Patent Application
20140024937
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable apparatus for measuring an amount of urine in a bladder using ultrasonic signals and, more particularly, to a portable and small-sized apparatus, which has a preliminary scan mode and a scan mode, thus not only quickly and accurately detecting the location of the urinary bladder but also automatically measuring the amount of urine in the urinary bladder, and a method, which can measure the amount of urine in the urinary bladder using the apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, an ultrasonic system is a system that emits ultrasonic signals to an object to be examined using the piezoelectric effect of a transducer, receives the ultrasonic signals reflected from the discontinuous planes of the object, converts the received ultrasonic signals into electrical signals, and outputs the electrical signals to a predetermined display device, thus enabling examination of the internal state of the object. Such an ultrasonic system is widely used for medical diagnosis equipment, non-destructive testing equipment and underwater detection equipment.
However, most conventional ultrasonic diagnosis apparatuses are inconvenient in that they cannot be easily carried due to their large size and heavy weight. To solve the inconvenience, various portable ultrasonic diagnosis apparatuses have been proposed. Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-137995 discloses a “Portable Ultrasonic Diagnosis Apparatus.”
Meanwhile, when examining bladder abnormalities or urinary difficulty, measuring the amount of urine is an essential procedure. Furthermore, prior to urination using a catheter, the amount of urine in the urinary bladder should be measured to account for urine that may be retained after the operation. In addition, in urination training, the amount of urine in the urinary bladder should be measured as a guideline.
Various types of ultrasonic scanning equipment may be used to measure the amount of urine in the urinary bladder, as described above. In this case, two methods are used. A first method calculates the amount of urine from respective ultrasonic images for a perpendicular plane and a horizontal plane, which are obtained using typical ultrasonic scanning equipment. However, although many algorithms has been proposed and used for the method, the first method is problematic in that it not only exhibits a considerable error rate but also exhibits different results for different users. A second method uses dedicated ultrasonic equipment for measuring the amount of urine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,871 discloses dedicated ultrasonic equipment. However, the dedicated ultrasonic equipment based on the second method has a disadvantage in that it also calculates the amount of urine chiefly using two ultrasonic images, which are related to the perpendicular and horizontal planes of the urinary bladder, respectively, and in that a user must find the area indicating the greatest size and select it in order to calculate the amount of urine. Further, the conventional 3-dimensional ultrasonic scanning equipments typically require long time to acquire the object and display it.
The area of the bladder acquired from a scan plane depends on the position on which the transducer is placed.
Accordingly, the apparatus and method disclosed herein are designed to overcome the above disadvantages of conventional equipments.
Accordingly, the present invention is an apparatus for measuring an amount of urine in a bladder using ultrasonic signals, comprising: a transducer for transmitting ultrasonic signals and receiving ultrasonic signals reflected to and from the bladder and its surrounding tissues; a switch for selecting one of operational modes, which include a preliminary scan mode and a scan mode; a display unit for outputting images; a transducer drive unit for driving the transducer; and a central control unit for operating according to the operational mode selected by the switch to provide an amount of urine in the bladder, wherein the central control unit in the preliminary scan mode controls the transducer drive unit to acquire the ultrasonic signals for a single scan plane from the transducer, generates a 2-dimensional B-Mode ultrasonic image using the acquired ultrasonic signals, and displays the B-Mode ultrasonic image to the display unit, and wherein the central control unit in the scan mode acquires ultrasonic signals for a plurality of scan planes from the transducer, measures an amount of urine in the bladder using the acquired ultrasonic signals, and displays the amount of urine to the display unit.
Further, the present invention is a method for measuring and providing an amount of urine in the bladder using ultrasonic signals, comprising the steps of: (a) determining an operational mode; (b) if the operational mode is a preliminary scan mode, acquiring the ultrasonic signals for a single scan plane from a transducer, generating a 2-dimensional B-Mode ultrasonic image using the acquired ultrasonic signals, displaying the B-Mode ultrasonic image to a display unit, and marking a vertical center-line on the B-mode ultrasonic image; and, (c) if the operational mode is a scan mode, acquiring ultrasonic signals for a plurality of scan planes from the transducer, measuring the amount of urine in the bladder using the acquired ultrasonic signals, and displays the amount of urine to the display unit.
The construction and operation of an apparatus for measuring an amount of urine in a urinary bladder according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings below.
Referring to
The transducer 110 is a device that transmits ultrasonic signals and receives ultrasonic signals reflected from the internal organs of a human body, and transmits the received ultrasonic signals to the central control unit 100.
