Heart Rate Assistance for Phase Determination in Echocardiography

• US 20180153514A1
• Filed: 12/01/2016
• Published: 06/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Zhai, Liang, Wilkening, Wilko
• Granted Patent: US 10,595,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02444 Details of sensor A61B5/02427 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0245 by using sensing means generating electric signals, i.e. ECG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7289 Retrospective gating, i.e. associating measured signals or images with a physiological event after the actual measurement or image acquisition, e.g. by simultaneously recording an additional physiological signal during the measurement or image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/02 Measuring pulse or heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display composite display in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52074
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/486 involving arbitrary m-mode
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5223 for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/543 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A heart rate monitor provides a pulse or heartbeat, but without the on-going or continuous phase signal of ECG and/or with a delay relative to the actual heartbeat. For phase determination in echocardiography, the heartbeat from the heart rate monitor is used to assist in identification of phase from acquired ultrasound data. Rather than relying on just ECG or just image processing, the worn or handheld heart rate monitor is used to simplify the image process-based identification of phase.

Claims

1. An ultrasound system for phase determination in echocardiography, the system comprising:

a wireless heart rate sensor for providing a pulse signal for a patient, the pulse signal indicating one heart beat without phasing per cardiac cycle;

an ultrasound echocardiography scanner configured to wirelessly receive the pulse signal, acquire an ultrasound image from a scan of the patient, and determine a phase for the ultrasound image with the pulse signal; and

a display configured to display the ultrasound image and the phase.

2. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the wireless heart rate sensor comprises an optical or mechanical pulse sensor.

3. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the wireless heart rate sensor comprises only one or two electrodes of a handheld or wrist sensor.

4. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the wireless heart rate sensor comprises a handheld or wearable sensor without any cable and without any adhesive electrode patch.

5. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the pulse signal comprises a beat occurring at only one part in each of the cardiac cycles without information for other parts of each of the cardiac cycles.

6. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the ultrasound echocardiography scanner is configured to acquire the ultrasound image as a B-mode, M-mode, color Doppler, or spectral Doppler image.

7. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the ultrasound echocardiography scanner is configured to determine the phase for the ultrasound image from the ultrasound image and with the pulse signal.

8. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the ultrasound echocardiography scanner is configured to determine the phase for the ultrasound image with image processing of a sequence of images including the ultrasound image, the image processing having a search temporally limited by the pulse signal.

9. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the ultrasound echocardiography scanner is configured to determine the phase for the ultrasound image from a heart cycle trace fit to the pulse signal.

10. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the ultrasound echocardiography scanner is configured to determine the phase for the ultrasound image with a delay between the pulse signal and a cardiac event.

11. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the ultrasound echocardiography scanner is configured to determine the phase for the ultrasound image as a relative phase at a time of the ultrasound image based on a cycle beginning time and a cardiac period, the cycle beginning time and/or the cardiac period being a function of the pulse signal.

12. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the display is configured to display the phase as a percentage of the cardiac cycle or a marking on a simulated electrocardiography trace.

13. A method for phase determination with an echocardiographic ultrasound system, the method comprising:

receiving a heart rate from a heart rate monitor;

image processing ultrasound data of the echocardiographic ultrasound system, the image processing identifying a part of a heart cycle for the ultrasound data using the heart rate; and

generating an image from the ultrasound data and the part of the heart cycle.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein receiving comprises wirelessly receiving just a pulse for each heart cycle.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein image processing comprises identifying the part with a search limited by the heart rate.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein image processing comprises identifying the part as a function of a delay for the receiving of the heart rate.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein generating the image comprises generating the image with identification of occurrences of the same part in different heart cycles.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein generating the image comprises generating the image in a sequence with the sequence beginning and ending based on the part of the heart cycle.

19. A method for phase determination with an echocardiographic ultrasound system, the method comprising:

acquiring a sequence of images of a patient with the echocardiographic ultrasound system;

detecting a heartbeat of the patient, the heartbeat being an instantaneous signal that is periodic with repetition of a heart cycle of the patient;

aligning the sequence with the heart cycle using the heartbeat; and

displaying the sequence of the images based on the aligning.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein aligning comprises detecting a cardiac event in one of the images of the sequence and determining a delay of the heartbeat relative to the cardiac event.