Patents Examined by Bill Thomson
  • Patent number: 10898162
    Abstract: An ultrasound imaging apparatus may acquire a two-dimensional, flat image of a curved region within a curved plane. The apparatus includes a processor for localizing the region with respect to a transducer array and a processor for operating the transducer array for the imaging of the region and for projecting the region onto a flat image plane. An ultrasound imaging apparatus may acquire a flat image of a curved region within a curved plane. The apparatus may include a module for extracting a centerline of a curved object that contains the curved region, and a processor for: projecting the centerline onto a face of an array, selecting, from among the elements, a set along the projection onto the face, receive beamforming, specifically using the set, to image the curved region and thereby acquire a curved image, and projecting the curved region onto a flat image plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
    Inventor: Amir Mohammad Tahmasebi Maraghoosh
  • Patent number: 10893805
    Abstract: For characterizing spatial-temporal dynamics of a medium (1) excitable for deformation, an elastic model of the medium is defined. The medium is imaged at consecutive points in time to obtain a series of images. Shifts of structures of the medium (1) between the images of the series are determined. A dynamic description of a temporal development of spatial deformations of a predefined elastic model of the medium (1) is adapted to match the shifts of the structures; and temporal developments of rate of deformation patterns in the medium (1) are identified from the dynamic description.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN E.V.
    Inventors: Stefan Luther, Jan Christoph
  • Patent number: 10888246
    Abstract: The present document relates to a method for generating a contrast enhancement map of a portion of a patient. The method comprises acquiring a magnetic resonance, MR, quantification sequence of the portion, wherein the MR quantification sequence comprises quantification information of a longitudinal R1 relaxation rate, R1, and proton density, PD, of the portion, generating an R1 map of the portion based on the MR quantification sequence, wherein a value of R1 for each voxel of the R1 map is determined, generating a PD map of the portion based on the MR quantification sequence, wherein a value of PD for each voxel of the PD map is determined, estimating a R1? map of the portion, based on the PD map and a predetermined relationship of R1 and PD of the portion, wherein an estimated value of R1 for each voxel of the R1? map is calculated, generating a delta R1 map based on the R1 map and the R1? map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Synthetic MR AB
    Inventor: Marcel Warntjes
  • Patent number: 10888381
    Abstract: A registration apparatus registers an elongated introduction element (18), like a catheter or a needle, during an interventional procedure, for instance, a brachytherapy or a biopsy. A guide element (13) includes at least one opening which guides the introduction element when being introduced into a living being (2) through the opening. A temperature profile generation element (14) associated with the opening generates a characteristic temperature profile at the opening for being transferred to the introduction element when being present in the opening. A temperature determination unit (15) determines a temperature along the introduction element, and a registration unit (16) registers the introduction element. The registering includes identifying the transferred characteristic temperature profile on the introduction element based on the determined temperature. This allows the registration unit to register the introduction element during the introduction process in a simple and efficient manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
    Inventors: Guillaume Leopold Theodoros Frederik Hautvast, Dirk Binnekamp, Shyam Bharat, Ehsan Dehghan Marvast, Jochen Kruecker, Molly Lara Flexman, Amir Mohammad Tahmasebi Maraghoosh
  • Patent number: 10874303
    Abstract: Devices for localizing an intracerebral hematoma or blood mass in brain tissue. The devices include an elongate probe a color sensors and a light emitter on the distal end of the probe. The color sensors produce a signal corresponding to the color of light reflected into the color sensors. A display is provided to indicate the color detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Rebound Therapeutics Corporation
    Inventors: Ross Tsukashima, Peter G. Davis
  • Patent number: 10874375
    Abstract: The present invention provides an ultrasound diagnostic device including an ultrasound probe including a plurality of ultrasound transducers transmitting ultrasound waves to an object and receiving ultrasound waves reflected from the specimen to output an ultrasound detection signal, a region-of-interest setting unit setting a region of interest within the specimen, and a variation measuring unit measuring a sonic variation or an attenuation variation of ultrasound waves in the region of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Kimito Katsuyama
  • Patent number: 10869644
