Ultrasonic medical system and associated method
First Claim
1. A medical method, comprising:
- providing a hand-carried ultrasonic probe having transmission and reception capabilities;
moving said probe by hand over a skin surface of a patient along an at least partially random path;
during the moving of said probe, transmitting an outgoing ultrasonic pressure wave from said probe into the patient;
also during the moving of said probe, receiving reflected ultrasonic pressure waves from internal tissues of the patient;
periodically preprocessing the received reflected ultrasonic pressure waves to derive preliminary structural data pertaining to the internal tissues of the patient, said data consisting essentially of separate sets of data, each of said sets of data corresponding to a respective location of said probe relative to the patient;
storing said sets of data;
analyzing said preliminary structural data of the stored sets of data to determine three-dimensional shapes of the internal tissues of the patient; and
generating a video signal encoding a relatively high-resolution video image of said three-dimensional shapes.
6 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A medical apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe having an ultrasonic wave emitter and an ultrasonic wave sensor. The probe is movable along a skin surface of a patient in pressure-wave transmitting contact with that skin surface. An ultrasonic frequency generator is operatively connected to the wave emitter, while an ultrasonic-wave preprocessor is operatively connected to the sensor for periodically processing reflected ultrasonic pressure waves detected by the sensor. The wave preprocessor is programmed to derive preliminary structural data pertaining to the internal tissues of the patient, where the data consists essentially of separate sets of data, each set corresponding to a respective location of the probe relative to the patient. A memory is operatively connected to the preprocessor for storing the sets of data. A main processor is in turn operatively connected to the memory and/or the preprocessor for analyzing the preliminary structural data of the stored sets of data to determine three-dimensional shapes of the internal tissues of the patient. The main processor includes or is connected to a video signal generator which produces a video signal encoding a relatively high-resolution video image of the three-dimensional shapes. This video signal generator is connected to a video monitor for displaying the video image.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A medical method, comprising:
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providing a hand-carried ultrasonic probe having transmission and reception capabilities; moving said probe by hand over a skin surface of a patient along an at least partially random path; during the moving of said probe, transmitting an outgoing ultrasonic pressure wave from said probe into the patient; also during the moving of said probe, receiving reflected ultrasonic pressure waves from internal tissues of the patient; periodically preprocessing the received reflected ultrasonic pressure waves to derive preliminary structural data pertaining to the internal tissues of the patient, said data consisting essentially of separate sets of data, each of said sets of data corresponding to a respective location of said probe relative to the patient; storing said sets of data; analyzing said preliminary structural data of the stored sets of data to determine three-dimensional shapes of the internal tissues of the patient; and generating a video signal encoding a relatively high-resolution video image of said three-dimensional shapes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A medical apparatus, comprising:
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a hand-carried ultrasonic probe having an ultrasonic wave emitter and an ultrasonic wave sensor, said probe being manually movable along an at least partially random path on a skin surface of a patient in pressure-wave transmitting contact with said skin surface; an ultrasonic frequency generator operatively connected to said wave emitter; an ultrasonic-wave preprocessor operatively connected to said sensor for periodically processing reflected ultrasonic pressure waves detected by said sensor to derive preliminary structural data pertaining to the internal tissues of the patient, said data consisting essentially of separate sets of data, each of said sets of data corresponding to a respective location of said probe relative to the patient; a memory operatively connected to said preprocessor for storing said sets of data; and a main processor operatively connected to at least one of said memory and said preprocessor for analyzing said preliminary structural data of the stored sets of data to determine three-dimensional shapes of the internal tissues of the patient and for generating a video signal encoding a relatively high-resolution video image of said three-dimensional shapes. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A medical apparatus, comprising:
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a hand-carried ultrasonic probe having an electroacoustic transducer and an acoustoelectric transducer; means connected to said probe for enabling manual movement of said probe by a user along an at least partially random path over a skin surface of a patient; an ultrasonic signal generator operatively connected to said electroacoustic transducer for energizing said electroacoustic transducer to transmit an outgoing ultrasonic pressure wave into the patient; a wave preprocessor operatively connected to said acoustoelectric transducer for analyzing the received reflected ultrasonic pressure waves detected by said acoustoelectric transducer and for deriving, from the received reflected ultrasonic pressure waves, preliminary structural data pertaining to the internal tissues of the patient, said data consisting essentially of separate sets of data, each of said sets of data corresponding to a respective location of said probe relative to the patient; a memory operatively connected to said wave preprocessor for storing said sets of data; a main processor operatively connected to said memory for analyzing said preliminary structural data of the stored sets of data to determine three-dimensional shapes of the internal tissues of the patient; and a video signal generator operatively connected to said main processor for encoding a relatively high-resolution video image of said three-dimensional shapes. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A medical method, comprising:
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manually moving a hand-carried probe along an at least partially random path over a skin surface of a patient; during the moving of said probe, transmitting an outgoing ultrasonic pressure wave from said probe into the patient; receiving reflected ultrasonic pressure waves from internal tissues of the patient; processing the received reflected ultrasonic pressure waves to determine three-dimensional shapes of the internal tissues of the patient; and generating a video signal encoding a relatively high-resolution video image of said three-dimensional shapes, wherein the processing of the reflected ultrasonic pressure waves includes executing pattern recognition processes to compare partial tissue structures with stored structural tissue data to identify tissue structures.
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Specification