Method for determining blood flow morphology and ultrasonic device

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for determining a blood flow form, an ultrasonic device and a computer storage medium. The method comprises: emitting an ultrasound beam in at least two directions towards a target region comprising a blood vessel (S1101); receiving the returned ultrasonic echo to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions (S1102); determining a velocity component of the velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel in each direction from the ultrasonic echo signal in each direction (S1103); determining a vector velocity of the blood flow according to the velocity component in each direction (S1104); determining the form of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the vector velocity (S140); and displaying the form of the blood flow in the blood vessel (S103). Therefore, according to the embodiment of the invention, the blood flow form can be determined based on the blood flow speed, especially the vector speed of the blood flow, the actual condition of the blood flow can be reflected, richer reference parameters are provided for hemodynamics research, and a more accurate basis is provided for subsequent blood flow form analysis.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the invention patent application with the application date of May 8, 2020, application number 202080053442.6, and invention name “Method for determining blood flow morphology, ultrasonic device and computer storage medium”. Technical Field

[0002] The embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of ultrasonic detection, and more specifically, to a method for determining blood flow morphology, an ultrasonic device, and a computer storage medium. Background Art

[0003] There are many different flow forms of fluids, and the blood flow in the human body also has many different forms. The blood flow velocity obtained by traditional methods such as Color Doppler and Pulsed Wave Doppler (PW) is the projection component in the direction of ultrasonic emission. Since the velocity as the projection component cannot reflect the actual flow of blood flow, the blood flow form determined based on the projection component is also inaccurate. Summary of the invention

[0004] In one aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for determining blood flow morphology, the method comprising:

[0005] transmitting an ultrasound beam toward a target area along at least two directions, wherein the target area includes a blood vessel;

[0006] receiving an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions;

[0007] Determine, according to the ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions, a velocity component of the velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel along each of the at least two directions;

[0008] determining a vector velocity of blood flow in the blood vessel based on a velocity component in each of the at least two directions;

[0009] determining the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel based on the vector velocity;

[0010] The pattern of blood flow in the blood vessel is displayed.

[0011] On the other hand, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a method for determining blood flow morphology, the method comprising:

[0012] Get the speed of blood flow in blood vessels;

[0013] determining the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel based on the velocity;

[0014] The pattern of blood flow in the blood vessel is displayed.

[0015] In another aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an ultrasonic device, comprising:

[0016] Ultrasound probe;

[0017] a transmit / receive selection switch, used to stimulate the ultrasound probe to transmit an ultrasound beam to a target area via a transmitting circuit along at least two directions, the target area including a blood vessel, and to receive an ultrasound echo of the ultrasound beam returned from the target area;

[0018] A memory, used for storing a program executed by the processor;

[0019] Processor for:

[0020] obtaining an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions based on the ultrasonic echo;

[0021] Determine, according to the ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions, a velocity component of the velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel along each of the at least two directions;

[0022] determining a vector velocity of blood flow in the blood vessel based on a velocity component in each of the at least two directions;

[0023] determining the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel based on the vector velocity;

[0024] A display is used to display the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0025] In addition, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer storage medium on which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method for determining blood flow morphology described in the above aspect are implemented.

[0026] It can be seen that the embodiments of the present invention can determine the morphology of blood flow based on the blood flow velocity, especially the vector velocity of blood flow, can reflect the actual condition of blood flow, provide more abundant reference parameters for hemodynamic research, and provide a more accurate basis for subsequent blood flow morphology analysis. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative labor.

[0028] Figure 1 It is a block diagram of the structure of an ultrasonic device;

[0029] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the fluid morphology;

[0030] Figure 3 is a schematic flow chart of determining blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0031] Figure 4 is another schematic flow chart of determining blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0032] Figure 5 is another schematic flow chart of determining blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0033] Figure 6 is an input and output schematic diagram of a classification neural network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0034] Figure 7 is another schematic flow chart of determining blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0035] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram showing the blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0036] Fig. 9 is another schematic diagram showing the blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0037] Fig.10 is another schematic diagram showing the blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0038] Fig.11 is a schematic diagram showing the blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0039] Fig.12 is another schematic diagram showing the blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0040] Fig.13 It is a schematic diagram of the cardiac cycle;

[0041] Fig.14 is another schematic diagram showing the blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0042] Fig.15 It is a schematic diagram of the velocity component angle synthesis according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] The embodiment of the present invention provides an ultrasonic device that can obtain more accurate blood flow morphology.