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for extracting a vessel of a lower limb. The methods may include obtaining an original image including a plurality of image data, in some embodiments, each of the plurality of image data may correspond to a pixel (or a voxel), the plurality of image data may include a target data set, the target data set may represent a first structure; extracting a first reference data set from the plurality of image data, in some embodiments, the first reference data set may include the target data set and a second reference data set, the second reference data set may include data of a second structure; extracting the second reference data set from the plurality of image data; and obtaining the target data set based on the first reference data set and the second reference data set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: SHANGHAI UNITED IMAGING HEALTHCARE CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Peng Zhao, Yufei Mao
  • Patent number: 10813564
    Abstract: According to some aspects a system is provided comprising a low-field magnetic resonance (MR) device, at least one electrophysiological device, and at least one controller configured to operate the low-field MR device to obtain MR data and to operate the at least one electrophysiological device to obtain electrophysiological data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Hyperfine Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew Scot Rosen, Gregory L. Charvat, Laura Sacolick, Mathieu Sarracanie, Jonathan M. Rothberg, Tyler S. Ralston
  • Patent number: 10806347
    Abstract: A probe has a light guide unit that guides the measurement light, an acoustic wave detection unit that detects a photoacoustic wave, and a storage unit that stores light intensity profile information that represents the light intensity profile of the measurement light emitted by the probe, and transmits a signal of the photoacoustic wave detected by the acoustic wave detection unit to the signal processing unit in a state in which the probe is mounted in the apparatus body. The apparatus body has a reading unit that reads the light intensity profile information from the storage unit, and the intensity adjusting unit adjusts the intensity of the measurement light employing the light intensity profile information read by the reading unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventors: Tadashi Kasamatsu, Kazuhiro Hirota
  • Patent number: 10792001
    Abstract: An arrangement includes a gantry of a medical imaging device and an omnidirectional suspension for moving the arrangement relative to a support.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: SIEMENS HEALTHCARE GMBH
    Inventors: Mathias Hoernig, Hans-Juergen Mueller, Georg Wittmann, Franz Dirauf
  • Patent number: 10758208
    Abstract: A device for ultrasound-assisted reflection and transmission tomography includes a measurement volume filled with an ultrasonic coupling medium and having an opening for inserting a body to be examined and a lateral surface remote from the opening, and a number of ultrasonic transducers arranged remotely from the opening of the measurement volume, arranged in direct contact with the ultrasonic coupling medium, and arranged oriented into the measurement volume. The arrangement of the ultrasonic transducers around the measurement volume aperiodically follows a random uniform distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE
    Inventors: Hartmut Gemmeke, Michael Zapf, Torsten Hopp, Robin Dapp, Nicole Ruiter
  • Patent number: 10750993
    Abstract: The present discourse provides a tongue manifestation detecting device. The tongue manifestation detecting device comprises: an image acquisition component configured to acquire a surface image of a tongue; a temperature acquisition component configured to acquire parameters characterized by the temperature of the tongue; and a brightness temperature image generation component configured to generate a brightness temperature image of the tongue based on the parameters characterized by the temperature of the tongue acquired by the temperature acquisition component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignees: BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO., LTD., HEFEI BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yangkun Jing
  • Patent number: 10750980
    Abstract: A medical image processing method performed by a computer, for measuring the spatial location of a point on the surface of a patient's body including: acquiring at least two two-dimensional image datasets, wherein each two-dimensional image dataset represents a two-dimensional image of at least a part of the surface which comprises the point, and wherein the two-dimensional images are taken from different and known viewing directions; determining the pixels in the two-dimensional image datasets which show the point on the surface of the body; and calculating the spatial location of the point from the locations of the determined pixels in the two-dimensional image datasets and the viewing directions of the two-dimensional images; wherein the two-dimensional images are thermographic images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: BRAINLAB AG
    Inventors: Hagen Kaiser, Stephen Froehlich, Stefan Vilsmeier
  • Patent number: 10750992
    Abstract: Certain aspects relate to apparatuses and techniques for non-invasive and non-contact optical imaging that acquires a plurality of images corresponding to both different times and different frequencies. Additionally, alternatives described herein are used with a variety of tissue classification applications including assessing the presence and severity of tissue conditions, such as necrosis and small vessel disease, at a potential or determined amputation site.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: SPECTRAL MD, INC.
