Apparatus for measuring pulsetile part-structures within a living body
First Claim
1. Apparatus for measuring movable part structures within a living body, said apparatus being intended to co-operate with an ultrasonic scanner having an ultrasonic head provided with a plurality of ultrasonic transmitter units, and being arranged to generate pulsation diagrams representing movements of the movable part structures in a pulsatile vessel in the living body, comprising:
- control means, operative to sequentially activate the ultrasonic transmitter units in an ordered sequence for, between each activation of one of the ultrasonic transmitter units, defining at least two selected measuring lines, each of which is associated with a respective associated ultrasonic transmitter unit and for scanning each said measuring line in a sequence using said associated transmitter unit and producing a signal indicative thereof;
vessel wall indicating means, arranged to receive the indicative signal obtained in response to the scanning using the selected ultrasonic transmitter units for scanning two vessel boundaries with each scan of each said measuring line to generate information used to calculate a change in condition of such boundaries in relation to a preceding indication of said measuring lines;
computing means for calculating a pulsation diagram for each said measuring line for the pulsatile vessel from the information obtained from the vessel wall indicating means; and
presentation means for presenting the pulsation diagrams.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to apparatus which co-operate with an ultrasonic scanner. The apparatus includes a line dataprocessor which takes control of the activation of the ultrasonic crystals in the scanner head such that between each ultrasonic crystal activation for a viewing line on the image screen of the ultrasonic scanner a sequential activation takes place of two or three crystals or crystal groups each representing a respective measuring line. A marker is placed for each measuring line in a selected part-structure, such as a vessel, presented on the image screen, Echo-tracking dataprocessors seek the boundaries for the vessel along the measuring lines and lock onto these boundaries. A result dataprocessor computes continuously the changes in the vessel boundaries and calculates pulsewave diagrams for the vessel at the selected measuring lines and presents these diagrams on a presentation unit. The pulse-wave velocity in the vessel can be calculated on the basis of the resultant pulswave diagrams, as can also the amplitude for the pressure pulse and the elasticity conditions in and around the vessel walls.
36 Citations
15 Claims
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1. Apparatus for measuring movable part structures within a living body, said apparatus being intended to co-operate with an ultrasonic scanner having an ultrasonic head provided with a plurality of ultrasonic transmitter units, and being arranged to generate pulsation diagrams representing movements of the movable part structures in a pulsatile vessel in the living body, comprising:
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control means, operative to sequentially activate the ultrasonic transmitter units in an ordered sequence for, between each activation of one of the ultrasonic transmitter units, defining at least two selected measuring lines, each of which is associated with a respective associated ultrasonic transmitter unit and for scanning each said measuring line in a sequence using said associated transmitter unit and producing a signal indicative thereof; vessel wall indicating means, arranged to receive the indicative signal obtained in response to the scanning using the selected ultrasonic transmitter units for scanning two vessel boundaries with each scan of each said measuring line to generate information used to calculate a change in condition of such boundaries in relation to a preceding indication of said measuring lines; computing means for calculating a pulsation diagram for each said measuring line for the pulsatile vessel from the information obtained from the vessel wall indicating means; and presentation means for presenting the pulsation diagrams. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification