Patent US7537568B2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
US7537568B2
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Doppler ultrasound method and apparatus for monitoring blood flow
Assignee: Spentech Inc
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Filing: 2003-07-01
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Granted: 2009-05-26
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Expires: 2023-07-01
Abstract
Abstract A pulse Doppler ultrasound system and associated methods are described for monitoring blood flow. A graphical information display includes simultaneously displayed depth-mode and spectrogram displays. The depth-mode display indicates the various positions along the ultrasound beam axis at which blood flow is detected. These positions are indicated as one or more colored regions, with the color indicating direction of blood flow and varying in intensity as a function of detected Doppler ultrasound signal amplitude or detected blood flow velocity. The depth-mode display also includes a pointer whose position may be selected by a user. The spectrogram displayed corresponds to the location identified by the pointer. Embolus detection and characterization are also provided.
Inventors
- 👤 Mark A. Moehring
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 11:11
CPC Classifications
A; A61; A61B; A61B8/00; A61B8/46; A61B8/461; A61B8/463; A61B8/06; A61B8/08; A61B8/0808; A61B8/0816; A61B8/48; A61B8/488; G; G01; G01S; G01S15/00; G01S15/88; G01S15/89; G01S15/8906; G01S15/8979; G01S15/8984; G01S15/8988; G01S7/00; G01S7/52; G01S7/52017; G01S7/52023; G01S7/52036; G01S7/52046; G01S7/52053; G01S7/52057; G01S7/52071; G01S7/52073
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 50
Claim 1
Independent Claim
154 words
A Doppler ultrasound system, comprising: an ultrasound transducer operable to emit ultrasound signals into the subject along an ultrasound beam axis; an ultrasound receiver for detecting echo signals resulting from the ultrasound signals emitted into the subject; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit coupled to the ultrasound receiver to quantize the echo signals received by the ultrasound receiver into digital sample values; and a processor coupled to the ADC circuit and operable to process the digital sample values and to calculate Doppler shift signals as a function of time for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and to further calculate detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time and associate the detected Doppler signal power data to the Doppler shift signals for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis, the Doppler shift signals representative of blood flow detected along the ultrasound beam axis as a function of time.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
154 words
A Doppler ultrasound system, comprising: an ultrasound transducer operable to emit ultrasound signals into the subject along an ultrasound beam axis; an ultrasound receiver for detecting echo signals resulting from the ultrasound signals emitted into the subject; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit coupled to the ultrasound receiver to quantize the echo signals received by the ultrasound receiver into digital sample values; and a processor coupled to the ADC circuit and operable to process the digital sample values and to calculate Doppler shift signals as a function of time for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and to further calculate detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time and associate the detected Doppler signal power data to the Doppler shift signals for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis, the Doppler shift signals representative of blood flow detected along the ultrasound beam axis as a function of time.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
160 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the processor comprises: first processing circuitry for processing the digital sample values to calculate data representative of quadrature vectors, each quadrature vector having a first vector component and a second vector component; digital filter circuitry coupled to the first processing circuitry for processing the data representative of the quadrature vectors to provide filtered quadrature vector data, the filtered quadrature vector data representative of the quadrature vectors having noise from outside a bandwidth of interest removed; clutter removal circuitry coupled to the digital filter circuitry for processing the filtered quadrature vector data to provide clutter cancelled vector data, the clutter cancelled vector data representative of the filtered quadrature vector data having contribution from stationary reflectors removed; and second processing circuitry coupled to the clutter removal circuitry for processing the clutter cancelled vector data to provide the blood flow velocity data as a function of time for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
45 words
The system of claim 2 wherein the second processing circuitry coupled to the clutter removal circuitry further processes the clutter cancelled vector data to provide detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 2 wherein the first and second vector components comprises a real vector component and an imaginary vector component, respectively.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
48 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the blood flow data representative of blood flow detected along the ultrasound beam axis comprises first blood flow velocity data representative of blood flow in a first direction, and second blood flow velocity data representative of blood flow in a second direction.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
36 words
The system of claim 1 wherein the processor coupled to the ADC is further operable to generate data indicating blood flow velocities as a function of time for a selected location along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
185 words
A data processing engine for a Doppler ultrasound system having an ultrasound transducer from which ultrasound signals are emitted into the subject along an ultrasound beam axis and an ultrasound receiver detecting echo signals resulting from the ultrasound signals emitted into the subject, the data processing engine comprising: an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit coupled to the ultrasound receiver to quantize the echo signals received by the ultrasound receiver into digital sample values, the digital sample values stored as sample vectors; a memory for storing data; and a processor coupled to the ADC circuit and the memory, the processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and operable to process the sample vectors to calculate detected Doppler signal power data and relate the Doppler signal power data to the blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis, the processor further operable to store the blood flow velocity data and related detected Doppler signal power data for a plurality of time intervals in the memory.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
