Method and system for making blood flow visible

• US 5,105,816 A
• Filed: 05/18/1990
• Issued: 04/21/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fukuda Denshi Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Murakami, Keiichi, Amemiya, Shinichi, Shimura, Takaki
• Primary Examiner(s): JAWORSKI, FRANCIS J
• Application Number:
  US07/525,054
• Time in Patent Office: 704 Days
• Field of Search: 128/660.01, 128/660.05, 128/660.07, 128/661.04, 128/661.07-661.10, 128/662.01-662.02, 73/861.25
• US Class Current: 600/454
• 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

Abstract

A method and system for making visible a flow of blood in a living body. The method comprises the steps of obtaining blood flow vector distribution maps by a recpetion of waves reflected from a living body to which ultrasonic pulses are radiated, and by a Doppler analysis of the reflected waves, arranging dummy blood corpuscle in domains in which the blood flow vector distribution maps are expressed, calculating flow velocity vector of the dummy blood corpuscle for each dummy blood corpuscle from the blood flow vector distribution maps, forming a plurality of images in which the dummy blood corpuscles are sequentially moved in response to the flow velocity vectors, and sequentially displaying the plurality of the images on a display. Also, the density of the arrangement of the dummy blood corpuscles, for example, corresponds to the blood pressure.

Claims

1. A method of making visible a flow of blood in a living body, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a plurality of blood flow vector distribution maps by using a plurality of reflected waves received from the living body to which a plurality of ultrasonic pulses are radiated, and by using a Doppler analysis of the plurality of reflected waves;

arranging a plurality of dummy blood corpuscles in a plurality of domains in which the plurality of blood flow vector distribution maps are expressed;

calculating a plurality of flow velocity vectors of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles for each of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles from each of the plurality of blood flow vector distribution maps;

forming a plurality of images in which the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles are sequentially moved in response to the plurality of flow velocity vectors; and

sequentially displaying the plurality of images on a display.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said calculation of at least one of the plurality of flow velocity vectors of one of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles is carried out by an interpolation using adjacent blood flows in one of the plurality of blood flow vector distribution maps.

3. A method as set forth in claim 2,

wherein the plurality of images in which the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles are moved sequentially in predetermined phases are formed,

wherein the sequential movement of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles in different phases is repeated, and

wherein the plurality of images is continuously displayed.

4. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein one of said plurality of blood flow vector distribution maps is obtained by an interpolation of data reflected from the living body.

5. A method as set forth in claim 4,

wherein the plurality of images in which the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles are moved sequentially in predetermined phases are formed,

wherein the sequential movement of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles in different phases is repeated, and

wherein the plurality of images is continuously displayed.

6. A method as set forth in claim 1,

wherein a blood pressure is obtained from one of said plurality of blood flow vector distribution maps, and

wherein a density of an arrangement of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles corresponds to the blood pressure.

7. A method as set forth in claim 6,

wherein the plurality of images in which the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles are moved sequentially in predetermined phases are formed,

wherein the sequential movement of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles in different phases is repeated, and

wherein the plurality of images is continuously displayed.

8. A method as set forth in claim 1,

wherein a plurality of images in which the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles are moved sequentially in predetermined phases are formed,

wherein the sequential movement of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles in different phases is repeated, and

wherein the plurality of images is continuously displayed.

9. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the display of the plurality of images of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles is selected from at least one of a blood flow vector display and a blood pressure display obtained from one of the plurality of blood flow vector distribution maps.

10. A system for making visible a flow of blood in a living body using a plurality of ultrasonic pulses, comprising:

ultrasonic transmission/reception means for radiating the plurality of ultrasonic pulses to the living body, for receiving a plurality of reflected waves from the living body, for Doppler analyzing the plurality of reflected waves, and for carrying out a process to form a plurality of blood flow vectors to thereby obtain a blood flow vector distribution map;

two-dimensional vector memory means for storing the blood flow vector distribution map obtained from said ultrasonic transmission/reception means, and for providing a first output and a second output;

calculation means for receiving the first output, for calculating data based on the first output, and for forming a two-dimensional dynamic pressure distribution map;

two-dimensional pressure distribution memory means for storing the two-dimensional dynamic pressure distribution map supplied by said calculation means, and for providing a third output;

dummy blood corpuscle generation means for receiving the third output, for forming a plurality of dummy blood corpuscles in response to the third output, and for providing a fourth output;

two-dimensional dummy blood corpuscle distribution memory means for storing a two-dimensional distribution of the fourth output, and for providing a fifth output;

dummy blood corpuscle movement processor means for receiving the fifth output and the second output, and for forming a plurality of respective flow velocity vectors for each of the plurality of dummy blood corpuscles from the plurality of blood flow vectors of the blood flow vector distribution map; and

dummy blood corpuscle movement memory means for storing respective images obtained by sequentially moving the dummy blood corpuscles by an amount based on the flow velocity vector, and for providing a sixth output;

whereby the sixth output is sequentially read so that a movement of the flow of blood is detected.

11. A method for generating a plurality of data representing a plurality of blood corpuscles by using a two-dimensional blood pressure distribution including a plurality of coordinates which each have one of a plurality of blood pressure values, comprising the steps of:

a) arranging a plurality of data representing a presence of each of the plurality of blood corpuscles at each of the plurality of coordinates;

b) assigning one of a plurality of uniform random numbers to each of the plurality of data representing the presence of each of the plurality of blood corpuscles;

c) determining whether the one of the plurality of uniform random numbers assigned to each of the plurality of data representing the presence of each of the plurality of blood corpuscles is less than the one of the plurality of blood pressure values assigned to each of the plurality of coordinates on which each of the plurality of data representing the presence of each of the plurality of blood corpuscles are arranged to provide a result; and

d) eliminating selected ones of the plurality of data representing the presence of each of the plurality of blood corpuscles based on the result of said step (c).

12. A method for displaying a movement of matter in a living body using pulses, comprising the steps of:

a) transmitting pulses to the living body;

b) receiving a reflected pulses from the living body;

c) compiling a vector distribution based on the received reflected pulses;

d) introducing a dummy object to the vector distribution;

e) calculating a distance of movement of the dummy object in response to the vector distribution for a predetermined time period; and

f) displaying a location of the dummy object after the predetermined period.

13. A method as set forth in claim 12, wherein steps (a)-(f) are repeatedly executed.