Method and apparatus for ultrasonic continuous, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring
First Claim
1. A method for monitoring of pressure in an arterial lumen, comprising the following steps:
- (a) converting acquired disturbance propagating waveform information corresponding to energy transmitted and returned from a lumen wall, flow through the lumen and adjacent areas surrounding the lumen, into electrical signals;
(b) forming at least one spatial covariance matrix of frequency components of the propagating waveform measured at a plurality of locations along the lumen;
(c) processing the at least one spatial covariance matrix to estimate a velocity of a pulse wave and any reflections traveling through the lumen; and
,(d) computing the pressure as a function of the estimated velocity.
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Abstract
Ultrasound is used to provide input data for a blood pressure estimation scheme. The use of transcutaneous ultrasound provides arterial lumen area and pulse wave velocity information. In addition, ultrasound measurements are taken in such a way that all the data describes a single, uniform arterial segment. Therefore a computed area relates only to the arterial blood volume present. Also, the measured pulse wave velocity is directly related to the mechanical properties of the segment of elastic tube (artery) for which the blood volume is being measured. In a patient monitoring application, the operator of the ultrasound device is eliminated through the use of software that automatically locates the artery in the ultrasound data, e.g., using known edge detection techniques. Autonomous operation of the ultrasound system allows it to report blood pressure and blood flow traces to the clinical users without those users having to interpret an ultrasound image or operate an ultrasound imaging device.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for monitoring of pressure in an arterial lumen, comprising the following steps:
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(a) converting acquired disturbance propagating waveform information corresponding to energy transmitted and returned from a lumen wall, flow through the lumen and adjacent areas surrounding the lumen, into electrical signals; (b) forming at least one spatial covariance matrix of frequency components of the propagating waveform measured at a plurality of locations along the lumen; (c) processing the at least one spatial covariance matrix to estimate a velocity of a pulse wave and any reflections traveling through the lumen; and
,(d) computing the pressure as a function of the estimated velocity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for autonomous monitoring of pressure in an arterial lumen, comprising an image acquisition system, data processing means, and means for delivering signals derived from the output of the image acquisition system to said data processing means, wherein said data processing means are programmed to perform the following steps:
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(a) converting acquired disturbance propagating waveform information corresponding to energy transmitted and returned from a lumen wall, flow through the lumen and adjacent areas surrounding the lumen, into electrical signals; (b) forming at least one spatial covariance matrix of frequency components of the propagating waveform measured at a plurality of locations along the lumen; (c) processing the at least one spatical covariance matrix to estimate a velocity of a pulse wave and any reflections traveling through the lumen; and
,(d) computing the pressure as a function of the estimated velocity. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification