3D ULTRASOUND-BASED INSTRUMENT FOR NON-INVASIVE MEASUREMENT OF AMNIOTIC FLUID VOLUME
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method to determine amniotic fluid volume in digital images, the method comprising:
- positioning an ultrasound transceiver to probe a first portion of a uterus of a patient, the transceiver adapted to obtain a first plurality of scanplanes;
re-positioning the ultrasound transceiver to probe a second portion of the uterus to obtain a second plurality of scanplanes;
enhancing the images of the amniotic fluid regions in the scanplanes with a plurality of algorithms;
registering the scanplanes of the first plurality with the second plurality;
associating the registered scanplanes into a composite array, anddetermining the amniotic fluid volume of the amniotic fluid regions within the composite array.
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Abstract
A hand-held 3D ultrasound instrument is disclosed which is used to non-d invasively and automatically measure amniotic fluid volume in the uterus requiring a minimum of operator intervention. Using a 2D image-processing algorithm, the instrument gives automatic feedback to the user about where to acquire the 3D image set. The user acquires one or more 3D data sets covering all of the amniotic fluid in the uterus and this data is then processed using an optimized 3D algorithm to output the total amniotic fluid volume corrected for any fetal head brain volume contributions.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method to determine amniotic fluid volume in digital images, the method comprising:
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positioning an ultrasound transceiver to probe a first portion of a uterus of a patient, the transceiver adapted to obtain a first plurality of scanplanes; re-positioning the ultrasound transceiver to probe a second portion of the uterus to obtain a second plurality of scanplanes; enhancing the images of the amniotic fluid regions in the scanplanes with a plurality of algorithms; registering the scanplanes of the first plurality with the second plurality; associating the registered scanplanes into a composite array, and determining the amniotic fluid volume of the amniotic fluid regions within the composite array. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14)
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- 12. The method of claim 12, wherein the Hough transform step includes a polar Hough Transform step, a Find Maximum Hough value step, and a fill circle region step.
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15. A method to determine amniotic fluid volume in digital images, the method comprising:
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positioning an ultrasound transceiver to probe a first portion of a uterus of a patient, the transceiver adapted to obtain a first plurality of scanplanes; re-positioning the ultrasound transceiver to probe a second and a third portion of the uterus to obtain a second and third plurality of scanplanes; enhancing the images of the amniotic fluid regions in the scanplanes with a plurality of algorithms; registering the scanplanes of the first plurality through the third plurality; associating the registered scanplanes into a composite array, and determining the amniotic fluid volume of the amniotic fluid regions within the composite array.
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16. A method to determine amniotic fluid volume in digital images, the method comprising:
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positioning an ultrasound transceiver to probe a first portion of a uterus of a patient, the transceiver adapted to obtain a first plurality of scanplanes; re-positioning the ultrasound transceiver to probe a second through fourth portion of the uterus to obtain a second through fourth plurality of scanplanes; enhancing the images of the amniotic fluid regions in the scanplanes with a plurality of algorithms; registering the scanplanes of the first through fourth plurality; associating the registered scanplanes into a composite array, and determining the amniotic fluid volume of the amniotic fluid regions within the composite array.
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17. A method to determine amniotic fluid volume in digital images, the method comprising:
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positioning an ultrasound transceiver to probe a first portion of a uterus of a patient, the transceiver adapted to obtain a first plurality of scanplanes; re-positioning the ultrasound transceiver to probe a second through fifth portion of the uterus to obtain a second through fifth plurality of scanplanes; enhancing the images of the amniotic fluid regions in the scanplanes with a plurality of algorithms; registering the scanplanes of the first through the fifth plurality; associating the registered scanplanes into a composite array, and determining the amniotic fluid volume of the amniotic fluid regions within the composite array.
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18. A system for determining amniotic fluid volume, the system comprising:
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a transceiver positioned from two to six locations of a patient, the transceiver configured to deliver radio frequency ultrasound pulses to amniotic fluid regions of a patient, to receive echoes of the pulses reflected from the amniotic fluid regions, to convert the echoes to digital form, and to obtain a plurality of scanplanes in the form of an array for each location; a computer system in communication with the transceiver, the computer system having a microprocessor and a memory, the memory further containing stored programming instructions operable by the microprocessor to associate the plurality of scanplanes of each array, and the memory further containing instructions operable by the microprocessor to determine the presence of an amniotic fluid region in each array and determine the amniotic fluid volume in each array. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification