ULTRASOUND SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANALYZING CARDIAC PERIODICITY

• US 20170119343A1
• Filed: 10/30/2015
• Published: 05/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Pintoffl, Klaus
• Granted Patent: US 10,682,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/02 Measuring pulse or heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart
• 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: A61B 8/486 involving arbitrary m-mode
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5207 involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image reconstruction G06T11/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5223 for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A method and system for analyzing cardiac periodicity includes a processor, a display device, and a probe. The method and system includes acquiring ultrasound data from cardiac tissue with the probe, generating an m-mode image from the ultrasound data with the processor, displaying the m-mode image on the display device, selecting a portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion, analyzing the portion of the m-mode image with the processor to determine a cardiac periodicity, and displaying a graphical representation of the cardiac periodicity on the display device.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing cardiac motion with an ultrasound imaging system including a processor, a display device, and a probe, the method comprising:

acquiring ultrasound data from cardiac tissue with the probe;

generating an m-mode image from the ultrasound data with the processor;

displaying the m-mode image on the display device;

selecting a portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion;

automatically analyzing the portion of the m-mode image with the processor to determine a cardiac periodicity based on the periodic motion; and

displaying a graphical representation of the cardiac periodicity on the display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ultrasound data comprises m-mode data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ultrasound data comprises b-mode data and the m-mode image comprises an anatomic m-mode image generated from the b-mode data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion is performed automatically by the processor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion is performed manually.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion comprises selecting a line in the m-mode image corresponding to a cardiac structure expected to exhibit periodic motion.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically analyzing the portion of the m-mode image comprises automatically tracing with the processor the line that was selected in the m-mode image, identifying corresponding points in the line, and calculating a time interval between each of the corresponding points in the line.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion comprises selecting multiple lines in the m-mode image.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein automatically analyzing the portion of the m-mode image comprises tracing the multiple lines with the processor, identifying corresponding points on each of the multiple lines, calculating a time interval between the corresponding points for each of the multiple lines, and calculating an average time interval by averaging the corresponding points for the multiple lines.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical representation comprises a histogram showing a beat frequency for a specified time period represented in the m-mode image.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical representation comprises a bar graph representing a cardiac beat time.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising calculating a cardiac statistic based on the corresponding points and presenting the cardiac statistic on the display device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the cardiac statistic comprises a representation of a cardiac beat length variation, and wherein the processor is further configured display an indication of the cardiac beat length variation on the display device.

14. An ultrasound imaging system comprising:

a probe;

a display device; and

a processor in electronic communication with the probe and the display device, wherein the processor is configured to;

control the probe to acquire ultrasound data from cardiac tissue;

generate an m-mode image from the ultrasound data;

display the m-mode image on the display device;

analyze a selected portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion to determine a cardiac periodicity based on the periodic motion; and

display a graphical representation of the cardiac periodicity on the display device.

15. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to automatically identify the selected portion of the m-mode image exhibiting periodic motion

16. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 14, wherein the selected portion comprises one or more lines in the m-mode image.

17. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to automatically trace the one or more lines in the m-mode image, identify corresponding points in the one or more lines, and calculate a time interval between the corresponding points, where the time interval represents a period of a cardiac cycle.

18. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 14, wherein the graphical representation comprises a bar graph representing a cardiac beat time.

19. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 14, wherein the graphical representation comprises a histogram showing a beat frequency.

20. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 14, wherein the ultrasound data comprises b-mode data and the m-mode image comprises an anatomical m-mode image.