Method and apparatus to visualize the coronary arteries using ultrasound

• US 9,582,876 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2011
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maui Imaging, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Maui Imaging, Inc.
• Inventors: Specht, Donald F.
• Primary Examiner(s): REMALY, MARK DONALD
• Application Number:
  US13/333,611
• Publication Number:
  US 20120116226A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,896 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02007 Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• 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 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0891 for diagnosis of blood vessels
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4254 using sensors mounted on the probe
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/543 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10136 3D ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20092 Interactive image processing based on input by user
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30048 Heart; Cardiac
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30101 Blood vessel; Artery; Vein; Vascular
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

A non-invasive screening technique for visualizing coronary arteries which overcomes the problems of visualizing the curved arteries by projecting the three dimensional volume of the arteries onto a two dimensional screen. Blood-filled areas such as the coronary arteries and veins, are highlighted to contrast with other nearby tissues using non-linear classification and segmentation techniques. Data is gathered as a sequence of 2D slices stored as a 3D volume. Software interpolates voxels intermediate to the slices. Wiener filtering or LMS spatial filtering can be implemented on each 2D scan to improve lateral resolution and reduce noise prior to the use of the scan data with the classification and segmentation algorithms. A traditional handheld ultrasound probe is employed to enable the technician to locate the area of interest, but a gyroscopic stabilizer is added to minimize unwanted variation on two axes of rotation.

Claims

1. A method of ultrasound imaging, comprising:

placing a handheld 2D ultrasound scanner in contact with skin of a patient;

obtaining a plurality of 2D ultrasound scans of a patient'"'"'s heart with the handheld 2D ultrasound scanner;

filling a plurality of voxels of a 3D array with the plurality of 2D ultrasound scans;

applying an image processing technique to classify the voxels as representing either a tubular blood-filled tissue structure or a non-tubular blood-filled tissue structure; and

rejecting the voxels representing the non-tubular blood-filled structure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the image processing technique comprises a classification and regression tree.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the image processing technique comprises a hidden Markov model.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the image processing technique comprises fuzzy logic.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the image processing technique comprises an artificial neural network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the recording step comprises recording a plurality of 2D ultrasound scans of heart tissue and coronary arteries of the patient'"'"'s heart.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtaining step further comprises obtaining the plurality of 2D ultrasound scans by constraining rotation of the handheld 2D ultrasound scanner in a roll angle.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtaining step further comprises obtaining the plurality of 2D ultrasound scans by constraining rotation of the handheld 2D ultrasound scanner in a pitch angle.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the constraining is achieved by stabilizing the handheld 2D ultrasound scanner with a gyroscopic stabilizer.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the constraining is achieved by stabilizing the handheld 2D ultrasound scanner with a gyroscopic stabilizer.