US 12,220,282 B2
Ultrasound detection of clots in the bloodstream
Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa, Pasadena, CA (US)
Assigned to California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (US)
Filed by CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Pasadena, CA (US)
Filed on Aug. 3, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/880,189.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/229,342, filed on Aug. 4, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0042474 A1, Feb. 9, 2023
Int. Cl. A61B 8/08 (2006.01); A61B 8/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 8/5223 (2013.01) [A61B 8/085 (2013.01); A61B 8/488 (2013.01); A61B 8/5207 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
capturing, using an ultrasound image sensor that employs pulse-wave Doppler with short pulses, an image sequence of a blood flow in a target region of a blood vessel;
measuring, based on the image sequence,
a central frequency corresponding to a first Doppler frequency shift of the blood flow as a whole viewed with the ultrasound image sensor in the target region of the blood vessel, and
a second Doppler frequency shift corresponding to one or more objects suspended within the blood flow viewed with the ultrasound image sensor;
determining, based on the central frequency and the second Doppler frequency shift, a differential in speed between the one or more objects suspended within the main blood flow and the blood flow as a whole;
measuring, based on the image sequence, a relative position of the one or more objects within a cross section of the blood vessel by performing operations comprising: measuring a location of the one or more objects within the cross section of the blood vessel, and measuring a distance between the one or more objects and one or more other objects present in the blood flow in the cross section; and
detecting, based on the differential in speed, the location, and the distance, that the one or more particles correspond to one or more anomalies present in the blood flow.