Rehabilitation assessment system and rehabilitation assessment method

Abstract

The present invention discloses a rehabilitation assessment system and a rehabilitation assessment method. The rehabilitation assessment system includes an image capturing unit, an image analysis unit, and an evaluation unit. The image capturing unit is operable to image a blood vessel of a rehabilitation patient to generate a blood vessel image. The image analysis unit is operable to establish an upper blood vessel wall measurement line along an upper blood vessel wall and a lower blood vessel measurement line along a lower blood vessel. The image analysis unit is operable to form a plurality of distance measurement lines at intervals between the upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the lower blood vessel wall measurement line. The image analysis unit is operable to calculate lengths of the distance measurement lines to generate an average blood vessel width. The evaluation unit has a plurality of evaluation intervals. Each of the evaluation intervals corresponds to the different average blood vessel width. The evaluation unit is operable to evaluate a state of the blood vessel of the rehabilitation patient according to the average blood vessel width in one of the evaluation intervals.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to an assessment system and assessment method, and more particularly to a rehabilitation assessment system and rehabilitation assessment method. Prior Technology

[0002] Existing rehabilitation assessment systems do not use vascular identification technology for assessment, and existing vascular identification and analysis rely heavily on manual diagnosis. This approach is not only inefficient, but also easily affected by subjective factors, leading to incorrect judgments or omissions, which in turn affects the accuracy of the rehabilitation assessment system.

[0003] Therefore, the inventor believed that the above-mentioned defects could be improved. So he devoted himself to research and applied scientific principles, and finally proposed an invention that is reasonably designed and effectively improves the above-mentioned defects. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The present invention provides a rehabilitation assessment system and a rehabilitation assessment method that can effectively improve the defects that may arise from existing rehabilitation assessment systems.

[0005] One embodiment of the present invention discloses a rehabilitation assessment system, comprising: an imaging unit for acquiring an image of a blood vessel of a rehabilitation subject to generate a vascular image; an image analysis unit electrically coupled to the imaging unit, the image analysis unit receiving the vascular image and establishing an upper vascular wall measurement line and a lower vascular wall measurement line along an upper vascular wall and a lower vascular wall respectively in the vascular image; wherein the image analysis unit forms a plurality of distance measurement lines at intervals between the upper vascular wall measurement line and the lower vascular wall measurement line; wherein the image analysis unit calculates the lengths of the plurality of distance measurement lines to generate an average vascular width; and an assessment unit electrically coupled to the image analysis unit, the assessment unit having a plurality of assessment intervals, each assessment interval corresponding to a different vascular width, the assessment unit assessing the state of the rehabilitation subject's blood vessels based on the average vascular width falling into one of the plurality of assessment intervals.

[0006] One embodiment of the present invention discloses a rehabilitation assessment method applied to a rehabilitation assessment system. The steps of the rehabilitation assessment method include: configuring a flexural unit to capture an image of a patient's blood vessels to generate a vascular image; configuring an image analysis unit to receive the vascular image, and configuring the image analysis unit to establish an upper vascular wall measurement line and a lower vascular wall measurement line along an upper vascular wall and a lower vascular wall respectively in the vascular image; configuring the image analysis unit to form a plurality of distance measurement lines at the distance interval between the upper vascular wall measurement line and the lower vascular wall measurement line; configuring the image analysis unit to calculate the average length of the plurality of distance measurement lines to generate a vascular width value; and configuring an assessment unit to assess the state of the patient's blood vessels based on the vascular width value falling into one of a plurality of assessment intervals.

[0007] In summary, the rehabilitation assessment system and method disclosed in this embodiment of the invention improve the accuracy of the assessment by: "establishing an upper blood vessel wall measurement line and a lower blood vessel wall measurement line along an upper blood vessel wall and a lower blood vessel wall respectively in the vascular image by the image analysis unit"; "forming multiple distance measurement lines at intervals between the upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the lower blood vessel wall measurement line by the image analysis unit"; and "calculating the lengths of the multiple distance measurement lines to generate an average blood vessel width by the image analysis unit".

[0008] To further understand the features and technical content of this invention, please refer to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. However, these descriptions and drawings are only for illustrating the invention and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the invention in any way. Simple Explanation of the Diagram

[0009] Figure 1 is a block diagram of the rehabilitation assessment system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0010] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of vascular images of a rehabilitation patient according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0011] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of establishing a blood vessel wall measurement line on a rehabilitation patient's image according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of establishing blood vessel wall measurement lines and distance measurement lines on the image of a rehabilitation patient according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0013] Figure 5 is a flowchart of the rehabilitation assessment method according to an embodiment of the present invention. Implementation

[0014] The following specific embodiments illustrate the implementation of the "Rehabilitation Assessment System and Rehabilitation Assessment Method" disclosed in this invention. Those skilled in the art can understand the advantages and effects of this invention from the content disclosed in this specification. This invention can be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments, and various details in this specification can also be modified and changed based on different viewpoints and applications without departing from the concept of this invention. Furthermore, the accompanying drawings of this invention are for simple illustrative purposes only and are not depictions of actual dimensions; this is stated beforehand. The following embodiments will further describe the relevant technical content of this invention in detail, but the disclosed content is not intended to limit the scope of protection of this invention.

[0015] It should be understood that while terms such as "first," "second," and "third" may be used in this document to describe various components or signals, these components or signals should not be limited by these terms. These terms are primarily used to distinguish one component from another, or one signal from another. Furthermore, the term "or" as used herein should, as appropriate, include any combination of one or more of the associated listed items.

[0016] Please refer to Figures 1 to 5, which illustrate embodiments of the present invention. This embodiment provides a rehabilitation assessment system 100, primarily for a rehabilitation patient to perform vascular assessment. The rehabilitation assessment system 100 can assess the vascular status of the rehabilitation patient by calculating the vascular width, thereby improving the accuracy of the assessment.

[0017] It should be noted that, for ease of understanding of this embodiment, the diagrams represent partial blocks of the rehabilitation assessment system 100 to clearly illustrate the blocks and connections of the rehabilitation assessment system 100, but the present invention is not limited to the diagrams. The following will describe the blocks and connections of the rehabilitation assessment system 100 respectively.

[0018] As shown in Figures 1 to 4, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 includes an imaging unit 1, an image analysis unit 2 electrically coupled to the imaging unit 1, and an assessment unit 3 electrically coupled to the image analysis unit 2. The imaging unit 1 is used to capture images of the blood vessels of the rehabilitated individual to generate a vascular image (as shown in Figure 2). In this embodiment, the imaging unit 1 may be an ultrasound scanning instrument, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, in other embodiments of the present invention not illustrated, the imaging unit 1 may also be a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instrument.

[0019] It should be noted that the imaging unit 1 is used to image the veins of the rehabilitation patient to generate the vascular image, but the present invention is not limited thereto. In other embodiments not illustrated in the present invention, the imaging unit 1 can also image the arteries or microvessels of the rehabilitation patient.

[0020] The image analysis unit 2 receives the vascular image, and establishes an upper vascular wall measurement line (UVL) and a lower vascular wall measurement line (LVL) along an upper vascular wall and a lower vascular wall respectively in the vascular image (as shown in Figure 3). Specifically, the method by which the image analysis unit 2 establishes the upper vascular wall measurement line (UVL) and the lower vascular wall measurement line (LVL) in this embodiment is as follows.

[0021] The image analysis unit 2 establishes a predicted upper vessel wall measurement line and a predicted lower vessel wall measurement line based on the boundary between a first color and a second color of different colors in the vascular image. In this embodiment, the image analysis unit 2 establishes at least one predicted upper vessel wall measurement line and at least one predicted lower vessel wall measurement line based on the location of the boundary between black (i.e., the first color) and white (i.e., the second color) of different colors in the vascular image, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the first color and the second color can be adjusted and changed according to actual design requirements.

[0022] It should be noted that, in the aforementioned vascular image, in addition to blood vessels, there is also muscle tissue. Because blood vessels and muscle tissue have different texture characteristics, for example, in the vascular image, the upper vessel wall does not intersect with the lower vessel wall, and the distance between the upper and lower vessel walls in each segment of the blood vessel is approximately the same.

[0023] Conversely, the texture of the muscle tissue is interlaced, so in the vascular image, the predicted upper vascular wall measurement line and the predicted lower vascular wall measurement line established by the image analysis unit 2 will intersect.

[0024] As described above, in order to identify the upper and lower vessel walls of a blood vessel, the image analysis unit 2 forms multiple distance sensing lines at the distance interval between each set of predicted upper vessel wall measurement lines and predicted lower vessel wall measurement lines. The image analysis unit 2 compares the differences between any two adjacent distance sensing lines, and if each difference is less than a threshold value, the image analysis unit 2 determines that the predicted upper vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower vessel wall measurement line are respectively the upper vessel wall measurement line (UVL) and the lower vessel wall measurement line (LVL).

[0025] For example, if the threshold value is set to 0.5 cm, and the length of each of the plurality of distance sensing lines is approximately 2 cm, then the difference between any two adjacent distance sensing lines compared by the image analysis unit 2 is less than 0.5 cm (i.e., the threshold value). Therefore, the image analysis unit 2 can determine that the predicted upper vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower vessel wall measurement line are the upper vessel wall measurement line UVL and the lower vessel wall measurement line LVL, respectively.

[0026] Conversely, if two adjacent distance sensing lines among the plurality of distance sensing lines are 2 cm and 1.3 cm respectively, the image analysis unit 2 calculates the difference between the two adjacent distance sensing lines to be 0.7 cm, and the image analysis unit 2 compares the 0.7 cm difference to be greater than 0.5 cm (i.e., the threshold value). Therefore, the image analysis unit 2 determines that the predicted upper vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower vessel wall measurement line are not the upper vessel wall measurement line UVL and the lower vessel wall measurement line LVL.

[0027] As described above, the image analysis unit 2 identifies the blood vessels in the vascular image by the difference between any two adjacent distance sensing lines, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, in other embodiments not illustrated in the present invention, the image analysis unit 2 can sequentially compare the difference between two adjacent distance sensing lines along a preset direction to determine whether the predicted upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower blood vessel wall measurement line are respectively the upper blood vessel wall measurement line UVL and the lower blood vessel wall measurement line LVL. When the image analysis unit 2 sequentially compares the difference between two adjacent distance sensing lines along the preset direction and both are less than the threshold value, the image analysis unit 2 determines that the predicted upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower blood vessel wall measurement line are respectively the upper blood vessel wall measurement line UVL and the lower blood vessel wall measurement line LVL.

[0028] It should be further noted that the above-described method for vessel identification can use an image segmentation algorithm in the image analysis unit 2 to determine that the predicted upper vessel wall measurement line (UVL) and the predicted lower vessel wall measurement line (LVL) are respectively the upper vessel wall measurement line (UVL) and the lower vessel wall measurement line (LVL). The image segmentation algorithm is either the U-Net algorithm or the U-Net++ algorithm, but the present invention is not limited to these.

[0029] As shown in Figures 1 to 4, after the upper vessel wall measurement line (UVL) and the lower vessel wall measurement line (LVL) are established, the image analysis unit 2 forms multiple distance measurement lines (DML) at intervals between the upper vessel wall measurement line (UVL) and the lower vessel wall measurement line (LVL) (as shown in Figure 4). Then, the image analysis unit 2 calculates the lengths of the multiple distance measurement lines (DML) to generate an average vessel width.

[0030] It should be noted that the number of distance measurement lines (DMLs) determines the accuracy of the average blood vessel width corresponding to the actual blood vessel width. Specifically, the more distance measurement lines (DMLs) there are, the closer the average blood vessel width calculated by the image analysis unit 2 is to the actual blood vessel width; conversely, the fewer distance measurement lines (DMLs) there are, the less the average blood vessel width calculated by the image analysis unit 2 is to the actual blood vessel width.

[0031] It should be further noted that, to ensure more accurate measurement of the blood vessels, the angles between the two ends of each distance measurement line (DML) formed by the image analysis unit 2 and the upper vessel wall measurement line (UVL) and the lower vessel wall measurement line (LVL) are approximately 90 degrees. That is, the angle between the upper vessel wall measurement line (UVL) and each distance measurement line (DML) is between 85 and 95 degrees, and the angle between the lower vessel wall measurement line (LVL) and each distance measurement line (DML) is between 85 and 95 degrees. Therefore, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 of this embodiment accurately measures the width of blood vessels using multiple distance measurement lines (DML) formed by the image analysis unit 2, avoiding the problems of misjudgment or omission caused by manual measurement.

[0032] As shown in Figures 1 to 4, the assessment unit 3 has multiple assessment intervals. Each assessment interval corresponds to a different blood vessel width. The assessment unit 3 assesses the condition of the rehabilitation patient's blood vessels based on whether the average blood vessel width falls within one of the multiple assessment intervals.

[0033] For example, the multiple assessment intervals are four assessment intervals, namely a first assessment interval, a second assessment interval, a third assessment interval, and a fourth assessment interval. Specifically, the first assessment interval is for a blood vessel width of 2 cm or more; the second assessment interval is for a blood vessel width between 1.5 cm and 2 cm; the third assessment interval is for a blood vessel width between 1 cm and 1.5 cm; and the fourth assessment interval is for a blood vessel width of less than 1 cm.

[0034] As described above, the first evaluation interval indicates that the vascular condition of the rehabilitated individual is excellent; the second evaluation interval indicates that the vascular condition is good; the third evaluation interval indicates that the vascular condition is poor; and the fourth evaluation interval indicates that the vascular condition is terrible. Assuming that the average vascular width calculated by the image analysis unit 2 is 1.9 cm, it indicates that the vascular condition of the rehabilitated individual is good, but the present invention is not limited to this. The number of the multiple evaluation intervals can be adjusted according to actual needs.

