Patents Examined by Bo Joseph Peng
  • Patent number: 11786210
    Abstract: The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, ultrasound image generation apparatus and method transmit ultrasound waves to a subject into which a puncture tool is inserted, receive reflected waves reflected from the subject and the puncture tool, and generate echo signals of time-sequential frames based on the received reflected waves, and generate an ultrasound image of the subject based on the generated echo signals. These apparatus and method generate a differential echo signal between time-sequential frames from the echo signals, perform a tip detection process based on the differential echo signal to thereby detect at least one tip candidate including a tip end of the puncture tool, highlight a tip candidate of the puncture tool detected to thereby generate a tip image, and display the tip image of the highlighted puncture tool so as to be superimposed on the generated ultrasound image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventors: Rika Tashiro, Kimito Katsuyama, Yukiya Miyachi
  • Patent number: 11751840
    Abstract: The present invention aims to obtain and provide one or more types of information desired by an operator with a high efficiency. From a probe that transmits an ultrasonic wave to a subject and receives the ultrasonic wave coming from the subject due to the transmission, a reception signal is received and the reception signal is processed. Accordingly, a movement vector indicating a movement amount and a movement direction is calculated and a movement vector distribution is determined for a plurality of points set at least two-dimensionally in the subject. A distribution of one or more desired movement vector components is extracted from the movement vector distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Healthcare Corporation
    Inventor: Hideki Yoshikawa
  • Patent number: 11751932
    Abstract: A method can include targeting a region of interest below a surface of skin, which contains fat lobuli and delivering ultrasound energy to the region of interest. The ultrasound energy generates a conformal lesion with said ultrasound energy on a surface of a fat lobuli. The lesion creates an opening in the surface of the fat which allows the draining of a fluid out of the fat lobuli and through the opening. In addition, by applying ultrasound energy to fat cells to increase the temperature to between 43° C. and 49° C. degrees, cell apoptosis can be realized, thereby resulting in reduction of fat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: GUIDED THERAPY SYSTEMS, LLC
    Inventors: Michael H. Slayton, Peter G. Barthe
  • Patent number: 11737726
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods are disclosed for acquiring and providing information about orthopedic features of a body using acoustic energy. In some aspects, an acoustic orthopedic tracking system includes portable acoustic transducers to obtain orthopedic position information for feeding the information to an orthopedic surgical system for surgical operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Decision Sciences Medical Company, LLC
    Inventors: Dustin Kruse, Evan Freiburg, James J. Hayes
  • Patent number: 11737733
    Abstract: A method of determining a position of a target using a metric comprises receiving a plurality of ultrasound signals representative of ultrasound energy received from the target and, for each of a plurality of different foci, adjusting the ultrasound signals in dependence on the focus and determining a value of the metric using the adjusted ultrasound signals. The method further comprises using the determined values for the metric for the different foci to determine a position of the target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Vassilis Sboros, Paul Allan Dalgarno, Konstantinos Diamantis, Alan Greenaway
  • Patent number: 11742062
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a data processing method comprises receiving, from a portable physiological measuring device configured for temporary attachment to a human body, data representing one or more physiological metrics or parameters of the body; receiving, from one or more Doppler vascular sensors configured for temporary attachment to peripheral artery locations of the body and a portable Doppler vascular signal measuring device coupled to the Doppler vascular sensors, vascular function information for the body; inputting the data representing the physiological metrics or parameters and vascular function data, to a plurality of algorithms; analyzing and correlating the data representing the physiological metrics or parameters with the vascular function data based on the plurality of algorithms; generating and providing output records specifying one or more recommendations of response treatment, reports, animations, or figures based on the plurality of algorithms; and wherein the method is performed by one or mo
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Alexander Francis Castellanos 2002 Trust
    Inventor: Alexander F. Castellanos
  • Patent number: 11724133
    Abstract: Methods and systems for treating skin, such as stretch marks through deep tissue tightening with ultrasound are provided. An exemplary method and system comprise a therapeutic ultrasound system configured for providing ultrasound treatment to a shallow tissue region, such as a region comprising an epidermis, a dermis or a deep dermis. In accordance with various exemplary embodiments, a therapeutic ultrasound system can be configured to achieve depth with a conformal selective deposition of ultrasound energy without damaging an intervening tissue. In addition, a therapeutic ultrasound can also be configured in combination with ultrasound imaging or imaging/monitoring capabilities, either separately configured with imaging, therapy and monitoring systems or any level of integration thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Guided Therapy Systems, LLC
    Inventors: Peter G. Barthe, Michael H. Slayton, Inder Raj S. Makin
  • Patent number: 11723632
