The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 08, 2001
Filed:
Aug. 27, 1999
Joseph A. Urbano, Mt. Holly, NJ (US);
Christopher B. Knell, North Wales, PA (US);
Kevin S. Randall, Ambler, PA (US);
Andrew J. Wood, Mt. Holly, NJ (US);
Ecton, Inc., Plymouth Meeting, PA (US);
Abstract
A scheme is provided for locating the time of occurrence of a predetermined event in a physiologic cycle associated with an anatomical object of a subject's body. Echoes produced from transmission of ultrasound energy into the anatomical object are processed by an image frame acquisition device to produce a series of image frames. Each image frame includes data representing an image of at least a portion of the anatomical object at a given time. Then, the difference is determined between the current image frame and at least one preceding image frame. A frame correlation coefficient is output based upon the difference. The time of occurrence is located at the instance of time when the frame correlation coefficient falls below a predetermined value, or when the rate of change of the frame correlation coefficient exceeds a predetermined value. The physiologic cycle may be the heart cycle and the predetermined event may be the QRS trigger of an electrocardiogram.