriving, from the blood flow signal, at least one variable of a first variable indicative of the magnitude of the blood flow and a second variable indicative of the periodicity of the blood flow; and detecting the occlusion and/or reopening of the artery on the basis of the at least one variable. In this way, the occlusion/reopening of the artery can be detected automatically. Since the need to manually detect the occlusion and reopening of the artery by listening with a stethoscope or a Doppler probe is eliminated, the detecting result is more predictable and repeatable, and therefore also more accurate. | 06-26-2014 |
| 20140221838 | ULTRASOUND SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATED DOPPLER FLOW SETTINGS - An ultrasound system performs duplex colorflow and spectral Doppler imaging, with the spectral Doppler interrogation performed at a sample volume location shown on the colorflow image. The colorflow image is displayed in a color box overlaid on a co-registered B mode image. A color box position and steering angle processor analyzes the spatial Doppler data and automatically sets the color box angle and location over a blood vessel for optimal Doppler sensitivity and accuracy. The processor may also automatically set the flow angle correction cursor in alignment with the direction of flow. In a preferred embodiment these optimization adjustments are made automatically and continuously as a user pauses at points for Doppler measurements along a length of the blood vessel. | 08-07-2014 |
| 20140257106 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCATING AND DISTINGUISHING BLOOD VESSELS - An apparatus and a method are disclosed for displaying, on a confidence gauge comprising a set of lights, a confidence level of whether a blood vessel is an artery or a vein, wherein a number of illuminated lights of the set of lights indicates the confidence level. | 09-11-2014 |
| 20140276072 | DOPPLER ULTRASOUND IMAGING - An ultrasound imaging system includes a vector flow imaging processor that processes ultrasound data representing structure flowing through a tubular object and generates vector flow imaging information for a region of interest of the tubular object that is indicative of the structure flowing through a tubular object based thereon and processing circuitry that determines at least one parameter for Doppler imaging based on the vector flow imaging information. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140303499 | ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus measures blood flow velocity by emitting ultrasound towards a measurement target and receiving a reflected wave, via an ultrasound probe. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasound image acquisition unit, a vascular region detection unit, a measurement position determination unit, and a Doppler gate setting unit. The ultrasound image acquisition unit acquires an ultrasound image which has been captured of the measurement target. The vascular region detection unit detects, from the ultrasound image, a vascular region corresponding to a blood vessel. The measurement position determination unit detects a specific part of the vascular region based on vascular region shape and determines, in accordance with the specific part, one or more measurement positions in the vascular region in terms of longitudinal direction thereof. The Doppler gate setting unit sets, with respect to each measurement position, a Doppler gate in a lumen region of the vascular region. | 10-09-2014 |
| 20140316275 | HIGH FREQUENCY ULTRASONIC CONVEX ARRAY TRANSDUCERS AND TISSUE IMAGING - A high frequency ultrasonic transducer may include a plurality of adjacent ultrasonic transducer elements. The adjacent transducer elements may be sized and configured so as to resonate at a frequency that is at least 15 MHz. The adjacent transducer elements may collectively form an aperture that is substantially convex along a lateral dimension spanning the cascaded width of the adjacent transducer elements. The aperture may be substantially concave along an elevation spanning the height of each of the transducer elements. The ultrasonic transducer and an associated transmitter system may be configured so as to enable ultrasound that is radiated from the plurality of the transducer elements to be focused on and to scan across locations that are no more than 30 millimeters from the aperture and that span across a field of view of at least 50 degrees without movement of the ultrasonic transducer or tissue during the scanning. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140323868 | BLOODSTREAM VISUALIZING DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS - A bloodstream visualizing diagnostic apparatus capable of visualizing and displaying a value relating to energy efficiency of bloodstream measured for an actual patient, and capable of improving usability, is provided. Provided is an bloodstream visualizing diagnostic apparatus which acquires flow rate information of a bloodstream flowing through a blood vessel in the body, calculates an energy loss of the bloodstream at a plurality of representative points within a region of interest in the blood vessel, using a calculation formula which does not explicitly include a blood pressure in the blood vessel, on the basis of the acquired flow rate information, and generates an image showing a magnitude of the calculated energy loss at the plurality of representative points. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140343431 | AUTOMATIC BLOOD VESSEL IDENTIFICATION BY NAME - A device is configured for interrogating a blood vessel to derive flow characteristics (S | 11-20-2014 |