[0035] The rehabilitation assessment system 100 of the present invention can be applied to assess the effectiveness of resistance exercises performed by the rehabilitation participant, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, in other embodiments not illustrated in the present invention, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 can also assess the effectiveness of other resistance exercises performed by the rehabilitation participant.

[0036] The following describes the method by which the rehabilitation assessment system 100 evaluates the effectiveness of the resistance exercise on the rehabilitation patient. The rehabilitation assessment system 100 is primarily used to assess the vascular status of the rehabilitation patient before and after performing the resistance exercise, thereby evaluating the effect of the resistance exercise on the rehabilitation patient. Specifically, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 assesses the vascular status of the rehabilitation patient before the patient performs the resistance exercise multiple times during a rehabilitation course.

[0037] In detail, before the rehabilitation patient begins the rehabilitation treatment, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 calculates the average vascular width of the patient and assesses the vascular condition before the rehabilitation treatment. Furthermore, after the patient completes the rehabilitation treatment, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 again calculates the average vascular width and assesses the vascular condition after the rehabilitation treatment. Finally, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 compares the vascular condition of the patient before performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation treatment with the vascular condition after performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation treatment to determine the rehabilitation effect.

[0038] It should be noted that the rehabilitation assessment system 100 can compare the average blood vessel width of the rehabilitation patient before performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course with the average blood vessel width of the rehabilitation patient after performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course to determine the rehabilitation effect. For example, if the average blood vessel width of the rehabilitation patient before performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course is less than the average blood vessel width of the rehabilitation patient after performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 generates a first rehabilitation assessment message (i.e., poor rehabilitation effect); if the average blood vessel width of the rehabilitation patient before performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course is greater than the average blood vessel width of the rehabilitation patient after performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course, the rehabilitation assessment system 100 generates a second rehabilitation assessment message (i.e., good rehabilitation effect).

[0039] The above describes the components and their connections in the rehabilitation assessment system 100. Next, the assessment method of the rehabilitation assessment system 100, namely a rehabilitation assessment method S100, is described. This rehabilitation assessment method S100 is an application of the rehabilitation assessment system 100, but the present invention is not limited thereto. As shown in Figure 5, the rehabilitation assessment method S100 includes steps S101 to S109, and any one of these steps can be omitted or replaced with a reasonable variation depending on the designer's needs.

[0040] Step S101: Configure an imaging unit to capture an image of a rehabilitation patient's blood vessels to generate a vascular image.

[0041] Step S103: Configure an image analysis unit to receive the vascular image, and the image analysis unit establishes an upper vascular wall measurement line and a lower vascular wall measurement line along an upper vascular wall and a lower vascular wall respectively in the vascular image.

[0042] Step S105: Configure the image analysis unit to form multiple distance measurement lines at the distance interval between the upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the lower blood vessel wall measurement line.

[0043] Step S107: Configure the image analysis unit to calculate the lengths of multiple distance measurement lines to generate an average blood vessel width.

[0044] Step S109: Configure an assessment unit with multiple assessment intervals, each assessment interval corresponding to a different blood vessel width, and the assessment unit assesses the state of the rehabilitation patient's blood vessels based on the average blood vessel width falling into one of the multiple assessment intervals.

[0045] [Technical Effects of the Embodiments of the Invention]

[0046] In summary, the rehabilitation assessment system and method disclosed in this embodiment of the invention improve the accuracy of the assessment by: "establishing an upper blood vessel wall measurement line and a lower blood vessel wall measurement line along an upper blood vessel wall and a lower blood vessel wall respectively in the vascular image by the image analysis unit"; "forming multiple distance measurement lines at intervals between the upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the lower blood vessel wall measurement line by the image analysis unit"; and "calculating the lengths of the multiple distance measurement lines to generate an average blood vessel width by the image analysis unit".

[0047] The content disclosed above is only a preferred and feasible embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the patent scope of the present invention. Therefore, all equivalent technical changes made using the contents of the present invention specification and drawings are included within the patent scope of the present invention.

