Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-18
2001-04-10
Jaworski, Francis J. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213945
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
Ultrasound imaging systems have been used to image blood vessels and provide calculations based on the imaged vessels. Typically, a blood vessel is imaged with an ultrasound system operating in B-Mode/duplex mode with color Doppler. A physician examines the displayed image of the vessel and associated Doppler strip and inputs the relevant data into a vascular calculation package on the ultrasound system. After the vascular calculation package generates a result, the physician scrolls through a lengthy list of anatomical location names to select the name corresponding to the imaged vessel. The vascular calculation package then generates a report listing the result along with the assigned vessel location name (e.g., Right Common Carotid Artery Peak Systolic Velocity=1.2 m/s).
There are several disadvantages associated with this approach. First, because the physician is required to enter data and scroll through a list of anatomical location names, the generation of the vascular report is a time-consuming process. Further, numeric data is obscure to most referring clinicians who do not have experience in interpreting ultrasound Doppler results. These clinicians rely mostly on the report conclusion, which says little about the reasons supporting the conclusion. Numeric reports are even more obscure to patients.
To provide a more intuitive and understandable report, some physicians create a hand-made graphical report to show patients. This cumbersome process involves printing a hard copy of the Doppler strip, cutting out relevant sections of the strip, hand drawing a schematic of the imaged vessel on a piece of paper, and pasting the cut-out strip onto the paper. The physician can also write in the calculations generated by the ultrasound system's report package. These hand-made reports are not only time-consuming to create, but they are also difficult to duplicate and store.
There is a need, therefore, for an ultrasound system and method that overcome the disadvantages described above.
SUMMARY
The present invention is defined by the following claims, and nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on those claims.
By way of introduction, the preferred embodiments described below provide a method and system for generating a graphical vascular report. In one preferred embodiment, an ultrasound imaging system is used to display an ultrasound image and a Doppler strip associated with the image, select a segment of the displayed Doppler strip, display a vascular diagram, and display the selected Doppler strip segment near a region of the vascular diagram. Unlike prior vascular calculation packages that generate a report listing the results along with the assigned vessel location name, the use of a graphical vascular report provides a visual roadmap of the vascular system under study, incorporating calculations and results in an at-a-glance display. These preferred embodiments make vascular calculations more meaningful to a wider number of physicians and promote the use of vascular calculations to a wider number of disciplines. Additionally, these preferred embodiments improve the presentation of outgoing reports by directly associating results to target areas. Further, the graphical vascular report of these preferred embodiments are easy to create and are easily duplicated and stored.
The preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the attached drawings.
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Acuson Corporation
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Jaworski Francis J.
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