US 12,453,530 B2
Method for characterizing a tubular object such as a blood vessel by ultrasonic imaging
Sylvain Chatillon, Gif-sur-Yvette (FR); and Djallel Belhadj, Gif-sur-Yvette (FR)
Assigned to COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES, Paris (FR)
Filed by COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES, Paris (FR)
Filed on Dec. 11, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/977,499.
Claims priority of application No. 2314398 (FR), filed on Dec. 18, 2023.
Prior Publication US 2025/0195031 A1, Jun. 19, 2025
Int. Cl. A61B 8/08 (2006.01); A61B 8/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 8/0891 (2013.01) [A61B 8/085 (2013.01); A61B 8/5215 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for characterizing a tubular object by ultrasonic imaging, the method comprising the steps of:
acquiring, by means of an ultrasonic transducer, a plurality of ultrasonic signals originating from the reflection of an ultrasonic field transmitted by the transducer in a region of interest in a transverse cross-sectional plane of the object, for different positions of the transducer relative to said region,
forming an ultrasonic image of the region from the ultrasonic signals,
selecting a dimension of the ultrasonic image and, for each signal corresponding to a vector of the image along the dimension selected, applying a predetermined first filter to the signal, the filter being configured so as to convert a first signal comprising two extrema having the same sign into a second signal comprising one extremum having an opposite sign to the sign of the two extrema of said first signal, the extremum having a position in the second signal that is situated between the respective positions of the two extrema of the first signal in the first signal,
selecting, from all of the signals, the signal for which the result of the filter contains the extremum with the highest absolute value, and plotting the abscissa of this extremum,
determining the center of the object from the abscissa plotted and the velocity of the ultrasonic signal.