US-12622667-B2 - Flow assessment

US12622667B2US 12622667 B2US12622667 B2US 12622667B2US-12622667-B2

Abstract

The present invention relates to flow measurement in a vessel. In order to provide a facilitated and less complex determination of the average peak velocity based solely on a plurality of ultrasound signals, a device ( 10 ) for flow measurement in a vessel is provided that comprises a data input ( 12 ), a processor ( 14 ) and an output interface ( 16 ). The data input is configured to provide a plurality of ultrasound signals that relate to blood flow within the vessel. The processor is configured to generate blood flow velocity data based on the plurality of ultrasound signals; to detect a measure for similarity or variation based on the plurality of ultrasound signals; to ascertain a pulse rate based on the detected measure for similarity or variation; and to compute, based on the estimated pulse rate, an average parameter value for a blood flow parameter, which blood flow parameter is generated from the plurality of ultrasound signals. The output interface is configured to provide the average parameter value to a user for further assessment.

Inventors

MAARTEN PETRUS JOSEPH KUENEN
BRIAN BRAND ANTONIUS JOHANNES BLOEMENDAL
Arjen van der Horst

Assignees

KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20221020
Priority Date: 20211117

Claims (14)

1 . A device for flow measurement in a vessel, the device comprising: electronic storage configured to store a plurality of electrical ultrasound signals that relate to blood flow within the vessel; a data input; a processor; and an output device that outputs an output interface; wherein the data input is configured to provide the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals to the electronic storage and/or the processor, wherein the data input is configured to provide the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals obtained from an interventional device configured to be inserted into the vessel, wherein the processor is configured to: generate blood flow velocity data based on the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals; detect a measure for similarity or variation based on the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals; ascertain a pulse rate based on the detected measure for similarity or variation; compute, based on the pulse rate, an average parameter value for a blood flow parameter, which blood flow parameter is generated from the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals; and output, via the output interface, the average parameter value; and wherein the output interface is configured to present the average parameter value to a user.
2 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the output device is a display.
3 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to apply an autocorrelation scheme to the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals to determine a dependency of the signals and to generate time-related average values for the blood flow parameter.
4 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein, for the blood flow parameter, the processor is configured to estimate peak velocities in the vessel for a sequence of points in time based on the blood flow velocity data; and wherein, for computing the average parameter value, based on the estimated peak velocities and the derived pulse rate, the processor is configured to generate an average peak velocity.
5 . The device according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to ascertain the pulse rate based on the estimated peak velocities.
6 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the data input is configured to provide the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals as a plurality of ultrasound Doppler signals relating to blood flow in a sample volume.
7 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals are obtained from an ultrasound transducer of the interventional device; wherein the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals originates from a plurality of positions within the vessel; and wherein the processor is configured to ascertain flow velocity spectra over a range of locations comprising the plurality of depths within the vessel for the generation of the blood flow velocity data.
8 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals is provided as a data stream and the processor is configured to generate the average parameter as real-time assessment.
9 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to provide the average parameter value single-source based.
10 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine a quality of flow data.
11 . A system for flow measurement in a vessel, the system comprising: a device for flow measurement according to claim 1 ; and an interventional device provided with an ultrasound transducer at a distal portion of the interventional device; wherein the interventional device is configured for data transfer to and/or from the device for flow measurement; and wherein the ultrasound transducer is configured to generate the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals, which are provided to the data input.
12 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to audibly output, via the output device, the average parameter value.
13 . A method of flow measurement in a vessel, the method comprising: providing, by a data input, a plurality of electrical ultrasound signals that relate to blood flow within the vessel to a processor, wherein the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals is obtained from an interventional device configured to be inserted into the vessel; generating, by the processor, blood flow velocity data based on the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals; detecting, by the processor, a measure for similarity or variation based on the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals; ascertaining, by the processor, a pulse rate based on the detected measure for similarity or variation; computing, by the processor, based on the pulse rate, an average parameter value for a blood flow parameter, which blood flow parameter is generated from the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals; and presenting, by an output interface, the average parameter value to a user.