The switch 160 performs input to select operational modes, such as a preliminary scan mode and a scan mode. The switch 160 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention enables an operational mode, depending on input time or input form, to be determined using a single switch. In addition, another embodiment of the switch 160 of the present invention may be configured to be provided with a plurality of buttons, and allow different buttons to be assigned to respective operational modes.
As shown in
The central control unit 100 transmits drive control signals to the drive control unit 140 in response to a request signal received from the switch unit 160, and the drive control unit 140 controls the motion of the first and second stepping motors 120 and 130 in response to the drive control signals, so that the ultrasonic signals for scan planes can be obtained through the rotation of the transducer 110.
The transducer 110 permits freedom of movement along two orthogonal axes. A pair of stepping motor, those are the first and second stepping motors 120 and 130, move the transducer 110 through a predetermined path under the drive control unit 140 control.
To acquire ultrasonic signals for a single scan plane, the first and second stepping motors move the transducer through three-dimensional space.
Consequently, the transducer 110 installed in the transducer support 134 rotates in the phi(Φ) dimension of a single scan plane.
To acquire ultrasonic signals for a plurality of scan planes, the first stepping motor 120 rotates the transducer assembly about a central vertical axis through a total angle theta(θ) in series of small angular movements. Typically, the total angle theta will be 360°. The first stepping motor rotates successively a predetermined angle in the theta direction, at each theta position a plurality of ultrasonic signals for a scan plane are acquired according to the above-described process. The total number of scan planes over the entire theta dimension of 360° will completely sample the ultrasonic scan cone by ultrasonic signals. The ultrasonic signals are processed to determine the locations of the bladder walls in each of the scan planes.
The central control unit 100 determines an operational mode based on a signal input through the switch 160. Thereafter, when the preliminary scan mode is determined, an operation is performed in the preliminary scan mode. In contrast, when the scan mode is determined, an operation is performed in the scan mode.
If the operational mode is a scan mode, the central control unit 100 obtains ultrasonic signals for a plurality of scan planes from the transducer, measuring an amount of urine in the bladder using the obtained ultrasonic signals, generates 2-dimensional B-mode images using the obtained ultrasonic signals, displays the generated 2-dimensional B-mode images to the display unit, and displays the amount of urine to the display unit, at step 320. The central control unit performs repeatedly the steps 300, 310, 312 and 320.
The operation in the preliminary scan mode of the ultrasonic measurement apparatus according to the present invention are described below.
The central control unit 100 in the preliminary scan mode controls the transducer drive unit 129 to control the movement of the transducer and receive the ultrasonic signals for a single scan plane from the transducer, compensates the received ultrasonic signals using the predetermined time-controlled gains, generates a 2-dimensional B-Mode ultrasonic image using the compensated ultrasonic signals, displays the 2-dimensional B-Mode ultrasonic image to the display unit, and marks a vertical center-line on the 2-dimensional B-Mode ultrasonic image.
To acquire the ultrasonic signals for a single scan plane, the central control unit transmits a drive control signal to the drive control unit of the transducer drive unit 129. The drive control unit rotates the second stepping motor in a yz direction (that is, a second direction) in response to the drive control signal received from the central control unit. As the second stepping motor rotates, the transducer fixed on the second stepping motor also rotates.
Referring to
A operator, who operates the apparatus according to the present invention, causes the apparatus to operate in the preliminary scan mode and then views the B-mode ultrasonic image and the vertical center-line on the display unit, so that he or she can be quickly and accurately made aware of the location of the urinary bladder which is to be examined.
Furthermore, in the preliminary scan mode, the above-described process is periodically repeated until the scan mode is selected by the switch and a two-dimensional B-mode ultrasonic image for a corresponding plane is output to the display unit. In this case, the repetition period of acquiring and displaying the two-dimensional B-mode ultrasonic image in the preliminary scan mode is less than about 0.5 second. Accordingly, the apparatus of the present invention can provide quickly the two-dimensional B-mode ultrasonic image for aiming the transducer.
Meanwhile, in another embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention for the preliminary scan mode, when the preliminary scan mode is selected, two-dimensional B-mode ultrasonic images for more than two scan planes are acquired and are displayed on the display unit. In this case, it is preferred that the more than two scan planes of two-dimensional B-mode ultrasonic images are formed to have different orientation angles.
The operation in the scan mode of the ultrasonic measurement apparatus according to the present invention are described below. The central control unit 100 in the scan mode controls the transducer drive unit 129 to obtain ultrasonic signals for a plurality of scan planes from the transducer, generates 2-dimensional B-mode images using the obtained ultrasonic signals, displays the generated 2-dimensional B-mode images to the display unit, measures an amount of urine in the bladder ultrasonic signals for a plurality of scan planes, and displays the amount of urine to the display unit.
