AUTOMATED MOVEMENT DETECTION WITH AUDIO AND VISUAL INFORMATION

• US 20080188747A1
• Filed: 02/05/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Penrith Corporation (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Randall, Kevin S., Klessel, Jodi Schwartz, Urbano, Joseph A., Lannutti, Anthony P., Cannon, Michael G., Engle, Lawrence A., Weymer, Raymond F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,790,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/443
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/489 Blood vessels
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4472 Wireless probes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display composite display in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52074
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/582 using transmission of interrupted pulse-modulated waves and based upon the Doppler effect resulting from movement of targets
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52073 Production of cursor lines, markers or indicia by electronic means

Abstract

The embodiments contemplate systems and methods for detecting moving tissue within an object. In one such method, a first and second ultrasound pulse are transmitted at a first sample volume within an object. A first echo signal of the first ultrasound pulse is received from the first sample volume and a second echo signal of the second ultrasound pulse is received from the first sample volume. An estimate of position displacement data of the first sample volume is computed from the first and second echo signals, and the estimate of position displacement data is compared to a predetermined position displacement data threshold indicative of moving tissue. A determination is made, based on the comparison, whether the first sample volume corresponds to moving tissue and, based on the determination, the transmitting, receiving, computing and determining is repeated for a second sample volume.

Claims

1. A method of locating moving tissue, the method comprising:

transmitting a first and second ultrasound pulse at a first sample volume within an object;

receiving a first echo signal of the first ultrasound pulse from the first sample volume and a second echo signal of the second ultrasound pulse from the first sample volume;

computing an estimate of position displacement data of the first sample volume from the first and second echo signals;

comparing the estimate of position displacement data to a predetermined position displacement data threshold indicative of moving tissue;

determining, based on the comparison, whether the first sample volume corresponds to moving tissue; and

repeating, based on the determination, said transmitting, receiving, computing and determining for a second sample volume.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing a size and location of the first sample volume based on the estimate of position displacement data.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising collecting data from the sample volume.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising repeating said transmitting, receiving, computing and determining for the first sample volume.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining comprises determining whether the estimate of position displacement data exceeds the predetermined position displacement data threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the moving tissue is located within the first sample volume comprises comparing a characteristic of the estimated position displacement data to a predetermined position displacement characteristic.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined position displacement characteristic comprises position displacement data corresponding to a vein or position displacement data corresponding to an artery.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the position displacement characteristic comprises information relating to any one of:

mean velocity, modal velocity, maximum velocity, variance, power, acceleration, deceleration, pulsatility and amplitude.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second sample volume is located further from a surface of the object than the first sample volume.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, if the moving tissue is determined to be within the first or second sample volume, presenting an audible representation of position displacement data corresponding to the moving tissue.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein presenting an audible representation of the position displacement data comprises outputting the position displacement data in a digital audio stream.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing the audible representation of the position displacement data.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising transmitting the position displacement data to a processing station for analysis.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

graphically representing the position displacement data on a display; and

labeling the representation of the position displacement data on the display.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein graphically representing the position displacement data on the display comprises displaying a B-mode image with a sample volume indicator.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the moving tissue corresponds to moving blood in a blood vessel, and wherein labeling the representation of the position displacement data on the display comprises, if the blood vessel is determined to be within the sample volume, identifying a type of the blood vessel that is determined to be located within the sample volume.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

estimating position displacement data at a plurality of locations in proximity to said first sample volume.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising

creating a binary map of characteristics of position displacement data from said plurality of locations;

and

filtering the binary map to determine edges of the moving tissue.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein filtering the binary map comprises comparing each of a plurality of estimates of position displacement data computed from a plurality of echo signals received from a plurality of sample volumes to the predetermined position displacement data threshold indicative of moving tissue.

20. An ultrasound system comprising:

a probe comprising;

a transducer that transmits a first and second ultrasound pulse at a first sample volume within an object, and wherein the transducer further receives a first echo signal of the first ultrasound pulse from the first sample volume and a second echo signal of the second ultrasound pulse from the first sample volume; and

a main unit comprising;

a vessel locator that computes an estimate of position displacement data of the first sample volume from the first and second echo signals, compares the estimate of position displacement data to a predetermined position displacement data threshold indicative of moving tissue, determines, based on the comparison, whether the first sample volume corresponds to moving tissue and causes, based on the determination, repeating of said transmitting, receiving, computing and determining for a second sample volume.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the vessel locator further computes a first sample volume size and location based on the estimate of position displacement data.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the second sample volume is located further from a surface of the object than the first sample volume.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein main unit further comprises a data collector that collects data from the first sample volume.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the vessel locator determines whether the first sample volume corresponds to moving tissue by determining whether the estimate of position displacement data exceeds the predetermined position displacement data threshold.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the vessel locator determines whether the sample volume corresponds to moving tissue by comparing a characteristic of the computed position displacement data to a predetermined position displacement characteristic.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the predetermined position displacement characteristic comprises position displacement data corresponding to a vein or position displacement data corresponding to an artery.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the predetermined position displacement characteristic comprises information relating to any one of:

mean velocity, modal velocity, maximum velocity, variance, power, acceleration, deceleration, pulsatility and amplitude.

28. The system of claim 20, wherein the moving tissue corresponds to moving blood in a blood vessel, and wherein the main unit further comprises a speaker that, if the vessel locator determines that the first or second sample volume is within the blood vessel, presents an audible representation of the position displacement data.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the main unit further comprises a communication interface that transmits the position displacement data to a processing station for analysis.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the communication interface further outputs the position displacement data in a digital audio stream.

31. The system of claim 20, wherein the main unit further comprises a memory that stores a representation of the position displacement data.

32. The system of claim 20, wherein the main unit further comprises a display that graphically represents the position displacement data and labels the representation of the position displacement data.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the display graphically represents the position displacement data by displaying a B-mode image with a sample volume indicator.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the moving tissue corresponds to moving blood in a blood vessel, and wherein the display labels the representation of the position displacement data by, if the blood vessel is determined to be within the first sample volume, identifying a type of the blood vessel that is determined to be located within the first sample volume.

35. The system of claim 20, wherein the vessel locator further computes position displacement data at a plurality of locations in proximity to said first or second sample volumes.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the vessel locator further creates a binary map of characteristics of position displacement data from said plurality of locations and filters the binary map to determine edges of the blood vessel.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the vessel locator filters the binary map by comparing each of a plurality of estimates of position displacement data computed from a plurality of echo signals received from a plurality of sample volumes to the predetermined position displacement data threshold indicative of moving tissue.