Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-12
2003-06-10
Lateef, Marvin M. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
C600S443000, C128S916000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06575907
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to fetal weight determination generally and more particularly to fetal weight determination based on ultrasonic imaging.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The following publications describe prior art existing fetal imaging apparatus, and methods for measuring fetal weight:
“Sonographic Estimation of Fetal Weight”, Frank P. Hadlock et al., Radiology 1984, Vol. 150, pp. 535-540; and the references cited therein;
“Obstetric Ultrasound”, Website: http://www.ob-ultrasound.net, references and links therefrom;
Website: http://www.shinozuka.com/US;
“American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine”, Website: http://www.aium.org.
Various techniques are known for fetal imaging in utero using ultrasonic technology.
Conventional systems which provide fetal imaging in utero are known inter alia from the following publications:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,591;
InViVo-ScanNT of the Fraunhofer Institut fuer Graphische Datenverarbeitung IGD in Darmstadt, Germany, commercially available;
3-D Ultrasound—Acquisition Methods Details, of Life Imaging Systems, Inc. of London, Ontario
UCSD radiologists are working on a new ultrasound technology that's guaranteed to produce much clearer images in three dimensions, by Kate Deely, UCSD Perspectives, Spring 1999;
Product literature relating to the following products:
Imaging software available from A
1
Alpha Space, Inc, of Laguna Hills, Calif., U.S.A. and from Echotech 3-D of Hallbergmoos, Germany;
HDI1500 commercially available from ATL—Advanced Technology Laboratories, Bothell, Wash., U.S.A.;
Voluson 530D commercially available from Kretztechnik AG of Zipf, Austria and from Medison America of Pleasanton, Calif., U.S.A. This ultrasound system includes a scalpel feature which enables manual removal of occlusions blocking full visualization of a fetal face.
L3-Di commercially available from Life Imaging Systems Inc. of London, Ontario, Canada;
Echo-Scan, Echo-View and Compact3-D commercially available from TomTec Imaging Systems GmbH of Unterschleissheim, Germany;
NetralVUS, commercially available from ScImage, Inc. of Los Altos, Calif. 94022, U.S.A.;
3-Scape commercially available from Siemens AG of Erlangen, Germany;
Vitrea, commercially available from Vital Images, Inc of Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A.;
VoxarLib, commercially available from Voxar Ltd. of Edinburgh, UK;
LOGIC 700 MR commercially available from GE Ultrasound.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention seeks to provide an improved system for fetal weight determination in utero.
There is thus provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention apparatus for measuring the weight of a fetus in utero including an ultrasonic imager providing at least one ultrasonic image, a volume determiner operative to employ at least one ultrasonic image to provide volume information relating to at least part of the volume of the fetus in utero, and a weight determiner operative to employ the volume information relating to at least part of the volume of the fetus and density information relating to at least part of the volume of the fetus for providing an output indication representing the weight of the fetus in utero.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the at least one of the volume determiner and the weight determiner is operative to construct a generally full fetal body volume from incomplete volume information based on known correlation information.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the volume determiner includes computerized image processing based segmenter operative to employ the at least one ultrasonic image to provide size information relating to at least part of the fetus in utero.
Preferably the volume determiner includes a computerized edge detection based segmenter.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the at least one of the imager and the volume determiner operates on a slice-by-slice basis.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the volume determiner also includes a measurement tool which provides information relating to at least one of overall fetal volume, volumes of body parts of the fetus, areas of various cross sections of the fetus and sizes of various bones and body parts of the fetus.
Preferably the weight determiner includes a fetal weight calculator receiving inputs relating to at least one of measurement data derived from measurements of a multiplicity of other fetuses, correlations between the measurement data and birth weights, and data from earlier measurements of the same fetus.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the measurement tool is operative to measure features of the fetus in at least one selected plane.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the volume determiner includes computerized image processing based segmenter operative to employ the at least one ultrasonic image to provide size information relating to at least part of the fetus in utero.
Moreover in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a fetal weight calculator receiving inputs relating to at least one of measurement data derived from measurements of a multiplicity of other fetuses, correlations between the measurement data and birth weights, and data from earlier measurements of the same fetus.
There is also provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention apparatus including an ultrasonic imager providing at least one ultrasonic image, a computerized image processing based segmenter operative to employ the at least one ultrasonic image to provide size information relating to at least part of the fetus in utero, and a weight determiner operative to employ said size information for providing an output indication representing the weight of said fetus in utero.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention at least one of the volume determiner and the weight determiner is operative to construct a generally full fetal body volume from incomplete volume information based on known correlation information.
Preferably the volume determiner includes a computerized edge detection based segmenter.
Additionally or alternatively at least one of the imager and the volume determiner operates on a slice-by-slice basis.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the volume determiner also includes a measurement tool which provides information relating to at least one of overall fetal volume, volumes of body parts of the fetus, areas of various cross sections of the fetus and sizes of various bones and body parts of the fetus.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the weight determiner includes a fetal weight calculator receiving inputs relating to at least one of measurement data derived from measurements of a multiplicity of other fetuses, correlations between the measurement data and birth weights, and data from earlier measurements of said same fetus.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the measurement tool is operative to measure features of the fetus in at least one selected plane.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the at least one of the volume determiner and the weight determiner is operative to construct a generally full fetal body volume from incomplete volume information based on known correlation information.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention at least one of the imager and the volume determiner operates on a slice-by-slice basis.
Preferably the segmenter is fully automatic. Alternatively segmenter is semi-automatic.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the segmenter operates substantially in real time.
Moreover in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the pre
Berman Michael
Soferman Ziv
Biomedicom, Creative Biomedical Computing Ltd.
Imam Ali M.
Lateef Marvin M.
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