[0048] 100: Rehabilitation Assessment System 1: Image Capture Unit 2: Image Analysis Unit 3: Evaluation Unit UVL: Upper blood vessel wall measurement line LVL: Lower vessel wall measurement line DML: Distance Measurement Line S100: Rehabilitation Assessment Methods S101~S109: Steps

Claims

1. A rehabilitation assessment system, comprising: An imaging unit is configured to acquire an image of the blood vessels of a rehabilitation patient to generate a vascular image; an image analysis unit is electrically coupled to the imaging unit, the image analysis unit receives the vascular image, and the image analysis unit establishes an upper vascular wall measurement line and a lower vascular wall measurement line along an upper vascular wall and a lower vascular wall, respectively, in the vascular image; wherein the image analysis unit forms multiple distance measurement lines at intervals between the upper vascular wall measurement line and the lower vascular wall measurement line; wherein the image analysis unit calculates the lengths of the multiple distance measurement lines to generate an average vascular width; and an evaluation unit is electrically coupled to the image analysis unit, the evaluation unit having multiple evaluation intervals, each evaluation interval corresponding to a different vascular width, the evaluation unit evaluating the condition of the rehabilitation patient's blood vessels based on the average vascular width falling into one of the multiple evaluation intervals; wherein the larger the vascular width corresponding to the evaluation interval in which the average vascular width falls, the better the condition of the rehabilitation patient's blood vessels.

2. The rehabilitation assessment system as described in claim 1, wherein, The image analysis unit establishes a predicted upper vessel wall measurement line and a predicted lower vessel wall measurement line based on the boundary between a first color and a second color that are different colors in the vascular image; wherein, the image analysis unit forms multiple distance sensing lines at the distance interval between the preset upper vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower vessel wall measurement line; wherein, the image analysis unit determines that the difference between any two adjacent distance sensing lines is less than a threshold value, and determines that the predicted upper vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower vessel wall measurement line are respectively the upper vessel wall measurement line and the lower vessel wall measurement line.

3. The rehabilitation assessment system as described in claim 2, wherein, The image analysis unit uses an image segmentation algorithm to determine that the predicted upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the predicted lower blood vessel wall measurement line are the upper blood vessel wall measurement line and the lower blood vessel wall measurement line, respectively; wherein, the image segmentation algorithm is the U-Net algorithm or the U-Net++ algorithm.

4. The rehabilitation assessment system as described in claim 1, wherein, The angle between the upper blood vessel wall measurement line and each of the distance measurement lines is between 85 degrees and 95 degrees, and the angle between the lower blood vessel wall measurement line and each of the distance measurement lines is between 85 degrees and 95 degrees.

5. The rehabilitation assessment system as described in claim 1, wherein, The rehabilitation assessment system can be used to assess the vascular status of the rehabilitation patient before performing multiple resistance exercises during a rehabilitation course, and the rehabilitation assessment system can also be used to assess the vascular status of the rehabilitation patient after performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course. The rehabilitation assessment system can compare the average vascular width of the rehabilitation patient before performing multiple resistance exercises with the average vascular width of the rehabilitation patient after performing multiple resistance exercises during the rehabilitation course to determine the rehabilitation effect. If the average vascular width of the rehabilitation patient before performing multiple resistance exercises is less than the average vascular width of the rehabilitation patient after performing multiple resistance exercises, the rehabilitation assessment system generates a first rehabilitation assessment message; if the average vascular width of the rehabilitation patient before performing multiple resistance exercises is greater than the average vascular width of the rehabilitation patient after performing multiple resistance exercises, the rehabilitation assessment system generates a second rehabilitation assessment message.

6. The rehabilitation assessment system as described in claim 1, wherein, The imaging unit is used to capture images of the veins of the rehabilitation patient, thereby generating the vascular image.

7. A rehabilitation assessment method applied to a rehabilitation assessment system, the steps of the rehabilitation assessment method comprising: An imaging unit captures an image of a patient's blood vessels to generate a vascular image; an image analysis unit receives the vascular image and establishes an upper vascular wall measurement line and a lower vascular wall measurement line along an upper vascular wall and a lower vascular wall, respectively, in the vascular image; the image analysis unit forms multiple distance measurement lines at intervals between the upper vascular wall measurement line and the lower vascular wall measurement line; the image analysis unit calculates the lengths of the multiple distance measurement lines to generate an average vascular width; and in an evaluation unit having multiple evaluation intervals, each evaluation interval corresponds to a different vascular width, the evaluation unit evaluates the condition of the patient's blood vessels based on the average vascular width falling into one of the multiple evaluation intervals; wherein, the larger the vascular width corresponding to the evaluation interval in which the average vascular width falls, the better the condition of the patient's blood vessels.

8. The rehabilitation assessment method as described in claim 7, wherein, The angle between the upper blood vessel wall measurement line and each of the distance measurement lines is between 85 degrees and 95 degrees, and the angle between the lower blood vessel wall measurement line and each of the distance measurement lines is between 85 degrees and 95 degrees.

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