Method and apparatus to visualize the coronary arteries using ultrasound

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9582876-B2
Application number	US-201113333611-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2011
Priority date	Feb 6, 2006
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

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.

First claim

What is claimed is:

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.

Assignees

• Specht Donald F
• Maui Imaging Inc

Inventors

• Specht Donald F

Classifications

• A61B5/7264

  Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems · CPC title

• A61B8/543

  involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal · CPC title

• A61B5/02007

  Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance · CPC title

• A61B8/4254

  using sensors mounted on the probe · CPC title

• A61B8/0891

  for diagnosis of blood vessels · CPC title