General Electric Company

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Aaron Mark Dentinger

Ralph Thomas Hoctor

Kai Erik Thomenius

Kedar Anil Patwardhan

David Martin Mills

Sandeep Narendra Gupta

Yongjian Yu

Bruce Arnold Friedman

John Erik Hershey

Kenneth Brakeley Welles

David Michael Davenport

Harold Woodruff Tomlinson, Jr

Anthony Wykeham Jacomb-Hood

Sung Su Han

Khalil John Maalouf

Nick Andrew VanStralen

Jeremy William McCarter

Sameh Mahmoud Sowelam

Michael Henry Mackin

A method for continuous non-invasive hemodynamic state monitoring in a subject. The method includes acquiring continuous ultrasound data, estimating continuous arterial waveforms based upon the acquired ultrasound data, and deriving hemodynamic parameters for each cardiac cycle from the arterial waveforms. The method further includes defining a current hemodynamic state of the subject by setting limits on one or more hemodynamic parameters based upon the variation of these parameters over an initial period of time, and continuously monitoring a hemodynamic state of the subject. Further, a current state for one or more hemodynamic parameters of the subject are compared to previously determined limits for the one or more hemodynamic parameters, and either an alarm is triggered in an event that a change is detected in the current state of the one or more hemodynamic parameters or the arterial parameters are converted into a continuous estimate of the arterial blood pressure.

System and method for monitoring hemodynamic state

In one embodiment, a method of detecting centerline of a vessel is provided. The method comprises steps of acquiring a 3D image volume, initializing a centerline, initializing a Kalman filter, predicting a next center point using the Kalman filter, checking validity of the prediction made using the Kalman filter, performing template matching, updating the Kalman filter based on the template matching and repeating the steps of predicting, checking, performing and updating for a predetermined number of times. Methods of automatic vessel segmentation and temporal tracking of the segmented vessel is further described with reference to the method of detecting centerline.

Methods for automatic segmentation and temporal tracking

In one embodiment, a method of detecting centerline of a vessel is provided. The method comprises steps of acquiring a 3D image volume, initializing a centerline, initializing a Kalman filter, predicting a next center point using the Kalman filter, checking validity of the prediction made using the Kalman filter, performing template matching, updating the Kalman filter based on the template matching and repeating the steps of predicting, checking, performing, and updating for a predetermined number of times. Methods of automatic vessel segmentation and temporal tracking of the segmented vessel is further described with reference to the method of detecting centerline.

A method for continuous non-invasive monitoring of multiple arterial parameters of a patient is provided. The method includes continuously acquiring ultrasound data via an ultrasound transducer attached to the patient for detecting a blood vessel using color flow processing within a monitoring scan plane. Further, the method includes processing the continuously acquired ultrasound data to generate continuous quantitative waveforms based on an estimated cross-sectional area of the blood vessel and an estimated volumetric flow rate of blood through the vessel and displaying the generated continuous quantitative waveforms for monitoring the arterial parameters of the patient in real-time.

Method and system for non-invasive monitoring of patient parameters

A technique is provided for computing or monitoring blood viscosity. The technique includes measuring a cross sectional area of a arterial segment and a volumetric flow rate of blood flowing through the arterial segment at two or more locations, estimating a compliance transfer function from blood measurements to scale the arterial cross sectional area into a pressure waveform, deriving a transmission line model of the arterial segment based on the cross sectional area, as scaled by the compliance transfer function, of the arterial segment at the two or more locations and the volumetric flow rate of blood at the two or more locations. The technique also includes computing the blood viscosity based on the transmission line model.

System and method for measuring blood viscosity

The systems and methods enhance, or increase the strength of, signals collected from a target object, to facilitate identification of the object, by removing or suppressing signal variations or aberrations associated with the object or its surroundings.