185 words
A data processing engine for a Doppler ultrasound system having an ultrasound transducer from which ultrasound signals are emitted into the subject along an ultrasound beam axis and an ultrasound receiver detecting echo signals resulting from the ultrasound signals emitted into the subject, the data processing engine comprising: an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit coupled to the ultrasound receiver to quantize the echo signals received by the ultrasound receiver into digital sample values, the digital sample values stored as sample vectors; a memory for storing data; and a processor coupled to the ADC circuit and the memory, the processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and operable to process the sample vectors to calculate detected Doppler signal power data and relate the Doppler signal power data to the blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis, the processor further operable to store the blood flow velocity data and related detected Doppler signal power data for a plurality of time intervals in the memory.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
50 words
The data processing engine of claim 7 wherein the processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data comprises a processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate mean blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
50 words
The data processing engine of claim 7 wherein the processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data comprises a processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate median blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
50 words
The data processing engine of claim 7 wherein the processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data comprises a processor operable to process the digital sample vectors to calculate peak blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
35 words
The data processing engine of claim 10 wherein the first processing circuitry comprises processing circuitry for calculating data representative of quadrature vectors, each quadrature vector having a first vector component and a second vector component.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
24 words
The data processing engine of claim 11 wherein the first and second vector components comprises a real vector component and an imaginary vector component.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
133 words
The data processing engine of claim 7 wherein the processor comprises: first processing circuitry for processing the sample vectors to calculate data representative of quadrature vectors; digital filter circuitry coupled to the first processing circuitry for processing the data representative of the quadrature vectors to provide filtered quadrature vector data, the filtered quadrature vector data representative of the quadrature vectors having noise from outside a bandwidth of interest removed; clutter removal circuitry coupled to the digital filter circuitry for processing the filtered quadrature vector data to provide clutter cancelled vector data, the clutter cancelled vector data representative of the filtered quadrature vector data having contribution from stationary reflectors removed; and second processing circuitry coupled to the clutter removal circuitry for processing the clutter cancelled vector data to provide the blood flow velocity data.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
45 words
The system of claim 13 wherein the second processing circuitry coupled to the clutter removal circuitry further processes the clutter cancelled vector data to provide detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
32 words
The data processing engine of claim 7 wherein the processor further generates spectrogram data indicating blood flow velocities as a function of time for a selected location along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
165 words
In a Doppler ultrasound system emitting pulsed ultrasound signals along an ultrasound beam axis and detecting echo signals resulting therefrom, a method for generating blood flow information of a subject to which the Doppler ultrasound system is applied, the method comprising: for each pulse of ultrasound, quantizing the detected echo signals to generate a plurality of digital sample values representative of the echo signals; and processing digital sample values from a plurality of the detected echo signals to calculate data representative of blood flow velocity detected for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis; generating detected Doppler signal power data from a plurality of detected echo signals and associating the detected Doppler signal power data to the blood flow velocity for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis; and accumulating the data representative of blood flow velocity for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and the associated detected Doppler signal power data for a plurality of time intervals.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
165 words
In a Doppler ultrasound system emitting pulsed ultrasound signals along an ultrasound beam axis and detecting echo signals resulting therefrom, a method for generating blood flow information of a subject to which the Doppler ultrasound system is applied, the method comprising: for each pulse of ultrasound, quantizing the detected echo signals to generate a plurality of digital sample values representative of the echo signals; and processing digital sample values from a plurality of the detected echo signals to calculate data representative of blood flow velocity detected for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis; generating detected Doppler signal power data from a plurality of detected echo signals and associating the detected Doppler signal power data to the blood flow velocity for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis; and accumulating the data representative of blood flow velocity for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and the associated detected Doppler signal power data for a plurality of time intervals.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
