ULTRASOUND SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING BLADDER WALL THICKNESS AND MASS
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method to measure wall thickness of an organ using an ultrasound transceiver, the method comprising:
- positioning an ultrasound transceiver exterior to a patient such that at least a portion of an organ wall is within the range of the transceiver;
transmitting radio frequency ultrasound pulses as scanlines to, and receiving those pulses echoed back from, the external and internal surface of the portion of the organ wall, and based on those pulses, forming at least one two-dimensional image;
selecting wall loci at a first position of the organ wall from the two dimensional image;
adjusting the position of the wall loci by applying a one-dimensional analysis of the pulse echoes associated with the two-dimensional image to a second position and a third position; and
determining the thickness of the organ wall by calculating the difference of the wall loci between the second and third positions.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An ultrasound transceiver scans an organ and processes the echogenic signals to produce three-dimensional, two-dimensional, and one-dimensional information of the organ. The 3-D, 2-D, and 1-D information is utilized to determine the thickness, surface area, volume, and mass of the organ wall.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A method to measure wall thickness of an organ using an ultrasound transceiver, the method comprising:
-
positioning an ultrasound transceiver exterior to a patient such that at least a portion of an organ wall is within the range of the transceiver; transmitting radio frequency ultrasound pulses as scanlines to, and receiving those pulses echoed back from, the external and internal surface of the portion of the organ wall, and based on those pulses, forming at least one two-dimensional image; selecting wall loci at a first position of the organ wall from the two dimensional image; adjusting the position of the wall loci by applying a one-dimensional analysis of the pulse echoes associated with the two-dimensional image to a second position and a third position; and determining the thickness of the organ wall by calculating the difference of the wall loci between the second and third positions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method to measure wall volume of an organ using an ultrasound transceiver, the method comprising:
-
positioning an ultrasound transceiver exterior to a patient such that at least a portion of an organ wall is within the range of the transceiver; transmitting radio frequency ultrasound pulses as scanlines to, and receiving those pulses echoed back from, the external and internal surface of the portion of the organ wall, and based on those pulses, forming at least one two-dimensional image; selecting wall loci at a first position of the organ wall from the two dimensional image; adjusting the position of the wall loci by applying a one-dimensional analysis of the pulse echoes associated with the two-dimensional image to a second position and a third position; determining the thickness of the organ wall by calculating the difference of the wall loci between the second and third positions; forming an array of two-dimensional scanplanes, each scanplane having the second and third positions; determining the area of the organ wall by calculating the area of the second and third position in the array; and calculating the volume of the organ wall as a product of the area and thickness. - View Dependent Claims (19)
-
-
20. A method to measure wall mass of an organ using an ultrasound transceiver, the method comprising:
-
positioning an ultrasound transceiver exterior to a patient such that at least a portion of an organ wall is within the range of the transceiver; transmitting radio frequency ultrasound pulses as scanlines to, and receiving those pulses echoed back from, the external and internal surface of the portion of the organ wall, and based on those pulses, forming at least one two-dimensional image; selecting wall loci at a first position of the organ wall from the two dimensional image; adjusting the position of the wall loci by applying a one-dimensional analysis of the pulse echoes associated with the two-dimensional image to a second position and a third position; determining the thickness of the organ wall by calculating the difference of the wall loci between the second and third positions; forming an array of two-dimensional scanplanes, each scanplane having the second and third positions; determining the area of the organ wall by calculating the area of the second and third position in the array; determining the volume of the organ wall as a product of the area and thickness; and calculating the mass of the organ as a product of volume and density. - View Dependent Claims (21)
-
-
22. A system to measure wall thickness of an organ comprising:
-
an ultrasound transceiver configured to transmit radio frequency ultrasound pulses as scanlines to and receive the pulses echoed back from the external and internal surfaces of at least a portion of the organ wall and convert to echogenic signal pulses; a microprocessor configured to receive the echogenic signal pulses, and based on the signals, present at least one two-dimensional image of the organ; a first software algorithm executable by the microprocessor to identify wall loci of the organ wall displayed in the two-dimensional image; a second software algorithm executable by the microprocessor to apply a one-dimensional analysis of the signal pulses associated with the two-dimensional image to a second position and a third position; and a third software algorithm executable by the microprocessor to calculate the thickness of the organ wall as a difference between the second and third positions. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
Specification