| 20140350405 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING HIGH RISK PREGNANCIES - Method, system and software product for identifying high risk pregnancies comprising the step of generating a spectrogram from ultrasound Doppler signals reflected from the uterine artery and determining the maximum frequency envelope of said spectrogram, and of defining a systolic part and a diastolic part of the maximum frequency envelope and calculating an area ratio under said systolic and diastolic part (AR). This area ratio relates to the blood volume in the uterine artery. | 11-27-2014 |
| 20140371594 | ESTIMATION AND DISPLAY FOR VECTOR DOPPLER IMAGING USING PLANE WAVE TRANSMISSIONS - Vector Doppler Imaging (VDI) improves on conventional Color Doppler Imaging (CDI) by giving speed and direction of blood flow at each pixel of a display generated by a computing system. Multiple angles of Plane wave transmissions (PWT) via an ultrasound transducer conveniently give projected Doppler measurements over a wide field of view, providing enough angular diversity to identify velocity vectors in a short time window while capturing transitory flow dynamics. A fast, aliasing-resistant velocity vector estimator for PWT is presented, and VDI imaging of a carotid artery with a 5 MHz linear array is shown using a novel synthetic particle flow visualization method. | 12-18-2014 |
| 20140371595 | Flow Measurement Apparatus and Method - The velocity of fluids containing particles that scatter ultrasound can be measured by determining the Doppler shift of the ultrasound scattered by the particles in the fluid. Measuring fluid flow in cylindrical vessels such as blood vessels is an important use of Doppler ultrasound. This invention teaches using various configurations of cylindrical diffraction-grating transducers and cylindrical non-diffraction-grating transducers that suppress the Doppler shift from non-axial components of fluid velocity while being sensitive to the Doppler shift produced by axial velocity components. These configurations thus provide accurate measurement of the net flow down the vessel, even when the fluid flow is curved or not parallel to the vessel wall. | 12-18-2014 |
| 20150011887 | ULTRASOUND SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING OBJECT INFORMATION - Disclosed are an ultrasound system and method for determining an object, for example, an artery or a vein, and provide object information corresponding to a position of the object. The ultrasound system includes: an ultrasound probe that transmits an ultrasound signal to a body comprising an object, and receives an ultrasound echo signal reflected from the body to generate a reception signal, an ultrasound data acquiring unit that acquires ultrasound data corresponding to the object in the body by using the reception signal, a processing unit that generates Doppler data by using the ultrasound data, analyzes the Doppler data to detect the object, and generates object information corresponding to a position of the detected object, and an object information providing unit that outputs the object information. | 01-08-2015 |
| 20150045669 | Passive Data Transmission - Data is communicated from an implanted section to an external location. The implanted section includes a transducer such as a piezoelectric element with an ultrasound reflecting surface that moves in response to an applied driving signal. A sensor generates an output signal that depends on a sensed parameter, and a control circuit drives the transducer based on the sensor's output. The transducer's response to the driving signal is repeatable such that the value of the output signal can be determined by measuring the variations in the velocity of the surface using externally applied Doppler ultrasound, and computing the value of the sensor's output from the measured variations in velocity. | 02-12-2015 |
| 20150080735 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ULTRASOUND INFORMATION BY USING GUIDELINES - Disclosed are an ultrasound information providing method and apparatus. The ultrasound information providing method includes generating a Doppler image from Doppler data of an object, acquiring a guideline indicating a moving path of the object in the Doppler image, correcting the Doppler data on the basis of an angle between the guideline and a beam axis of a probe, and displaying a Doppler image generated from the corrected Doppler data. | 03-19-2015 |
| 20150094593 | Cuff for Accentuating Venous Flow - A foot operated air pump rapidly inflates a pneumatic cuff wrapped around the leg of a patient. At the moment of inflation a pressure switch senses the increase in air pressure and sends a timing signal to an ultrasonic imaging system. | 04-02-2015 |
| 20150148679 | ULTRASONIC COLOR FLOW MAP FOR ANALYSIS OF MITRAL REGURGITATION - An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is described which assesses regurgitant flow through a mitral valve by color-flow imaging. A Doppler processor produces Doppler velocity measurements of blood flow around a regurgitant valve to identify an iso-velocity surface to be used in the PISA method of regurgitant flow quantification. The velocity measurements are used to color pixels in the colorflow image and are mapped to a plurality of colors for a color bar used with the image. The color bar exhibits distinct color transitions at one or more velocities in the velocity range of the color bar which distinctively identify an iso-velocity surface in the colorflow image. The color bar may be formed with an aliasing velocity in the middle of the bar, between a zero velocity reference color of the bar and an end of the bar, and the aliasing velocity aligned with a desired iso-velocity and used to create the color transition. | 05-28-2015 |
