Automatic detection system and method of spectral Doppler blood flow velocity

• US 7,798,968 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2005
• Issued: 09/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. (Excelsior Union Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. (Excelsior Union Ltd.)
• Inventors: Li, Yong
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Ruth S
• Assistant Examiner(s): COOK, CHRISTOPHER L
• Application Number:
  US11/317,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20070043294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,733 Days
• Field of Search: 600/455, 600/437, 600/453, 600/454
• US Class Current: 600/455
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/663 by measuring Doppler frequency shift
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52026 Extracting wanted echo signals Doppler systems G01S15/50; Doppler short range imaging systems G01S15/8979

Abstract

A method and system for detecting spectral Doppler blood flow velocity are disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: obtaining Doppler signals of the flow by demodulating, filtering, and analog-to-digital converting RF ultrasonic echoes; analyzing the spectrum of the Doppler signals to obtain each of the power spectral lines of the Doppler signal varying with time; determining a threshold; and determining the frequency shift parameters or the blood flow velocity corresponding to the current power spectral line based on the threshold and the current power spectral line.

Claims

1. A method for determining frequency shift parameters relating to blood flow characteristics, comprising:

obtaining a plurality of Doppler signals from ultrasonic echoes acquired from a patient during a first basic time interval using an ultrasonic Doppler device;

determining a power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval;

analyzing the power spectral density of the Doppler signals to obtain one or more power spectral lines;

calculating a noise threshold of the power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval using a mean noise level of a previous basic time interval;

calculating a mean noise level of the power spectral density of the first basic time interval using the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval, the power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval, and the noise threshold; and

determining frequency shift parameters relating to the blood flow characteristics corresponding to a selected one of the one or more power spectral lines using the mean noise level of the first basic time interval, the noise threshold, and the selected power spectral line, wherein the frequency shift parameters comprise a maximum frequency shift and a mean frequency shift, and wherein one or more of the frequency shift parameters determines a blood flow velocity.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein calculating the noise threshold comprises scaling the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval by an experience constant.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the noise threshold is updated for each of a plurality of basic time intervals.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein each of said basic time intervals comprises one cardiac cycle.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the mean noise level in the first basic time interval (NOISE_i) is calculated as:

${\mathrm{NOISE}}_i=K*{\mathrm{NOISE}}_{i-1}+\left(1-K\right)*\frac{\underset{t=t_{\mathrm{is}}}{\overset{t_{\mathrm{ie}}}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\underset{f=-f_o}{\overset{f_o}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\{\begin{array}{cc}l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)<<br><br>T_i\\ 0& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)><br><br>T_i\end{array}}{\underset{t=t_{\mathrm{is}}}{\overset{t_{\mathrm{ie}}}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\underset{f=-f_o}{\overset{f_o}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\{\begin{array}{cc}1& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)<<br><br>T_i\\ 0& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)><br><br>T_i\end{array}}$

where NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> is the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval, l(t,f) is the power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval;

t is time;

f is the Doppler frequency;

t_is is the start of the first basic time interval;

t_ie is the end of the first basic time interval;

f_o is a cut-off frequency; and

K is a forgetting factor constant; and

wherein the noise threshold is determined by scaling the mean noise level of the previous time interval by an experience constant.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said forgetting factor K is set to 0.6-0.9 by experience.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the noise threshold is determined by experience for an initial basic time interval.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the selected power spectral line is valid, prior to determining the frequency shift parameters;

determining the frequency shift parameters when the selected power spectral line is determined to be valid; and

setting the maximum frequency shift to a cut-off frequency of a wall filter when the selected power spectral line is determined to be invalid.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining whether the selected power spectral line is valid comprises:

comparing a maximum value P(f)_max of the selected power spectral line to the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval (NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>);

setting the maximum frequency and the mean frequency to the cut-off frequency of the wall filter when the maximum value P(f)_max is less than NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>;

reducing the NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> by half until it reaches a preset value when the maximum value P(f)_max is less than NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> for a predetermined number of consecutive basic time intervals;

setting the maximum frequency and the mean frequency to a maximum frequency and mean frequency of a power spectral line of the previous time interval when the maximum value P(f)_max is between K_L*NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> and K_H*NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>, where K_L and K_H are coefficients selected by experience; and

determining that the selected power spectral line is valid when the maximum value P(f)_max is greater than K_H*NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising smoothing said selected power spectral line by filtering prior to determining the frequency shift parameters corresponding to the selected power spectral line.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the maximum frequency shift is determined based on said noise threshold by the use of a plurality of points on the selected power spectral line.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein said plurality of points comprise four ordinal consecutive points on the selected power spectral line, and wherein the first point corresponds to the maximum frequency when:

power spectral density values of both the first and the second points on the selected power spectral line are greater than the noise threshold, and

power spectral density values of both the third and the fourth points on the power spectral line are greater than a sum of a mean value of the power spectral density values of the first point and the second point and the noise threshold.

