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:
Aug. 04, 2009
Filed:
Jul. 02, 2004
Yoshinobu Watanabe, Yokohama, JP;
Yoshinao Tannaka, Aiko-gun, JP;
Takao Suzuki, Yokohama, JP;
Hisashi Hagiwara, Yokohama, JP;
Yoshinobu Watanabe, Yokohama, JP;
Yoshinao Tannaka, Aiko-gun, JP;
Takao Suzuki, Yokohama, JP;
Hisashi Hagiwara, Yokohama, JP;
Panasonic Corporation, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
There are provided transmission means () for transmitting an ultrasonic signal from a surface of a skin of a subject toward a blood vessel () of the subject, reception means () for receiving a reflected ultrasonic echo and converting the ultrasonic echo into an electric signal to obtain the ultrasonic echo signal in a depth direction from the surface of the skin, movement detection means () for analyzing a phase of the ultrasonic echo signal in a direction traversing the blood vessel to calculate a movement amount in each of a plurality of regions including a blood vessel wall and a vicinity of the blood vessel wall, analysis means () for analyzing a state of the blood vessel based on a variation in the calculated movement amount in each of the regions, boundary position detection means () for detecting a boundary position between the blood vessel wall and a blood flow region of the blood vessel based on a result of the analysis by the analysis means, and stability judgment means () for comparing the detected boundary position with a detection result in a previous cycle.