    Abstract: An interventional instrument (16) is inserted into a patient (14) to perform an interventional medical procedure guided by a medical imaging device (10). A trigger control (26) is activated. An electronic data processing device (30) is programmed to operate the medical imaging device to: acquire and display video (50) of the interventional instrument (16) inserted into the patient; detect activation of the trigger control; in response to the detecting, process a video segment (54) of the acquired video to identify a trigger image (60) as a frame of the video segment capturing a medical intervention event performed by the interventional instrument and a location (62) of the medical intervention event in the identified trigger image; and display a still image of the identified trigger image with a superimposed marker (102) indicating the identified location of the medical intervention event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Pingkun Yan, Jochen Kruecker, Scott Frederic Thompson, Wei Lin, Samuel Coons
  • Patent number: 11719813
    Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces spatially compounded trapezoidal sector images by combining component frames acquired from different look directions. A virtual apex scan format is used such that each scanline of a component frame emanates from a different point on the face of an array transducer and is steered at a different scanning angle. For different component frames the scanlines are steered at respectively different angles. In an illustrated example, the scanlines of each component frame are incremented by five degrees relative to the corresponding scanlines in a reference component frame. When the component frames are combined for spatial compounding, the maximum number of component frames are combined over virtually the entire image field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventor: Lars Jonas Olsson
  • Patent number: 11717165
    Abstract: The invention relates to a detection apparatus (30) for determining a state of tissue. The detection apparatus (30) comprises a fluorescence spectrum providing unit (2, 3) for providing a fluorescence spectrum of the tissue, a differentiation unit (4) for generating a derivative of the fluorescence spectrum, and a tissue state determination unit (5) for determining the state of the tissue from the derivative. This allows determining the state of the tissue, even if characteristics, which are related to the state of the tissue, are only hardly visible or not visible at all in the fluorescence spectrum. The reliability of determining the state of the tissue, for instance, whether the tissue is cancerous or not, can therefore be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Manfred Mueller, Bernardus Hendrikus Wilhelmus Hendriks, Gerhardus Wilhelmus Lucassen, Jeroen Jan Horikx
  • Patent number: 11721426
    Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes: an image generator that generates ultrasound image data based on a reception signal obtained from a moving ultrasound probe; an evaluator that evaluates an index regarding suitability of combining a plurality of pieces of ultrasound image data generated by the image generator and generates an evaluation result; and a combiner that selects ultrasound image data according to the generated evaluation result and combines the ultrasound image data to generate panoramic image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Ryota Torii
  • Patent number: 11712156
    Abstract: A medical imaging device in accordance with the present application includes a color separation prism, a fluorescence image sensor, a visible light image sensor, and a bandpass filter. The color separation prism splits light into first light belonging to a visible light wavelength band and second light belonging to a fluorescence wavelength band. The fluorescence image sensor is provided at an output side of the color separation prism and is configured to image at least part of the second light belonging to the fluorescence wavelength band separated by the dichroic film. The visible light image sensor is provided at the output side of the color separation prism and is configured to image at least part of the first light belonging to the visible light wavelength band separated by the dichroic film. The bandpass filter is disposed between the color separation prism and the fluorescence image sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2023
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Satoshi Nagae
  • Patent number: 11712219
    Abstract: An ultrasonic wave diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry acquires a plurality of pieces of volume data obtained through image capturing of a region including the cardiac ventricle of a subject for a predetermined duration. The processing circuitry estimates motion of tissue of the cardiac ventricle by using the pieces of volume data. The processing circuitry calculates, based on a result of the estimation, cardiac ventricle information indicating at least one of wall motion information and volume information related to the cardiac ventricle. The processing circuitry calculates, based on a result of the estimation, annulus information related to the size or shape of an annulus position of a valve related to inflow or outflow of blood current at the cardiac ventricle. The processing circuitry outputs the cardiac ventricle information and the annulus information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2023
    Assignee: CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yasuhiko Abe
  • Patent number: 11701093
    Abstract: An ultrasound imaging device and a clutter filtering method using the same are disclosed. The clutter filtering method using the ultrasound imaging device according to one embodiment includes obtaining ultrasound data from a field-of-view (FOV) of an object, generating decomposition data including common scale information by performing rank matrix decomposition once on all of the obtained ultrasound data, estimating local characteristic information by reflecting spatial information on each pixel to the common scale information, and extracting a blood flow signal by performing filtering on each pixel based on the estimated local characteristic information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: ALPINION MEDICAL SYSTEMS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Sun Yeob Chang
  • Patent number: 11701033
    Abstract: A digital topographic model of the luminal surface is generated by projecting an optical pattern on the luminal surface from the first location within the lumen. At least a portion of the projected pattern is detected from a second location within the lumen which is based apart from the first location. The dimensions of the luminal wall can be measured by triangulation in order to produce the digital topographic model of the body lumen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: VS Medtech, Inc.