120 words
The method of claim 16 , further comprising calculating filter coefficients based on the rate at which the detected echo signals are quantized and wherein processing the digital sample values comprises: generating a quadrature vector from the plurality of digital sample values of each pulse of ultrasound; processing each quadrature vector using the filter coefficients to calculate filtered quadrature vector data representative of the quadrature vector having noise from outside a bandwidth of interest removed; and calculating from a plurality of quadrature vectors clutter cancelled vector data representative of the filtered quadrature vectors having contribution from stationary reflectors removed from the filtered quadrature vectors; and processing the clutter cancelled vector data to provide the data representative of blood flow information.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 17 wherein quantizing comprises quantizing the detected echo signals at four times the frequency of the emitted ultrasound signals.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
79 words
The method of claim 18 wherein generating quadrature vectors from the plurality of digital sample values of each pulse of ultrasound comprises: dividing the sample values into sets of four values, each set having first, second, third and fourth values; and for each set, subtracting the third from the first values to generate a real vector component of the quadrature vector and subtracting the fourth from the second values to generate an imaginary vector component of the quadrature vector.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 17 , further comprising calculating detected Doppler signal power for the plurality of locations along an ultrasound beam axis from the clutter cancelled vector data.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 16 wherein processing the digital sample values to calculate data representative of blood flow velocity further comprises calculating mean blood flow velocity data as a function of time for locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
38 words
The method of claim 16 wherein processing the digital sample values to calculate data representative of blood flow velocity comprises calculating median blood flow velocity data as a function of time for locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
38 words
The method of claim 16 wherein processing the digital sample values to calculate data representative of blood flow velocity comprises calculating peak blood flow velocity data as a function of time for locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 16 , further comprising generating data to representing spectral information indicating blood flow velocities at the selected one of the displayed locations.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
120 words
In a Doppler ultrasound system emitting ultrasound signals along an ultrasound beam axis and detecting echo signals resulting therefrom, a method for providing blood flow information of a subject to which the Doppler ultrasound system is applied, the method comprising: quantizing the detected echo signals to generate a plurality of digital sample values representative of the echo signals; generating quadrature vectors from the plurality of digital sample values; and processing the quadrature vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data as a function of time for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and to calculate detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time and associated to the blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
120 words
In a Doppler ultrasound system emitting ultrasound signals along an ultrasound beam axis and detecting echo signals resulting therefrom, a method for providing blood flow information of a subject to which the Doppler ultrasound system is applied, the method comprising: quantizing the detected echo signals to generate a plurality of digital sample values representative of the echo signals; generating quadrature vectors from the plurality of digital sample values; and processing the quadrature vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data as a function of time for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and to calculate detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time and associated to the blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
42 words
The method of claim 25 , further comprising processing the quadrature vectors to calculate detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis at which the blood flow data is calculated.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 25 wherein quantizing comprises quantizing the detected echo signals at four times the frequency of the emitted ultrasound signals.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
74 words
The method of claim 27 wherein generating quadrature vectors from the plurality of digital sample values comprises: dividing the sample values into sets of four values, each set having first, second, third and fourth values; and for each set, subtracting the third from the first values to generate a real vector component of the quadrature vector and subtracting the fourth from the second values to generate an imaginary vector component of the quadrature vector.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
122 words
The method of claim 25 , further comprising calculating filter coefficients based on the rate at which the detected echo signals are quantized, and wherein processing the quadrature vectors to calculate blood flow data comprises: processing each quadrature vector using the filter coefficients to calculate filtered quadrature vector data representative of the quadrature vector having noise from outside a bandwidth of interest removed; calculating from the data for a plurality of quadrature vectors clutter cancelled vector data representative of the filtered quadrature vectors having contribution from stationary reflectors removed from the filtered quadrature vectors; and processing the clutter cancelled vector data to provide blood flow velocity data as a function of time for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
32 words
