A process of monitoring heart valve function involves placing one or more transducers on a patient's body, receiving, using the one or more transducers, one or more signals indicating a blood flow velocity profile associated with a heart of the patient, identifying a first peak in the blood flow velocity profile, and determining a severity of a dysfunction of a first heart valve of the heart based on the first peak.

The present invention relates to a method for analyzing ultrasound data obtained by passing through multiple layers, comprising the steps of: reducing noise in the ultrasound data; identifying an interface between layers by identifying the peak of the ultrasound data after removal of the noise; and differentiating each layer by identifying an attenuation coefficient of the ultrasound data after removal of the noise.

A system for allowing a non-skilled user to acquire ultrasound images of internal organs of a human body comprises a scanner, at least one inertial measurement unit (IMU) associated therewith, a processor containing software, and a user interface comprising a display screen and means to accept user's instructions, wherein the software is configured to execute at least one of the following: to produce ultrasound images; to analyze the data; to decide which images are of sufficient quality to be displayed on the display screen; to discard low quality images; to instruct the operator to hold the housing of the scanner in a predetermined manner; to compute the location and attitude of the scanner; to determine if the scanner is being held such that enough pressure is being exerted on the skin to produce an image of sufficient quality; and to effectively provide instructions how to move the scanner correctly in order to obtain satisfactory images.

A system for acquiring ultrasound images of internal body organs comprises a scanner and at least one inertial measurement unit (IMU) associated therewith, wherein the system is configured to issue instructions to the operator of the system that allow scans to be performed also by persons not trained for ultrasound scanning including the patient themselves, and wherein when the scans are performed by untrained operators, the scans are transmitted to a remote location for analysis by a healthcare professional.

A system for acquiring ultrasound images of an organ of a human body comprises a scanner and at least one inertial measurement unit (IMU) associated therewith.

A fusion imaging system co-registers and fuses real time ultrasound images with reference images such as those produced by MRI or CT imaging. In an illustrated implementation, previously acquired CT or MRI or ultrasound images are loaded into the system. An ultrasound system is operated in conjunction with a tracking system so that the ultrasound probe and images can be spatially tracked. A computerized image processor registers the probe position with a reference image of the anatomy being scanned by the probe and determines whether the probe appears to be inside the skin line of the subject. If that is the case it is due to probe compression of the subject, and the reference image is modified to locate the skin line in the reference image in front of the ultrasound probe. The modified reference images can then be readily co-registered and fused with the ultrasound images produced by the probe.

An ultrasound processing unit and method for use in ultrasound fetal monitoring are provided. The processing unit is configured to receive Doppler ultrasound data corresponding to one or more initial trial depth windows within the fetal region. From these, an ultrasound signal for each trial depth window is extracted. Unlike approaches of the state of the art that seek the optimum depth range based on signal strength, in the present disclosure a defined measure of statistical structure of the signal is computed for each depth signal, wherein the measure of statistical structure corresponds to an intrinsic statistical property or characteristic of the signal. A new recording window is then selected for acquiring a fetal heart rate signal, based on selecting a window which is estimated to maximize the measure of statistical structure of ultrasound signals derived from the new window.

Provided are an ultrasonic imaging system, a data processing method for the ultrasonic imaging system and a storage medium. The data processing method for the ultrasonic imaging system includes: acquiring array element data of each of a plurality of array elements in an ultrasonic transducer array; determining one of the plurality of array elements to be a reference array element and the other array elements except the reference array element among the plurality of array elements to be to-be-compensated array elements, and determining interpolation points of the to-be-compensated array elements according to a scanning position and an acquisition moment of each array element data of the reference array element; and performing data compensation on the determined interpolation points to obtain interpolation data.

Disclosed is a patient monitor control unit (10) comprising a processor arrangement (11, 13) adapted to receive a series of ultrasound measurements received from a sensor (30) comprising at least one configurable ultrasound transducer; process said series of ultrasound measurements to obtain haemodynamic data of a patient coupled to the sensor; control a patient monitor (20) to display the obtained haemodynamic data; evaluate the obtained haemodynamic data to detect a variance in said data; and generate a reconfiguration signal for the at least one configurable ultrasound transducer, wherein the timing of said generation is a function of said evaluation. Also disclosed are a patient monitoring system, a method of operating a patient monitor control unit and a computer program product for implementing such a method.

According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an ambulatory system for determining a cardiac parameter at a fixed location within the cardiovascular system of a subject. The system comprises a wearable sensor including an ultrasound transducer. The wearable sensor can contact the skin of the subject and be positioned proximate to the fixed location. The system comprises a data collection module that is in communication with the ultrasound transducer. The ultrasound transducer is configured to detect a pressure wave passing through the fixed location. The data collection module is configured to collect data relating to the pressure wave passing through the fixed location, analyse the pressure wave, and determine at least one cardiac parameter based on the analysis.