13. A system for determining frequency shift parameters relating to blood flow characteristics, comprising:

means for obtaining a plurality of Doppler signals from ultrasonic echoes acquired from a patient during a first basic time interval using an ultrasonic Doppler device;

means for determining a power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval;

means for analyzing the power spectral density of the Doppler signals to obtain one or more power spectral lines;

means for calculating a noise threshold of the power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval using a mean noise level of a previous basic time interval;

means for calculating a mean noise level of the power spectral density of the first basic time interval using the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval, the power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval, and the noise threshold; and

means for determining frequency shift parameters relating to the blood flow characteristics corresponding to a selected one of the one or more power spectral lines using the mean noise level of the first basic time interval, the noise threshold, and the selected power spectral line, wherein the frequency shift parameters comprise a maximum frequency shift and a mean frequency shift, and wherein one or more of the frequency shift parameters determines a velocity of the blood flow.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein calculating the noise threshold comprises scaling the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval by an experience constant.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the means for determining the noise threshold are configured to determine the threshold for each of a plurality of basic time intervals, and wherein each basic time interval comprises one cardiac cycle.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein the means for calculating the mean noise level of the power spectral density comprises:

means for updating the mean noise level of the first basic time interval (NOISE_i)to be;

${\mathrm{NOISE}}_i=K*{\mathrm{NOISE}}_{i-1}+\left(1-K\right)*\frac{\underset{t=t_{\mathrm{is}}}{\overset{t_{\mathrm{ie}}}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\underset{f=-f_o}{\overset{f_o}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\{\begin{array}{cc}l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)<<br><br>T_i\\ 0& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)><br><br>T_i\end{array}}{\underset{t=t_{\mathrm{is}}}{\overset{t_{\mathrm{ie}}}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\underset{f=-f_o}{\overset{f_o}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\{\begin{array}{cc}1& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)<<br><br>T_i\\ 0& l<br><br>\left(t,f\right)><br><br>T_i\end{array}}$

where NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> is the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval;

l(t,f) is the power spectral density of the Doppler signals acquired during the first basic time interval, t is time;

f is the Doppler frequency, t_is is the start of the first basic time interval, t_ie is the end of the first basic time interval, f_o is a cut-off frequency, and K is a forgetting factor constant, and wherein the means for determining the noise threshold are configured to determine the noise threshold by scaling the mean noise level of the previous time interval by an experience constant.

17. The system according to claim 13, further comprising:

means for determining whether the selected power spectral line is valid, prior to determining the frequency shift parameters;

means for determining the frequency shift parameters when the selected power spectral line is determined to be valid; and

means for setting the maximum frequency shift to a cut-off frequency of a wall filter when the selected power spectral line is determined to be invalid.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the means for determining whether the selected power spectral line is valid comprises:

comparing a maximum value P(f)_max of the selected power spectral line to the mean noise level of the previous basic time interval (NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>);

setting the maximum frequency and the mean frequency to the cut-off frequency of the wall filter when the maximum value P(f)_max is less than NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>;

reducing the NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> by half until it reaches a preset value when the maximum value P(f)_max is less than NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> for a predetermined number of consecutive basic time intervals;

setting the maximum frequency and the mean frequency to a maximum frequency and mean frequency of a power spectral line of the previous time interval when the maximum value P(f)_max is between K_L*NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub> and K_H*NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>, where K_L and K_H are coefficients selected by experience; and

determining that the selected power spectral line is valid when the maximum value P(f)_max is greater than K_H*NOISE<sub>i−

1</sub>.

19. The system according to claim 13, further comprising means for smoothing said selected power spectral line by filtering prior to determining the frequency shift parameters.

20. The system according to claim 13, wherein the means for determining the frequency shift parameters comprise means for determining the maximum frequency shift based on said noise threshold by the use of a plurality of points on the selected power spectral line.