14 . A computer readable medium having stored computer-readable instructions executable by a processor to: generate blood flow velocity data based on a plurality of electrical ultrasound signals obtained from an interventional device configured to be inserted into the vessel; detect a measure for similarity or variation based on the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals; ascertain a pulse rate based on the detected measure for similarity or variation; and compute, based on the pulse rate, an average parameter value for a blood flow parameter, which blood flow parameter is generated from the plurality of electrical ultrasound signals.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is the U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2022/079155, filed on Oct. 20, 2022, which claims the benefit of the filing date of European Patent Application No. 21208674.8, filed Nov. 17, 2021, and European Patent Application No. 22164513.8, filed Mar. 25, 2022. These applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to flow measurement in a vessel and relates in particular to a device for flow measurement in a vessel, to a system for flow measurement in a vessel and to a method for flow measurement in a vessel. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION As an example, assessing the hemodynamic significance of cardiovascular and peripheral vascular disease by intravascular flow measurement has been shown beneficial to guide treatment of circulatory disease. Especially, in the coronary arteries, large clinical trials have proven that decision-making based on pressure and flow measurements may improve clinical outcome compared to angiography alone. Flow measurements may be provided in case of non-obstructive coronary artery disease, e.g. angina complaints without visible obstructions in the large arteries. Additionally, beyond diagnostics, blood flow monitoring during embolization interventions may be provided for assessing the degree of embolization and guiding when to stop to prevent embolization of healthy tissue, for example in transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). As an example for assessing blood flow velocity, guide wires with a Doppler ultrasound sensor were developed more than two decades ago that are equipped with a single element lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ultrasound transducer. With these devices, an electrical driving pulse can be sent to the PZT which emits an ultrasound pulse, and a reflected ultrasound pulse is received by the PZT, which is converted to electrical signal. By analysis of the difference between the sent and received signals, the blood velocity in a specific sampling area can be deduced as in standard ultrasound pulsed Doppler measurements. Based on this, instantaneous peak velocity (IPV) in the vessel is determined at each point in time. An average peak velocity (APV) is obtained by averaging the IPV over one or more cardiac cycles, and the APV is used as a surrogate for the flow. The assessment of the APV from the IPV requires the IPV to be averaged over one or more heart cycles. This information is provided from an auxiliary signal, i.e. the electrocardiogram (ECG). The R-peak in the ECG is estimated as feature point to denote the onset of each heart cycle. This allows selection of the samples of the IPV signal that need to be averaged to calculate the APV. However, it has been shown that this means additional effort that increases the overall complexity. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION There may thus be a need to provide a facilitated and less complex estimation of the average peak velocity information. The object of the present invention is solved by the subject-matter of the independent claims; further embodiments are incorporated in the dependent claims. It should be noted that the following described aspects of the invention apply also for the device for flow measurement in a vessel, for the system for flow measurement in a vessel and for the method for flow measurement in a vessel. According to the present invention, a device for flow measurement in a vessel is provided. The device comprises a data input, a processor and an output interface. The data input is configured to provide a plurality of ultrasound signals that relate to blood flow within the vessel. The processor is configured to generate blood flow velocity data based on the plurality of ultrasound signals. The processor is also configured to detect a measure for similarity or variation based on the plurality of ultrasound signals. The processor is further configured to estimate a pulse rate based on the detected measure for similarity or variation. The processor is furthermore configured to compute, based on the estimated pulse rate, an average parameter value for a blood flow parameter, which blood flow parameter is generated from the plurality of ultrasound signals. The output interface is configured to provide the average parameter value to a user for further assessment. In an example, the plurality of ultrasound signals is provided as ultrasound Doppler signals. As an effect, a facilitated and less complex estimation of the APV information is provided e.g. automatically and exclusively from the plurality of ultrasound signals, e.g. the ultrasound Doppler signals, without requiring auxiliary signals such as ECG, or even any user input. According to an example, a display is provided. The processor is configured to output to the display the average parameter value. According to an example, the processor is configured to apply an autocorrelation scheme to the plu