[0044] like Figure 11 is a block diagram of a structure of an ultrasonic device. The ultrasonic device 10 includes an ultrasonic probe 110, a transmit / receive selection switch 120, a transmitting circuit 160, a receiving circuit 170, a memory 130, a processor 140, and a display 150. The transmit / receive selection switch 120 can stimulate the ultrasonic probe 110 to transmit an ultrasonic beam to a target area via the transmitting circuit 160, and receive an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area via the receiving circuit 170 through the ultrasonic probe 110. The processor 140 can obtain an ultrasonic echo signal based on the ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam, and process the ultrasonic echo signal.

[0045] Exemplarily, the transmit / receive selection switch 120 can stimulate the ultrasound probe 110 to transmit an ultrasonic beam to a target area via the transmitting circuit 160, the target area including a blood vessel, and receive an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area via the receiving circuit 170 through the ultrasound probe 110. The processor 140 can obtain an ultrasonic echo signal based on the ultrasonic echo; determine the blood flow velocity in the blood vessel according to the ultrasonic echo signal; and then obtain the morphology of the blood flow based on the blood flow velocity.

[0046] The blood flow velocity may be the vector velocity of the blood flow, and the vector velocity may be calculated by any method such as a speckle tracking method, a transverse wave oscillation method, or a multi-angle deflection transmission / reception method.

[0047] Taking the method of obtaining vector velocity through multi-angle deflection transmission / reception as an example, the transmission / reception selection switch 120 can stimulate the ultrasonic probe 110 to transmit an ultrasonic beam to a target area along at least two directions via the transmission circuit 160, and the target area includes a blood vessel, and receive the ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area via the reception circuit 170 through the ultrasonic probe 110. The processor 140 can obtain an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions based on the ultrasonic echo; determine the velocity component of the blood flow velocity in the blood vessel along each of the at least two directions according to the ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions; and determine the vector velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the velocity component in each of the at least two directions.

[0048] Exemplarily, the processor 140 may also obtain an ultrasonic echo signal based on the ultrasonic echo; and obtain an ultrasonic image of the target area according to the ultrasonic echo signal. For example, the ultrasonic echo signal may be processed by beamforming, orthogonal demodulation, wall filtering, etc. The ultrasonic image obtained by the processor 140 may be stored in the memory 130. Furthermore, the ultrasonic image may be displayed on the display 150. Optionally, the display 150 may also display the morphology of the blood vessels, etc.

[0049] Optionally, the display 150 in the ultrasound device 10 may be a touch screen, a liquid crystal display, etc.; or the display 150 may be an independent display device such as a liquid crystal display, a television, etc. that is independent of the ultrasound device 10; or the display 150 may be a display screen of an electronic device such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, etc. The number of the displays 150 may be one or more.

[0050] Optionally, the memory 130 in the ultrasound device 10 may be a flash memory card, a solid-state memory, a hard disk, etc. It may be a volatile memory and / or a non-volatile memory, a removable memory and / or a non-removable memory, etc.

[0051] Optionally, the processor 140 in the ultrasound device 10 can be implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof, and can use circuits, single or multiple application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), single or multiple general purpose integrated circuits, single or multiple microprocessors, single or multiple programmable logic devices, or any combination of the aforementioned circuits and / or devices, or other suitable circuits or devices, so that the processor 140 can execute the corresponding steps of the methods in the various embodiments of the present specification.

[0052] It should be understood that Figure 1 The components included in the ultrasonic device 10 shown are only schematic, and it may include more or fewer components. For example, the ultrasonic device 10 may also include input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a roller, a trackball, and / or may include output devices such as a printer. The corresponding external input / output port may be a wireless communication module, or a wired communication module, or a combination of the two. The external input / output port may also be implemented based on USB, bus protocols such as CAN, and / or wired network protocols, etc. The present invention is not limited to this.

[0053] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of some types of common fluid forms, including plug flow, laminar flow, vortex, turbulent flow, counterflow, secondary flow, etc.

[0054] The most common blood flow pattern in human blood vessels is laminar flow. Generally, when blood flows at a low speed in blood vessels, it presents laminar flow, and its particles move smoothly in a straight line parallel to the blood vessels. The flow rate is the largest in the center of the blood vessel and the smallest near the blood vessel wall.

[0055] The blood flow patterns in blood vessels may also include eddy currents, turbulence, countercurrents, and secondary flows. The formation of eddy currents, turbulence, countercurrents, and secondary flows has physiological structural reasons as well as reasons caused by acquired vascular lesions (such as stenosis and plaques). Figure 2 The secondary flow shown in the figure includes a schematic diagram along section A (longitudinal section) and a schematic diagram along section B (transverse section). The secondary flow may be caused by the physiological structure of vascular bifurcation or the presence of lesions such as plaques.

[0056] In addition, it should be noted that blood flow morphology may also be referred to as other terms such as blood flow type, category, etc., and this application is not limited to this.