    Inventors: Wensheng Fan, John Michael DiMaio, Jeffrey Thatcher
  • Patent number: 10743837
    Abstract: A method and system for generating an enhanced image of a volume of tissue, the method comprising: emitting acoustic waveforms toward the volume of tissue; detecting a set of acoustic signals derived from acoustic waveforms interacting with the volume of tissue; generating, from the set of acoustic signals, an initial model representing a distribution of an acoustomechanical parameter across a region of the volume of tissue; extracting a set of frequency components, from the set of acoustic signals; generating a first simulated wavefield with a first frequency component of the set of frequency components; generating an updated model of the initial model with the first simulated wavefield; iteratively refining the updated model with a set of simulated wavefields associated with the set of frequency components until a threshold condition is satisfied, thereby producing a final model; and generating the enhanced image from the final model of the volume of tissue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: Delphinus Medical Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Gursharan Singh Sandhu, Cuiping Li, Olivier Roy, Steven Schmidt, Nebojsa Duric
  • Patent number: 10746829
    Abstract: An examination system including a magnetic resonance scanner having a solenoid for generating a magnetic field, the solenoid surrounding an examination chamber is provided. In addition, a first X-ray source and a first X-ray detector are provided in the examination chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: SIEMENS HEALTHCARE GMBH
    Inventors: Oliver Heid, Jürgen Heller, Timothy Hughes, Michael Kleemann
  • Patent number: 10716593
    Abstract: An apparatus (100) for guiding a surgical needle with improved accuracy. The apparatus (100) having a base (1) for positioning the apparatus (100) on a patient; a second arc member (6) attached to the base (1); a first arc member (4) moveably attached to the second arc member (6); an arm (2) attached to a needle guide support (3) at one end and moveably attached to the first arc member (4) at a distal end, and an angle marking device (7) attached to the arm (2) to indicate a vertical reference point for measuring the angle of tilt of the arm (2) from the vertical reference point relative to the base (1). Wherein the first arc member (4) is configured to move on the second arc member (6) to facilitate movement of the needle guide support (3) in a cranio-caudal plane and the arm (2) is configured to move on the first arc member (4) to facilitate movement of the needle guide support (3) in an axial plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Inventor: Yen Yung Chieng
  • Patent number: 10709896
    Abstract: System and method for treating hemorrhoidal piles, addressing both cause and symptoms, by endoluminal/interstitial application of energy are disclosed. The dilated blood arteries in anal/rectal region are irradiated from inside the pile using (laser) energy for minimal pain/discomfort. The center of the pile is irradiated over a certain diameter, absorbing energy; and is denatured causing volume reduction. Central vessels located in the same diameter are obliterated immediately, relieving bleeding. During treatment, new connective tissue replaces the coagulated tissue. Closing inflowing arteries further shrinks piles in weeks to three months. Complications are highly diminished. A hand-piece and a fiber with a sharp distal tip are beneficial. Including an imaging system, (ultrasound imaging, optical coherence tomography) and an intelligent system to calculate necessary laser energy parameters help address each pile individually.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: Biolitec Unternehmensbeteiligungs II AG
    Inventors: Wolfgang Neuberger, Endrick Groenhoff
  • Patent number: 10694974
    Abstract: Example embodiments of system and method for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for planning, real-time monitoring, control, and post-treatment assessment of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) mechanical fractionation of biological material are disclosed. An adapted form of HIFU, referred to as “boiling histotripsy” (BH), can be used to cause mechanical fractionation of biological material. In contrast to conventional HIFU, which cause pure thermal ablation, BH can generate therapeutic destruction of biological tissue with a degree of control and precision that allows the process to be accurately measured and monitored in real-time as well as the outcome of the treatment can be evaluated using a variety of MRI techniques. Real-time monitoring also allow for real-time control of BH.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignees: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Ari Partanen, Vera Khokhlova, Navid Farr, Donghoon Lee, Wayne Kreider, Tatiana Khokhlova, Adam Maxwell, Yak-Nam Wang, George Schade, Michael Bailey
  • Patent number: 10667869
    Abstract: Systems and methods for surgical tool navigation, include a movable gantry. A light emitting device is connected to the movable gantry. A range meter connected to the gantry. The distance meter measures a distance between the light emitting device and a surface. In a method of surgical tool navigation, the light emitting device projects light on the surface. The range meter detects the light and measures the distance between the light emitting device and the surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Francois Kotian, Thomas McCarthy