US 12,376,817 B2
Optimized functionality through interoperation of doppler and image based vessel differentiation
Steffan Sowards, Salt Lake City, UT (US); Anthony K. Misener, Bountiful, UT (US); and William Robert McLaughlin, Bountiful, UT (US)
Assigned to Bard Access Systems, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (US)
Filed by Bard Access Systems, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (US)
Filed on Nov. 2, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/979,601.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/275,242, filed on Nov. 3, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0138970 A1, May 4, 2023
Int. Cl. A61B 8/06 (2006.01); A61B 8/00 (2006.01); A61B 8/08 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 8/06 (2013.01) [A61B 8/488 (2013.01); A61B 8/0833 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An ultrasound-imaging system, comprising:
an ultrasound probe including an array of ultrasonic transducers, activated ultrasonic transducers of the array of ultrasonic transducers configured to emit generated ultrasound signals into a patient, receive reflected ultrasound signals from the patient, and convert the reflected ultrasound signals into corresponding electrical signals of the reflected ultrasound signals for processing into ultrasound image data and doppler ultrasound data; and
a console configured to communicate with the ultrasound probe, the console including one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon logic that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes operations including:
obtaining ultrasound image data of a predefined target area of the patient;
defining an ultrasound image from the ultrasound image data;
detecting one or more blood vessels within the ultrasound image;
obtaining doppler ultrasound data pertaining to blood flow within the one or more blood vessels;
determining a condition of the blood flow based at least partially on doppler ultrasound data; and
identifying the one or more blood vessels as a vein or alternatively as an artery based at least partially on the condition of the blood flow within the one or more blood vessels,
wherein:
determining the condition of the blood flow includes determining a pulse timing difference between a first point in time of a blood flow pulse within a first blood vessel of the one or more blood vessels and a corresponding second point in time of the blood flow pulse within a second blood vessel of the one or more blood vessels based on the doppler ultrasound data; and
the operations further include identifying (i) the first blood vessel as a vein, and (ii) the second blood vessel as an artery based at least partially on the pulse timing difference.