[0057] It can be seen that blood flow morphology contains relevant information about human physiological diseases, and relevant analysis and research on blood flow morphology can provide potential basis for disease diagnosis.

[0058] The embodiment of the present invention provides a method for determining blood flow morphology. A flow chart of the method is as follows: Figure 3 As shown, the method includes:

[0059] S101, obtaining the blood flow velocity in the blood vessel;

[0060] S102, determining the shape of blood flow in the blood vessel according to the speed;

[0061] S103, displaying the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0062] For example, the blood flow velocity in S101 refers to the vector velocity of the blood flow, and the vector velocity may be obtained by an ultrasonic device, such as Figure 4 Shown is a schematic flow chart of a method for determining blood flow morphology, comprising:

[0063] S110, transmitting an ultrasonic beam to a target area, where the target area includes a blood vessel;

[0064] S120, receiving an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal;

[0065] S130, determining a vector velocity of blood flow in the blood vessel according to the ultrasonic echo signal;

[0066] S140, determining the shape of blood flow in the blood vessel according to the vector velocity;

[0067] S103, displaying the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0068] In the embodiment of the present invention, the vector velocity of blood flow can represent the actual flow state of blood flow. The vector velocity includes not only the magnitude but also the direction. The direction of the vector velocity of blood flow at different positions of a blood vessel is generally different; and the direction of the vector velocity of blood flow at the same position of a blood vessel at different times may also be different. Figure 3 It is understandable that S101 may include S110 to S130.

[0069] As an example, the vector velocity can be obtained based on a vector blood flow imaging method of speckle tracking, wherein speckle tracking can be implemented based on ultrasound B image data by using the sum of absolute differences, wherein the calculation can be performed based on plane wave emission and speckle tracking method.

[0070] As an example, the vector velocity can be obtained by a vector blood flow imaging method based on the transverse wave oscillation method, wherein the longitudinal velocity is obtained by a conventional calculation method based on the Doppler principle, the transverse velocity is obtained by generating a transverse oscillating ultrasonic sound field and then calculating based on the autocorrelation method, and then the vector velocity is obtained by combining the longitudinal and transverse velocities.

[0071] As an example, the vector velocity can be obtained by multi-angle deflection transmission / reception. The traditional Doppler principle is used to calculate each angle to obtain the velocity component at that angle. The velocity measurement results at multiple different angles are synthesized by angle to obtain the magnitude and direction of the actual velocity, that is, the vector velocity. It should be noted that each velocity component is equivalent to the projection of the vector velocity in the direction of the component. The velocity component can also be called the component velocity. When the component velocities at two or more angles are known, the component velocities can be obtained by making perpendicular lines (such as Fig.15 The target position or the vector velocity of the target point can be determined based on the intersection of the two vertical lines.

[0072] The blood flow velocity obtained by traditional PW is based on the velocity after angle correction. The above method for determining the vector velocity of blood flow does not require angle correction and can obtain a more actual velocity magnitude and direction of blood flow. It can more accurately represent the actual flow state of blood flow than the traditional velocity after angle correction.

[0073] The vector velocity mentioned in this application refers to the actual velocity of the blood flow (such as the red blood cells in the blood flow), or closer to the actual velocity of the blood flow (such as the red blood cells in the blood flow); the direction of the velocity refers to the actual flow direction of the blood flow (such as the red blood cells in the blood flow), or closer to the actual flow direction of the blood flow (such as the red blood cells in the blood flow); Figure 2 As shown, the direction of the vector velocity can be in the range of 0° to 360° in the imaging plane, and its direction can represent the actual flow direction of the blood flow.

[0074] Taking the multi-angle deflection transmission / reception method to obtain vector velocity as an example, Figure 5 is another schematic flow chart of determining blood flow morphology according to an embodiment of the present invention, including:

[0075] S1101, transmitting an ultrasonic beam toward a target area along at least two directions, where the target area includes a blood vessel;

[0076] S1102, receiving an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions;

[0077] S1103, determining a velocity component of the blood flow velocity in the blood vessel along each of the at least two directions according to the ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions;

[0078] S1104, determining a vector velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to a velocity component in each direction of the at least two directions;

[0079] S140, determining the shape of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the vector velocity;

[0080] S103, displaying the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0081] Combination Figure 3 , it can be considered Figure 3 S101 in includes S1101 to S1104, Figure 3 S102 in includes S140.

[0082] Exemplarily, in S140, the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel may be determined based on the vector velocity in combination with the patient data as auxiliary information.

[0083] The patient data may refer to medical history information related to the patient. For example, the patient data as auxiliary information may include at least one of the following: age, medical history, examination site, etc.

[0084] Exemplarily, the morphology in S140 may be any of the following: laminar flow, turbulent flow, eddy flow, countercurrent flow, secondary flow. Optionally, a pre-trained classification neural network may be used in S140 to determine the morphology of the blood flow.