Heart rate demodulation of periodic movement in ultrasound data for object identification

A method and system for use in measuring the endothelial dysfunction utilizing flow mediated dilation and determining arterial health of a patient. The system includes a non-invasive blood pressure monitor, an ultrasound system and a pulse oximeter monitor that all communicate with each other to perform the flow mediated dilation. Initially, the ultrasound transducer, blood pressure cuff and pulse oximeter sensor are positioned on an arm of the patient. The blood pressure cuff is inflated to occlude an artery for an occlusion period. Following the occlusion period, the ultrasound system is automatically signaled to begin determining a parameter of the artery, such as diameter, and the flow rate of blood through the artery without any operator intervention. At the same time, the pulse wave velocity PWV is calculated between the ultrasound transducer and the finger probe of the pulse oximeter following the occlusion period. Based upon the detected characteristics of the artery before and after occlusion, as well as the PWV, the system can determine the endothelial dysfunction and arterial health of the patient.

Method and apparatus for automated vascular function testing

A method and system for use in measuring the endothelial dysfunction in a patient utilizing flow mediated dilation. The system includes both a non-invasive blood pressure monitor and an ultrasound system that communicate with each other to perform the flow mediated dilation. Initially, the ultrasound transducer and blood pressure cuff are positioned on an arm of the patient and the blood pressure cuff is inflated to occlude an artery for an occlusion period. Following the occlusion period, the ultrasound system is automatically signaled to begin determining both the diameter of the artery and the flow rate of blood through the artery without any operator intervention. Based upon the detected characteristics of the artery before and after occlusion, the system can determine the endothelial dysfunction of the patient.

Method and apparatus for automated flow mediated dilation

Ultrasound is used to provide input data for a blood pressure estimation scheme. The use of transcutaneous ultrasound provides arterial lumen area and pulse wave velocity information. In addition, ultrasound measurements are taken in such a way that all the data describes a single, uniform arterial segment. Therefore a computed area relates only to the arterial blood volume present. Also, the measured pulse wave velocity is directly related to the mechanical properties of the segment of elastic tube (artery) for which the blood volume is being measured. In a patient monitoring application, the operator of the ultrasound device is eliminated through the use of software that automatically locates the artery in the ultrasound data, e.g., using known edge detection techniques. Autonomous operation of the ultrasound system allows it to report blood pressure and blood flow traces to the clinical users without those users having to interpret an ultrasound image or operate an ultrasound imaging device.

Method and apparatus for ultrasonic continuous, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring

An ultra-wideband (UWB) communications system combines the techniques of a transmitted reference (TR) and a multiple access scheme called delay hopping (DH). Combining these two techniques using UWB signaling using a continuous noise transmitted waveform avoids the synchronization difficulties associated with conventional approaches. This TR technique is combined with the DH multiple access technique to create a UWB communications scheme that has a greater multiple access capacity than does the UWB TR technique by itself.

Ultra-wideband communications system and method using a delay hopped, continuous noise transmitted reference

An apparatus, method, and computer program product for assigning communication resources in a beam-hopping cellular communication system. The satellite has a multiple beam antenna that covers a number of cells that is greater than the number of available beams In a preferred embodiment, the method includes the steps of selecting a frequency for each beam, computing a dwell time for each cell based on the traffic estimates for each cell and the number of available beams, and selecting a cell hopping sequence for each beam based on the dwell times and predicted inter-beam interference.

Apparatus, method, and computer program products for cell-hopping satellite communications

A method for generating a high resolution image in a radiation imaging system which produces multiple exposure signals from a movable detector array is disclosed. The image data signals or image acquisition signals generated from the image detector assembly of the image radiation system during an imaging cycle are passed through a finite impulse response filter having a combined frequency response comprised of an inverse filter frequency response portion and a noise regularization frequency response portion such that the noise regularization decrease the frequency response of the filter as the frequency of the data signals increase thereby effectively preventing blurring of the image produced from the image data signals.

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Niskayuna, NY, United States of America

Aaron Mark Dentinger