The method for measuring the amount of urine in the bladder according to the present invention is described below.
Referring to
Referring to
At next step, the area of the bladder in the i-th ultrasonic scan plane, Area[i], is obtained using the distance values for the scan lines constituting the i-th ultrasonic scan plane at step S620. In this case, the method of obtaining an area of the bladder may be implemented in various ways. As an example, a method of obtaining the area of a bladder may be implemented by totaling areas for sectors, each of the sectors is formed by rotating a single scan line using the rotational angle of the second stepping motor 130. As another example, a method of obtaining the area of the bladder may be implemented by totaling the areas for trapezoids, each of the trapezoids is formed by the two front walls and two back walls of the neighbored scan lines.
The virtual radius of the bladder in i-th scan plane ‘r[i]’ is generated using the obtained area of the bladder ‘Area[i]’. Given the assumption that the bladder is a circle, the virtual radius ‘r[i]’ is determined by a radius of a circle of which the area is same as the area of the bladder ‘Area[i]’ at step S630.
Typically, in the case of obtaining a three-dimensional volume using a plurality of two-dimensional areas, the volume smaller than an actual volume is calculated and, thus, an error occurs if scanning is performed in a state in which the center of a first rotational axis deviates from the center of the bladder. Accordingly, numerical calibration procedure is performed to reduce such error and accurately measure the volume of urine in the bladder.
A bladder depth of the bladder in i-th scan plane ‘BladderDepth[i]’ is determined by the maximum value of the distances for i-th scan plane at step S640.
The steps S610, S620, S630 and S640 are repeatedly implemented to all of the scan planes. Thereafter, the maximum value of the bladder depths for the scan planes ‘MaxBladderDepth’ is obtained at step S660. Thereafter, at step S670, the calibration coefficient for each of the scan planes is obtained using the following equation 1:
Where ComFactor[i] is the calibration coefficient for i-th scan plane, BladderDepth[i] is the bladder depth for i-th scan plane.
Thereafter, at step S680, calibrated radius of the bladder for each of the ultrasonic scan planes is calculated using the following Equation 2:
ComR[i]=ComFactor[i]×r[i] (2)
Where, ‘ComR[i]’ is the calibrated radius of the bladder for i-th scan plane.
The average value of the calibrated radii of the bladders for the scan planes ‘AverageR’ is obtained at step S680. Thereafter, given the assumption that the complete bladder is a sphere, the total volume of urine ‘V’ in the bladder by applying the average radius ‘AverageR’ to the following Equation 3 is obtained at step S690.
V=4/3πAverageR3 (3)
From the above-described process, the method for measuring the volume of urine in a bladder according to the present invention can accurately detect the volume of urine in the bladder although the transducer is placed on the position which is moved from center of the bladder.
Furthermore, the apparatus of the present invention collects the ultrasonic signals while automatically rotating the two stepping motors, so that it can collect all pieces of ultrasonic information within a region defined in a cone shape having a vertex at the location at which the apparatus according to the present invention is disposed. As a result, the apparatus of the present invention can very accurately measure the volume of urine using ultrasonic information about a plurality of ultrasonic scan planes that are spaced apart from each other and exist in an angle of 360°.
The number of scan planes to be scanned and the number of scan lines for a single plane may be determined according to the region and size of the object to be examined. In the case of measuring the urinary bladder, the number of scan lines and the number of scan planes may be determined such that the entire region of the urinary bladder can be included. For example, in the case of scanning the urinary bladder, the entire region of the urinary bladder can be sufficiently included using about 67 scan lines if the angle between scan lines for forming a single B-mode ultrasonic image is 1.8°.
In particular, the apparatus and the method of the present invention calibrate the radii of the bladder using the calibration coefficients, which are obtained by calculating the degree to which a first detection location is moved from the center of the urinary bladder, so that it can perform accurate measurement even when the detection location is moved from the center of the urinary bladder.
Although the present invention has been described in detail in conjunction with the preferred embodiment, the present invention is described only for illustrative purposes and is not limited thereto. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and applications, which are not described above, are possible within a range that does not change the substantial characteristics of the present invention. For example, in the present embodiment, the method of obtaining an area of a bladder for a corresponding plane using the rotational angles of the first stepping motor and the second stepping motor and ultrasonic information about the respective scan lines may be modified and implemented in various ways to improve scanning performance. Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the differences regarding the modifications and the applications are included in the scope of the present invention, which is defined by the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2006-0037132 | Apr 2006 | KR | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13029798 | Feb 2011 | US |
| Child | 14037930 | US | |
| Parent | 12045680 | Mar 2008 | US |
| Child | 13029798 | US |