[0085] Combination Figure 6 , the vector velocity can be input into the classification neural network to obtain the output of the classification neural network, that is, the morphology of blood flow. The classification neural network can be a convolutional neural network (CNN) based on deep learning.

[0086] Before the method for determining the morphology of blood flow in the embodiment of the present invention is implemented, a classification neural network may be obtained through training.

[0087] A training sample set may be constructed, the training sample set including a plurality of training samples, each training sample having a blood flow vector velocity and annotated blood flow morphology, and the classification neural network is trained using the training sample set until convergence.

[0088] Data can be obtained from various channels or sources as training samples. For example, data can be obtained from doctors, who obtain the vector velocity of blood flow through an ultrasound device and mark the morphology of blood flow through experience. For example, vector velocity can be obtained from the Internet or other places and the morphology can be manually marked as training samples.

[0089] Among them, an initial classification neural network can be constructed, for example, the classification neural network can include a convolution layer, a pooling layer, a fully connected layer, etc. Subsequently, the classification neural network can be trained, and a large number of iterations will be performed during the training process until the training is completed by convergence. During the training process, at least one of various artificial intelligence algorithms such as back propagation (BP), stochastic gradient descent or learning rate decay can be used to perform network optimization convergence, identify blood flow types, types and distributions, and perform instance segmentation.

[0090] Exemplarily, a test sample set may also be constructed to verify the trained classification neural network, thereby ensuring stable neural network parameters and achieving reliable determination of fluid morphology.

[0091] In addition, the training sample set can be updated, for example, by adding new training samples. And the classification neural network can be further updated. As an example, it can be updated after adding a certain number of new training samples. In this way, by updating the classification neural network, the output result of the classification neural network can be made more accurate.

[0092] Exemplarily, the shape of blood flow in a blood vessel can be determined based on the magnitude and direction of the vector velocity. As an example, the magnitude and direction of the vector velocity can be represented by a marker with a direction indicator (such as an arrow, line, or bubble, etc.). The direction of the marker can represent the direction of the vector velocity of the blood flow corresponding to the target position, and the length or size of the marker can represent the magnitude of the vector velocity of the blood flow corresponding to the target position. Based on the artificial intelligence algorithms such as the neural network listed above, feature matching can be performed on the markers contained in the target area to determine the shape of blood flow in the blood vessel. Continue to combine Figure 2 As shown in the following description, Figure 2In the method, the size and direction of the vector velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel are represented by a marker with an arrow, for example, the length of the arrow represents the size of the vector velocity, and the direction of the arrow represents the direction of the vector velocity. For example, for the piston flow morphology, when the size and direction of each vector velocity in the target area (the length and direction of the arrow in the figure) are determined to be basically the same, the blood flow morphology in the target area can be determined to be the piston flow morphology; for the laminar flow morphology, when the direction of each vector velocity (indicated by the arrow in the figure) in the target area is determined to be basically the same, and the size of the vector velocity in the central area of ​​the target area is the largest, the blood flow morphology in the target area can be determined to be the laminar flow morphology; for the countercurrent morphology, when the direction of each vector velocity (indicated by the arrow in the figure) in the target area is determined to have a large deflection (for example, a deflection of 180 degrees or close to 180 degrees in the forward and reverse directions), the blood flow morphology in the target area can be determined to be the countercurrent morphology; for the secondary flow morphology, when the direction of each vector velocity in the longitudinal section of the target area is determined to have a certain number of forward and reverse directions (such as the inlet and outlet directions shown in the figure) and the direction of each vector velocity in the cross section of the target area is eddy-shaped, the blood flow morphology in the target area can be determined to be the secondary flow morphology. Regarding the determination of other blood flow forms such as eddy currents and turbulences, one may refer to the above-mentioned similar methods for understanding, and will not describe them in detail here.

[0093] The above description is about determining the blood flow morphology based on the vector velocity. It is understandable that the present application is not limited to Figure 2 The two-dimensional blood flow morphology shown may also be a three-dimensional blood flow morphology. For the two-dimensional blood flow morphology, it can be determined based on the two-dimensional vector velocity; for the three-dimensional blood flow morphology, it can be determined based on the three-dimensional vector velocity, and there is no limitation here. The three-dimensional vector velocity can also be understood by referring to the relevant instructions for obtaining the vector velocity by the aforementioned vector blood flow imaging method; the difference between the method of obtaining the vector velocity by multi-angle deflection transmission / reception and the method of obtaining the two-dimensional vector velocity is that the three-dimensional vector velocity requires the angle synthesis of the velocity components in at least three directions that are not in the same plane.

