Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-15
2001-11-06
Lateef, Marvin M. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
C600S450000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06312382
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to ultrasound imaging and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for processing acoustic information obtained with an ultrasound device to generate cardiac information, such as, for example, a patient's heart rate.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cardiac information is normally obtained using conventional devices and techniques, such as manually operating a stethoscope and listening to the patient's heart, or attaching electrodes to the patient and obtaining an electrocardiogram (ECG) which provides information about the patient's heart.
Ultrasound systems currently are utilized to obtain information about a patient's heart. However, ultrasound systems currently do not extract the patient's heart rate from the acoustic ultrasound information because it is believed that other techniques, such as ECG techniques, are better suited for this purpose. Therefore, although ultrasound systems exist that display the patient's heart rate, the heart rate is obtained using ECG techniques, which require the attachment of leads to the patient's body. Ultrasound systems comprise a probe that transmits high frequency acoustic waves into a patient's body and receives acoustic waves back scattered by objects within the patient's body. The back scattered acoustic waves, or echoes, are converted into electrical signals and the electrical signals are converted into pixels, which are displayed on a display monitor of the ultrasound system. The image displayed on the display monitor represents an anatomical image of the scanned area in the patient's body.
In many cases, it is useful to provide the technician or physician operating an ultrasound system with the patient's heart rate. This information may be useful in analyzing the image being displayed for diagnostic purposes. It would also be desirable to be able to extract cardiac rate information from the back scattered acoustic waves. This would eliminate the need to use ECG techniques or a stethoscope to obtain the cardiac information.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus for extracting cardiac information from acoustic information acquired using an ultrasound system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for processing acoustic information obtained with an ultrasound device to generate cardiac information, such as, for example, a patient's heart rate. In accordance with the present invention, an ultrasound system is utilized to image a patient's heart to obtain acoustic information relating to the patient's heart. The acoustic information is converted into electrical information, which is then processed to extract a particular feature of interest therefrom, such as, for example, the patient's heart rate.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, processing of the electrical signals comprises the steps of generating a time-series from a series of image frames and then performing a spectral analysis on the time-series. The features of interest are then easily extracted from the results of the spectral analysis. In generating the time-series, the same line and depth in the ultrasound envelope is used from each image frame to obtain the sample from the image frame to be used in the time-series. The samples derived from the series of image frames are concatenated together to produce the time-series. The spectral analysis, which preferably is Fourier analysis, is then performed on the time-series. Amplitude peaks resulting from the Fourier analysis are analyzed to determine the fundamental frequency, which corresponds to the patient's heart rate.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, drawings and claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5156154 (1992-10-01), Valenta, Jr. et al.
patent: 5415171 (1995-05-01), Goh et al.
Dinh Ban
Miele Frank R
Mucci Ronald
Imam Ali M.
Lateef Marvin M.
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