The method of claim 29 , further comprising calculating detected Doppler signal power for each of the first plurality of locations along an ultrasound beam axis from the clutter cancelled vector data.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 25 , further comprising processing the quadrature vectors to calculate a mean velocity for each of the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 25 , further comprising processing the quadrature vectors to calculate a median velocity for each of the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 25 , further comprising processing the quadrature vectors to calculate a peak velocity for each of the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 25 , further comprising generating data representing spectral information indicating blood flow velocities at the selected one of the displayed locations.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
141 words
A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for controlling digital processing circuitry in a Doppler ultrasound system to process detected ultrasound echo signals and provide blood flow information, by: controlling an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit to quantize the detected ultrasound echo signals to generate a plurality of digital sample values representative of the ultrasound echo signal; generating quadrature vectors from the plurality of digital sample values; processing the quadrature vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data as a function of time for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and to calculate detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time; and processing the blood flow velocity data and the detected Doppler signal power data to relate the Doppler signal power data to the blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
141 words
A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for controlling digital processing circuitry in a Doppler ultrasound system to process detected ultrasound echo signals and provide blood flow information, by: controlling an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit to quantize the detected ultrasound echo signals to generate a plurality of digital sample values representative of the ultrasound echo signal; generating quadrature vectors from the plurality of digital sample values; processing the quadrature vectors to calculate blood flow velocity data as a function of time for a plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis and to calculate detected Doppler signal power data as a function of time; and processing the blood flow velocity data and the detected Doppler signal power data to relate the Doppler signal power data to the blood flow velocity data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
48 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 wherein the computer executable instructions for processing the blood flow data comprises processing the quadrature vectors to calculate detected Doppler signal power data for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis at which the blood flow data is calculated.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
42 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 wherein the computer executable instructions for controlling the ADC circuit comprises computer executable instructions for controlling the ADC circuit to quantize the detected echo signals at four times the frequency of the emitted ultrasound signals.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
85 words
The computer readable medium of claim 37 wherein the computer executable instructions for generating quadrature vectors from the plurality of digital sample values comprises computer executable instructions for: dividing the sample values into sets of four values, each set having first, second, third and fourth values; and for each set, subtracting the third from the first values to generate a real vector component of the quadrature vector and subtracting the fourth from the second values to generate an imaginary vector component of the quadrature vector.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
103 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 , further comprising computer executable instructions for calculating filter coefficients based on the rate at which the detected echo signals are quantized, and wherein the computer executable instructions for processing the quadrature vectors to calculate blood flow data comprises computer executable instructions for: processing the quadrature vectors using the filter coefficients to calculate filtered quadrature vector data representative of the quadrature vectors having noise from outside a bandwidth of interest removed; and calculating clutter cancelled vector data representative of the filtered quadrature vector data having contribution from stationary reflectors removed from the filtered quadrature vector data.
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
41 words
The computer readable medium of claim 39 , further comprising computer executable instructions for calculating the detected Doppler signal power as a function of time for the plurality of locations along an ultrasound beam axis from the clutter cancelled vector data.
Claim 46
Dependent Claim
33 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 , further comprising computer executable instructions for processing the quadrature vectors to calculate a mean velocity for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
33 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 , further comprising computer executable instructions for processing the quadrature vectors to calculate a median velocity for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 48
Dependent Claim
33 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 , further comprising computer executable instructions for processing the quadrature vectors to calculate a peak velocity for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 49
Dependent Claim
39 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 , further comprising computer executable instructions for processing the blood flow data to display spectral information indicating blood flow velocities at the selected one of the locations along the ultrasound beam axis.
Claim 50
Dependent Claim
75 words
The computer readable medium of claim 35 wherein the computer executable instructions for processing the blood flow data to generate data that is representative of blood flow as a function of time detected for the plurality of locations along the ultrasound beam axis comprises computer executable instructions for processing the blood flow data to generate data representative of blood flow in a first direction and generate data representative of blood flow in a second direction.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
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