[0094] Return now Figure 3 For example, the blood flow velocity in S101 may be a velocity component along the ultrasonic emission direction obtained by calculating an ultrasonic echo signal obtained by emitting ultrasonic waves to a blood vessel region. The velocity component may be obtained by an ultrasonic device, such as Figure 7 Shown is a schematic flow chart of a method for determining blood flow morphology, comprising:

[0095] S110, transmitting an ultrasonic beam to a target area, where the target area includes a blood vessel;

[0096] S120, receiving an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal;

[0097] S1301, determining a velocity component of the blood flow in the blood vessel along the ultrasonic wave emission direction according to the ultrasonic echo signal;

[0098] S1401, determining the shape of blood flow in the blood vessel according to the velocity component;

[0099] S103, displaying the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0100] Combination Figure 3 , it can be considered Figure 3 S101 in includes S110 to S1301, Figure 3 S102 in includes S1401.

[0101] Exemplarily, in S1401, the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel may be determined based on the velocity component in combination with the patient data as auxiliary information.

[0102] The patient data may refer to medical history information related to the patient. For example, the patient data as auxiliary information may include at least one of the following: age, medical history, examination site, etc.

[0103] Exemplarily, the morphology in S1401 can be any of the following: disordered, orderly. Compared with the above S140, it can be seen that determining the blood flow morphology by vector velocity is more accurate and can better reflect the actual state of blood flow, and provide a strong basis for subsequent blood flow morphology analysis.

[0104] Optionally, in S1401, another pre-trained classification neural network may be used to determine the blood flow morphology. The input of the other classification neural network is the velocity component, and the output blood flow morphology is disordered or ordered.

[0105] It is understandable that the other classification neural network used in S1401 may be similar to the classification neural network in S140 described above, for example, it may include a convolution layer, a pooling layer, a fully connected layer, etc. The other classification neural network will not be described in detail here.

[0106] The following will be combined Figures 8 to 14 S103 in the above-mentioned various embodiments is described.

[0107] As an implementation method, the morphology of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel may be displayed in S103, wherein the specific area may be a target area or a sub-area of ​​the target area, wherein the target area is the entire or partial area covered by the ultrasonic beam.

[0108] As an example, the blood flow patterns at various positions of the blood flow in a specific area may be displayed. For example, different patterns may be represented by different display modes, wherein the different display modes may be colors, shading, and the like.

[0109] like Figure 8 As shown, the morphology of various locations in a specific area (such as the area framed in the figure) is displayed, where different background colors represent different morphologies, and the morphologies shown include three morphologies: laminar flow, vortex flow, and turbulent flow.

[0110] As another example, the blood flow patterns at various locations within a specific area can be displayed, and the proportions of different patterns can be displayed. Fig. 9 As shown, three forms of flow, namely laminar flow, vortex flow and turbulent flow, are displayed in a specific area, and the proportion of each form is displayed, namely, 64.4% of the area in the specific area is laminar flow, 26.1% of the area in the specific area is vortex flow, and 9.5% of the area in the specific area is turbulent flow.

[0111] As another implementation, S103 may display the proportion of various forms in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel. For example, the proportion of different forms of blood flow may be displayed in any of the following ways: pie chart, bar chart, different colors, different shading, data report, etc. As an example, Fig.10 The proportions of various forms represented in the form of a bar graph are shown, wherein 64.4% of the specific area is laminar flow, 26.1% of the specific area is eddy flow, and 9.5% of the specific area is turbulent flow. It should be understood that the proportions can also be displayed in other ways, which are not listed here one by one.

[0112] As another implementation, in S103, the proportion of different forms of a specific area at multiple times may be displayed. The following Table 1 shows the proportion of each form at three different times, wherein T1, T2 and T3 represent three different times.

[0113] Table 1

[0114] T1 T2 T3 Laminar Flow 64.4％ 64％ 26％ vortex 26.1％ 28％ 42％ Turbulence 9.5％ 8％ 32％

[0115] As shown in Table 1, it can be seen that the proportion of each form at different moments. It can be understood that if the sampling interval for multiple moments is reduced and the number of samples is increased, the change of the proportion of each form over time can be represented by this display.

[0116] As another implementation manner, in S103, the change in the proportion of different forms of blood flow at various positions of the blood flow in the specific area over time may be displayed.

[0117] For example, the changes of each ratio over time can be represented by a curve. For multiple different forms, the changes of the ratio of each form over time can be represented by multiple curves. As an example, they can be displayed separately in multiple different coordinate systems. As another example, they can be displayed simultaneously in the same coordinate system.

[0118] As an example, the horizontal axis may represent time, and the vertical axis may represent proportion, so as to show how the proportions of different blood flow patterns at various positions in a specific region change with the cardiac cycle.

