Systems and methods for finding hepato-renal indices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022401078-A1
Application number	US-202017775635-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 22, 2020
Priority date	Nov 21, 2019
Publication date	Dec 22, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for calculating hepato-renal index (HRI) values from radiofrequency (RF) data are disclosed herein. The RF data may include fundamental frequency components, harmonic frequency components, or a combination thereof. Signal intensities within regions of interest may be calculated from the RF data. The signal intensities may be averaged to arrive at an average signal intensity value for each region of interest. In some examples, some of the highest and/or lowest signal intensity values may be removed prior to averaging. The ratio of the average signal intensities from the different regions of interest may be then be taken to arrive at the HRI values.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An ultrasound imaging system comprising:
an ultrasound probe configured to transmit ultrasound signals and receive echoes responsive to the ultrasound signals and provide radio frequency (RF) data corresponding to the echoes; a user interface configured to receive indications of a first region of interest (ROI) and a second ROI; a signal processor configured to receive the RF data and separate the RF data into harmonic frequency components and fundamental frequency components; and a processor configured to:
receive the indications of the first ROI and the second ROI;
receive the harmonic frequency components and the fundamental frequency components for the first ROI and the second ROI;
calculate a first average signal intensity value for the first ROI and calculate a second average signal intensity value for the second ROI based, at least in part, on at least one of the harmonic frequency components or the fundamental frequency components; and
calculate a ratio of the first average signal intensity value and the second average signal intensity value.

2 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface includes a display and the processor is further configured to provide the ratio for viewing on the display.

3 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
calculate a first plurality of signal intensity values for the first ROI and a second plurality of signal intensity values for the second ROI; and remove a percentage of highest values of the first plurality of signal intensity values and the second plurality of signal intensity values prior to calculating the first average signal intensity and the second average signal intensity.

4 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
calculate a first plurality of signal intensity values for the first ROI and a second plurality of signal intensity values for the second ROI; and remove a percentage of lowest values of the first plurality of signal intensity values and the second plurality of signal intensity values prior to calculating the first average signal intensity and the second average signal intensity.

5 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , further comprising a memory, wherein the ratio is provided to the memory for storage.

6 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , further comprising a transmit controller configured to control transmission of the ultrasound signals by the ultrasound probe, wherein the transmit controller is configured to cause the ultrasound probe to transmit the ultrasound signals as two-pulse transmissions.

7 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 6 , wherein a first pulse of the two-pulse transmission is an inverse of a second pulse of the two-pulse transmission.

8 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the signal processor includes a fundamental bandpass filter configured to pass the fundamental frequency components and a harmonic bandpass filter configured to pass the harmonic frequency components.

9 . The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the signal processor includes:
a summer configured to cancel the fundamental frequency components and produce the harmonic frequency components; and a subtractor configured to cancel the harmonic frequency components and produce the fundamental frequency components.

10 . A method comprising:
receiving an indication of a first region of interest (ROI); receiving an indication of a second ROI; receiving radio frequency (RF) data corresponding to the first ROI; receiving RF data corresponding to the second ROI; calculating a first plurality of signal intensity values for locations in the first ROI; calculating a second plurality of signal intensity values for locations in the second ROI; determining a first average signal intensity from the first plurality of signal intensity values; determining a second average signal intensity from the second plurality of signal intensity values; and taking a ratio of the first average signal intensity and the second average signal intensity to generate a hepato-renal index (HRI) value.

11 . The method of 10 , further comprising removing a percentage of highest signal intensity values from the first plurality of signal intensity values and the second plurality of signal intensity values prior to determining the first average signal intensity and the second average signal intensity.

12 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising further comprising removing a percentage of lowest signal intensity values from the first plurality of signal intensity values and the second plurality of signal intensity values prior to determining the first average signal intensity and the second average signal intensity

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first region of interest corresponds to a location in a hepatic parenchyma.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the second region of interest corresponds to a location in a renal cortex

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein calculating the first plurality of intensity values comprises summations of only fundamental frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the first ROI and calculating the second plurality of intensity values comprises summations of only fundamental frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the second ROI.

16 . The method of claim 10 , wherein calculating the first plurality of intensity values comprises summations of only harmonic frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the first ROI and calculating the second plurality of intensity values comprises summations of only harmonic frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the second ROI.

17 . The method of claim 10 , wherein calculating the first plurality of intensity values comprises a linear summation of fundamental and harmonic frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the first ROI and calculating the second plurality of intensity values comprises a linear summation of fundamental and harmonic frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the second ROI.

18 . The method of claim 10 , wherein calculating the first plurality of intensity values comprises a logarithmic summation of fundamental and harmonic frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the first ROI and calculating the second plurality of intensity values comprises a logarithmic summation of fundamental and harmonic frequency components of the RF data corresponding to the second ROI.

19 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising providing the HRI value to at least one of a display or a memory.

20 . A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions, that when executed, may cause an ultrasound imaging system to:
receive an indication of a first region of interest (ROI); receive an indication of a second ROI; receive radio frequency (RF) data corresponding to the first ROI; receive RF data corresponding to the second ROI; calculate a first plurality of signal intensity values for locations in the first ROI; calculate a second plurality of signal intensity values for locations in the second ROI; determine a first average signal intensity from the first plurality of signal intensity values; determine a second average signal intensity from the second plurality of signal intensity values; and take a ratio of the first average signal intensity and the second average sig

Assignees

• Koninklijke Philips Nv

Inventors

• Huang Sheng-Wen
• Xie Hua
• Nguyen Man M
• Shamdasani Vijay Thakur
• Shi William Tao

Classifications

• A61B8/14

  Echo-tomography · CPC title

• A61B8/54

  Control of the diagnostic device · CPC title

• A61B8/5223 Primary

  for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data (for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012) · CPC title

• A61B8/5207

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image · CPC title

• A61B8/08

  Clinical applications (A61B8/02, A61B8/04, A61B8/06 take precedence) · CPC title