| 20150289837 | ULTRASONIC APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE SAME - An ultrasonic apparatus includes a transducer configured to irradiate ultrasonic waves in different traveling directions onto an object and collect echo ultrasonic waves reflected from the object, and a controller configured to determine blood flow velocities of blood flowing in the object based on the echo ultrasonic waves, compound the determined blood flow velocities, and determine a composite blood flow velocity of the blood flowing in the object based on the compounded blood flow velocities. | 10-15-2015 |
| 20150335308 | METHOD FOR ANALYSIS AND DISPLAY OF BLOOD FLOW INFORMATION - A method and a device for analysis and display of blood flow information in the human or animal body are described. The method includes the following steps:
| 11-26-2015 |
| 20160007969 | System and Method for Measuring Fluidics in Arteries | 01-14-2016 |
| 20160058305 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR ANALYZING REPERFUSION INJURY - A reperfusion injury detection device comprising a measuring probe with a plurality of sensors collecting a hemodynamic property of a blood vessel of a subject coupled to a pneumatic cuff for applying transient occlusion to the blood vessel being measured and a reperfusion injury analysis device made up from a data module that measures the collected hemodynamic property and determines metric of the measured property over time, and display the measured property on an output module. | 03-03-2016 |
| 20160066890 | Method for Ultrasound Color Doppler Imaging - Methods for color Doppler imaging in an ultrasound imaging system are disclosed herein. Ultrasound radio frequency RF data is demodulated using a nested processing loop including an inner loop and an outer loop. A plurality of Wall filter coefficients are fetched from ultrasound imaging system memory in a single memory access cycle. The plurality Wall filter coefficients are applied to a plurality of complex ultrasound data values in a single execution cycle. The Wall filtered ultrasound data are provided to a flow estimator. | 03-10-2016 |
| 20160113628 | FLOW SENSOR ARRANGEMENT AND METHOD FOR USING A FLOW SENSOR ARRANGEMENT - A flow sensor arrangement (S | 04-28-2016 |
| 20160120498 | Focused Ultrasonic Diffraction-Grating Transducer - Ultrasound diffraction-grating transducers produce beams at an angle to their face, which makes them useful for Doppler measurement of scattering fluids such as blood. The present invention discloses a diffraction-grating transducer, with the capability to focus transmitting or receiving beams to a desired point in space. This focusing capability leads to greater sensitivity when the diffraction-grating transducer is used as a receiver, and greater concentration of ultrasound energy when used as a transmitter. The focusing is achieved by using curved elements instead of the straight ones in conventional diffraction-grating transducers, and by using non-uniform spacing among these elements rather than the uniform spacing of conventional diffraction-grating transducers. Methods of computing the proper curvature of the elements and their spacing for a desired focal point in space are provided. | 05-05-2016 |
| 20160143613 | METHOD, APPARATUS, AND ARTICLE FOR ULTRASOUND BLOOD FLOW MEASUREMENT - A method includes obtaining first and second ultrasound image data and | 05-26-2016 |
| 20160151038 | METHOD FOR ALIGNING SPATIALLY DIFFERENT SUBVOLUMES OF ULTRASONIC DATA OF A BLOOD VESSEL | 06-02-2016 |
| 20160157814 | NON-IMAGING TWO DIMENSIONAL ARRAY PROBE AND SYSTEM FOR CLASSIFYING CAROTID STENOSIS - A non-imaging diagnostic ultrasound system for carotid artery diagnosis has a two dimensional array probe with a low element count and relatively large element size which can cover an area of the carotid artery at its bifurcation. The elements are operated independently with no phasing, and detect Doppler flow spatially beneath each element. The system produces maps of carotid blood flow in two or three dimensions and can assemble an extended view of the flow by matching segments of the carotid flow as the probe is moved over the vessel. Once the carotid artery has been localized, the degree of stenosis is assessed by automated measurements of peak systolic velocity and blood flow turbulence. | 06-09-2016 |
| 20160157826 | NON-IMAGING TWO DIMENSIONAL ARRAY PROBE AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATED SCREENING OF CAROTID STENOSIS - A non-imaging diagnostic ultrasound system for carotid artery diagnosis has a two dimensional array probe ( | 06-09-2016 |
| 20160174931 | ULTRASOUND PULSE-WAVE DOPPLER MEASUREMENT OF BLOOD FLOW VELCOITY AND/OR TURBULENCE | 06-23-2016 |
| 20160192898 | ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME | 07-07-2016 |
| 20160199022 | ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME | 07-14-2016 |
| 20170231598 | ULTRASOUND DEVICES FOR ESTIMATING BLOOD PRESSURE AND OTHER CARDIOVASCULAR PROPERTIES | 08-17-2017 |
| 20190142363 | NON-INVASIVE HEART VALVE SCREENING DEVICE AND METHOD | 05-16-2019 |