[0119] like Fig.11 The ratio of laminar flow, eddy flow and turbulent flow varies with time. Fig.11 The proportion of each form in t) is as follows: Fig.11 At time t, the proportions of laminar flow, eddy flow and turbulent flow are 26%, 42% and 32% respectively. Specifically, the proportion of laminar flow can be determined according to the ratio between the horizontal coordinate and the solid line, the proportion of eddy flow can be determined according to the ratio between the solid line and the dotted line, and the proportion of turbulent flow can be determined according to the ratio between the dotted line and 100%. Optionally, the specific time (t) can represent the current display frame.

[0120] Optionally, a speed curve, a heart rate curve or other curves obtained by statistics along time can also be displayed in the same coordinate system. That is, the horizontal axis can represent time, and the vertical axis can represent proportion, showing the proportion of each form, and the speed curve, heart rate curve or other curves obtained by statistics along time can also be displayed at the same time, so as to determine the relationship between the form of blood flow and speed, heart rate or other parameters.

[0121] like Fig.12 As shown, it is Fig.11 Based on the speed curve, heart rate curve or other curves obtained by time statistics, Fig.12 It is shown that the change in the laminar flow ratio is basically consistent with the velocity curve, heart rate curve or other curves obtained by time statistics (sometimes they may not be consistent, for example, the velocity curve of the blood vessels far away from the heart lags behind the heart rate). Since the blood flow in the human body fluctuates according to the heart rate cycle, this can more clearly reflect the corresponding relationship between the morphological ratio and the blood flow velocity, heart rate phase or other parameters.

[0122] It should be noted that although Fig.11 and Fig.12 Different shading patterns are used to represent different forms, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, different colors and the same shading patterns or the same color and different shading patterns can be used.

[0123] As another implementation method, in S103, the corresponding proportions of various forms of blood flow in blood vessels in a specific area within a preset time period can also be counted; and the corresponding proportions of various forms of blood flow in blood vessels in a specific area within a preset time period can be displayed.

[0124] Exemplarily, the preset duration can be assumed to be the time length between the first moment and the second moment. Optionally, the preset duration is a cardiac cycle, or the preset duration is a time length specified by a user. Wherein, a cardiac cycle can refer to the time interval between two adjacent diastolic troughs (ED), such as Fig.13 It is also understandable that the cardiac cycle may be defined in other ways, such as between two adjacent systolic peaks (PS), etc., and the present invention is not limited thereto.

[0125] As an example, combining Fig.11 , assuming that the first moment is t0 and the second moment is t1. Then we can use Fig.11 As shown, the proportion of each form within a preset time period from the first moment (t0) to the second moment (t1) is determined. Fig.11 In the figure, the ratio of the area of ​​the laminar flow region represented by the oblique line (i.e., the area between the solid line representing the laminar flow and the horizontal and vertical coordinates) to the total area of ​​the rectangular frame can be determined as the corresponding ratio of the laminar flow within the preset time length, wherein the rectangular frame is the area surrounded by the horizontal coordinate t0 to t1 and the vertical coordinate 0 to 100%. Similarly, the corresponding ratio of the eddy flow within the preset time length can be obtained, and the corresponding ratio of the turbulent flow within the preset time length can be obtained.

[0126] For example, the corresponding proportions of various forms of blood flow in blood vessels in a specific area within a preset time period can be displayed in any of the following ways: pie chart, bar chart, different colors, different shading, data report, etc. As an example, Fig.14 The corresponding proportions of laminar flow, eddy flow and turbulent flow within a preset time period are shown in a pie chart.

[0127] In addition, it can be understood that the above combination Figures 8 to 14 Multiple embodiments of displaying the blood flow morphology in a specific area are described, but these are only illustrative, and the morphology can also be displayed in other ways. In addition, the blood flow morphology in multiple specific areas can also be displayed simultaneously. On the one hand, the blood flow morphology in multiple specific areas can be displayed simultaneously, which improves efficiency; on the other hand, the blood flow morphology in multiple specific areas displayed simultaneously can be compared and analyzed to more quickly determine whether there is an abnormality.

[0128] It is also understandable that an ultrasound image, such as an ultrasound image of a target area or a sub-area of ​​the target area, may be obtained through the ultrasound echo signal; then in S103 , the ultrasound image and the blood flow morphology of the specific area may be displayed simultaneously.

[0129] Now return to Figure 1 The ultrasound device 10 is shown.