    Inventor: Roger A. Stern
  • Patent number: 11684338
    Abstract: A computing system and a non-transitory computer-readable medium with instructions for processing ultrasound images are presented. The computing system is configured to: receive an ultrasound image that includes image data representing subdermal tissue; apply a trained neural network to the ultrasound image to generate at least one of: a pliability parameter value which indicates pliability of the subdermal tissue, one or more regions of the ultrasound image that represents damaged tissue, or an indication of presence and/or location of an entrapped nerve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: VITRUVIA HOLDINGS INC.
    Inventors: Abhinav Gautam, Narendra Kini, Christian Seale, Subhash Kak
  • Patent number: 11684422
    Abstract: In the present invention, a system and method for selection of an optimal catheter for use in a medical procedure relative to the anatomy of a patient includes the steps of providing a system including a scanning device capable of obtaining image data on a ROI within the anatomy of a patient and reconstructing a 3D image of the ROI from the image data, a display capable of illustrating the 3D image and a 3D catheter model, and a CPU operably connected to the scanning device and the display and operable to analyze the 3D image in comparison with the 3D catheter model, obtaining image data of the ROI of the patient, reconstructing a 3D image of the ROI from the image data and comparing the 3D catheter model with the 3D image of the ROI to determine the catheter with the optimal configuration for use in the procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Adrian F. Warner, James V. Miller, Daniel R. Schneidewend, Hao Lai, Maxime Cazalas, Hans-Peter Stoll
  • Patent number: 11684345
    Abstract: Methods and systems for producing a visually-perceived representation of a sub-millimeter-sized blood vessel located at a depth of many centimeters in the biological tissue, in which the background clutter is suppressed (by at least 30 dB using SVT and additional 23 dB using a combination of morphology filtering and vessel enhancement filtering) as compared to an image obtained with the use of a B-mode ultrasound imaging, while at the same time maintaining the morphology of the blood vessel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
    Inventors: Azra Alizad, Mahdi Bayat, Mostafa Fatemi
  • Patent number: 11684344
    Abstract: A system includes a probe configured to transmit ultrasound signals directed to a target blood vessel and receive echo information associated with the transmitted ultrasound signals. The system also includes at least one processing device configured to process the received echo information and generating a three-dimensional ultrasound image of the target blood vessel; obtain a three-dimensional vascular model corresponding to the target blood vessel; identify a best-fit of the three-dimensional vascular model onto the three-dimensional target image; store the best fit of the three-dimensional vascular model as a segmentation result; and calculate, based on the segmentation result, measurements for the target blood vessel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: VERATHON INC.
    Inventor: Fuxing Yang
  • Patent number: 11672509
    Abstract: A shear wave elastography method for imaging an observation field in an anisotropic medium, including an initial ultrasonic acquisition step during which initial physical parameters are acquired in at least one region of interest; a spatial characterization step during which a set of spatial characteristics of the anisotropic medium is determined on the basis of the initial physical parameter; an excitation substep during which an shear wave is generated inside the anisotropic medium on the basis of the set of spatial characteristics; and an observation substep during which the propagation of the shear wave is observed simultaneously at a multitude of points in the observation field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: SUPERSONIC IMAGINE
    Inventors: Jeremy Bercoff, Jean-Pierre Henry