[0130] In one implementation, the transmit / receive selection switch 120 can stimulate the ultrasound probe 110 to transmit an ultrasonic beam to a target area via a transmitting circuit, the target area including a blood vessel, and receive an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area. The processor 140 can obtain an ultrasonic echo signal based on the ultrasonic echo; determine the vector velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the ultrasonic echo signal; and determine the morphology of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the vector velocity. The display 150 can display the morphology of the blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0131] For example, the transmit / receive selection switch 120 can stimulate the ultrasound probe 110 to transmit an ultrasonic beam to a target area via a transmitting circuit along at least two directions, the target area including a blood vessel, and receive an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area. The processor 140 can obtain an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions based on the ultrasonic echo; determine the velocity component of the blood flow in the blood vessel along each of the at least two directions according to the ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions; determine the vector velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the velocity component in each of the at least two directions; and determine the morphology of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the vector velocity. The display 150 can display the morphology of the blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0132] In addition, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer storage medium on which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed by a computer or a processor, the aforementioned Figures 3 to 5 Either or Figure 7 The steps of the method for determining blood flow morphology shown in the figure. For example, the computer storage medium is a computer readable storage medium.

[0133] In one embodiment, the computer program instructions, when executed by a computer or a processor, cause the computer or the processor to perform the following steps: transmitting an ultrasonic beam to a target area, the target area including a blood vessel; receiving an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal; determining a vector velocity of blood flow in the blood vessel based on the ultrasonic echo signal; determining a morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel based on the vector velocity; and displaying the morphology of blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0134] In one embodiment, the computer program instructions, when executed by a computer or a processor, cause the computer or the processor to perform the following steps: transmitting an ultrasonic beam to a target area along at least two directions, the target area including a blood vessel, and receiving an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area; obtaining an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions based on the ultrasonic echo; determining a velocity component of the blood flow in the blood vessel along each of the at least two directions according to the ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions; determining a vector velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the velocity component in each of the at least two directions; determining a morphology of the blood flow in the blood vessel according to the vector velocity; and displaying the morphology of the blood flow in the blood vessel.

[0135] Computer storage media may include, for example, a memory card of a smart phone, a storage component of a tablet computer, a hard disk of a personal computer, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a USB memory, or any combination of the above storage media. A computer-readable storage medium may be any combination of one or more computer-readable storage media.

[0136] In addition, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer program product, which includes instructions. When the instructions are executed by a computer, the computer executes the above Figures 3 to 5 Either or Figure 7 The steps of the method for determining blood flow morphology are shown.

[0137] It can be seen that the embodiments of the present invention can determine the morphology of blood flow based on the blood flow velocity, especially the vector velocity of blood flow, can reflect the actual condition of blood flow, provide more abundant reference parameters for hemodynamic research, and provide a more accurate basis for subsequent blood flow morphology analysis.

[0138] Although example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the above example embodiments are merely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention thereto. Various changes and modifications may be made therein by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention as required by the appended claims.

[0139] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of the present invention.

[0140] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic, for example, the division of the units is only a logical function division, and there may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another device, or some features can be ignored or not executed.

[0141] In the description provided herein, a large number of specific details are described. However, it is understood that embodiments of the present invention can be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques are not shown in detail so as not to obscure the understanding of this description.

[0142] Similarly, it should be understood that in order to streamline the present invention and help understand one or more of the various inventive aspects, in the description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the various features of the present invention are sometimes grouped together into a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof. However, the method of the present invention should not be interpreted as reflecting the following intention: the claimed invention requires more features than the features explicitly stated in each claim. More specifically, as reflected in the corresponding claims, the inventive point is that the corresponding technical problem can be solved with less than all the features of a single disclosed embodiment. Therefore, the claims following the specific embodiment are hereby expressly incorporated into the specific embodiment, wherein each claim itself serves as a separate embodiment of the present invention.

[0143] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, except for mutually exclusive features, all features disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstracts and drawings) and all processes or units of any method or device disclosed in this specification may be combined in any combination. Unless otherwise expressly stated, each feature disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstracts and drawings) may be replaced by an alternative feature that provides the same, equivalent or similar purpose.

[0144] In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that, although some embodiments described herein include certain features included in other embodiments but not other features, the combination of features of different embodiments is meant to be within the scope of the present invention and form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any one of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

[0145] The various component embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that a microprocessor or a digital signal processor (DSP) may be used in practice to implement some or all of the functions of some modules in the article analysis device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention may also be implemented as a device program (e.g., a computer program and a computer program product) for executing part or all of the methods described herein. Such a program for implementing the present invention may be stored on a computer-readable medium, or may be in the form of one or more signals. Such a signal may be downloaded from an Internet website, or provided on a carrier signal, or provided in any other form.

[0146] It should be noted that the above embodiments illustrate the present invention rather than limit it, and that those skilled in the art may devise alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference symbol between brackets shall not be construed as a limitation on the claims. The word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of elements or steps not listed in the claims. The word "one" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements. The present invention may be implemented by means of hardware comprising a number of different elements and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In a unit claim enumerating a number of devices, several of these devices may be embodied by the same hardware item. The use of the words first, second, and third, etc., does not indicate any order. These words may be interpreted as names.

[0147] The above is only a specific embodiment of the present invention or an explanation of a specific embodiment. The protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed by the present invention, which should be included in the protection scope of the present invention. The protection scope of the present invention shall be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for determining blood flow morphology, characterized in that: The method comprises: transmitting an ultrasound beam toward a target area along at least two directions, wherein the target area includes a blood vessel; receiving an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions; Determine, according to the ultrasonic echo signal along each of the at least two directions, a velocity component of the velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessel along each of the at least two directions; determining a vector velocity of blood flow in the blood vessel based on a velocity component in each of the at least two directions; determining different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel at different positions or at different times according to the vector velocity, wherein the specific area is the target area or a sub-area of ​​the target area; The proportions of the different forms of blood flow in specific areas of the blood vessel are displayed.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Determining different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel at different locations or at different times, including: The vector velocity is input into a pre-trained classification neural network, so as to obtain different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel at different positions or at different times.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Determining the different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel according to the vector velocity includes: The different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel are determined based on the vector velocity and in combination with patient data as auxiliary information, wherein the patient data includes at least one of the following: age, medical history, and examination site.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Displaying the proportion of the different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel, including: The proportions of different blood flow forms at various positions of the blood flow in the specific area are displayed.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Displaying the proportion of the different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel, including: The proportions of the different forms of blood flow in the specific area at multiple moments are displayed.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Displaying the proportion of the different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel, including: A coordinate system is established with the horizontal axis representing time and the vertical axis representing proportion, and the proportion of different forms of blood flow at various positions of the blood flow in the specific area is displayed under the coordinate system as it changes with the cardiac cycle.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that Also includes: The curves showing changes of heart rate and / or blood flow velocity over time are displayed in the same coordinate system.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Also includes: Counting the corresponding proportions of various forms of blood flow in the specific area within a preset time period; The corresponding proportions of various forms of blood flow in the specific area within the preset time length are displayed, wherein the preset time length is a cardiac cycle or the preset time length is a time length specified by a user.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that The blood flow form includes any of the following: laminar flow, turbulent flow, vortex flow, countercurrent flow, and secondary flow.

10. A method for determining blood flow morphology, characterized in that: The method comprises: acquiring a blood flow velocity in a target area, wherein the target area includes a blood vessel; determining different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel at different positions or at different times according to the blood flow velocity of the target area, wherein the specific area is the target area or a sub-area of ​​the target area; The proportions of the different forms of blood flow in specific areas of the blood vessel are displayed.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that When the velocity is a vector velocity, the morphology of the blood flow includes any of the following: laminar flow, turbulent flow, eddy flow, countercurrent flow, and secondary flow, wherein the vector velocity is obtained by any of the following methods: speckle tracking method, transverse wave oscillation method, and multi-angle deflection transmission / reception method; When the velocity is a velocity component along the ultrasonic emission direction calculated from an ultrasonic echo signal obtained by emitting ultrasonic waves to a target area, the form of the blood flow includes any one of the following: disorderly and orderly.

12. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Determining different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel at different locations or at different times, including: The blood flow velocity is input into a pre-trained classification neural network, thereby obtaining different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel at different positions or at different times.

13. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Displaying the proportion of the different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel, including: The proportions of different blood flow forms at various positions of the blood flow in the specific area are displayed.

14. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Displaying the proportion of the different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel, including: The proportions of the different forms of blood flow in the specific area at multiple moments are displayed.

15. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Displaying the proportion of the different forms of blood flow in a specific area of ​​the blood vessel, including: A coordinate system is established with the horizontal axis representing time and the vertical axis representing proportion, and the proportion of different forms of blood flow at various positions of the blood flow in the specific area is displayed under the coordinate system as it changes with the cardiac cycle.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that Also includes: The curves showing changes of heart rate and / or blood flow velocity over time are displayed in the same coordinate system.

17. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Also includes: Counting the corresponding proportions of various forms of blood flow in the specific area within a preset time period; The corresponding proportions of various forms of blood flow in the specific area within the preset time length are displayed, wherein the preset time length is a cardiac cycle or the preset time length is a time length specified by a user.

18. An ultrasonic device, characterized in that: include: Ultrasound probe; a transmit / receive selection switch, used to stimulate the ultrasound probe to transmit an ultrasonic beam to a target area via a transmitting circuit, the target area including a blood vessel, and stimulate the ultrasound probe to receive an ultrasonic echo of the ultrasonic beam returned from the target area via a receiving circuit; A memory, used for storing a program executed by the processor; A processor, configured to execute or control the transmit / receive selection switch or the display to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17.

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