CN113171124A

CN113171124A - Blood flow measuring method, apparatus and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN113171124A
Application number: CN202010748153.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 凌锋; 张毛毛
Original assignee: Edan Instruments Inc
Current assignee: Edan Instruments Inc
Priority date: 2020-07-30
Filing date: 2020-07-30
Publication date: 2021-07-27
Also published as: CN117770871A

Abstract

The application discloses a blood flow measuring method, a device and a storage medium, wherein the method comprises the following steps: acquiring a first ultrasonic image; determining ultrasound acquisition parameters for the target vessel based on the first ultrasound image; and measuring blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel by using the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters, wherein the blood flow parameters comprise at least one of flow speed and flow. By the method, the operation steps of the user are simplified, and the measurement efficiency is improved.

Description

Blood flow measuring method, apparatus and storage medium

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of medical device technology, and in particular, to a blood flow measuring method, device and storage medium.

Background

Ultrasonic imaging is to scan a human body with ultrasonic beams, and to receive and process reflected signals to obtain images of internal organs. The blood flow parameters of a patient, such as blood flow, are the most common hemodynamic indicators in clinical hemodialysis. In ultrasound measurements, blood flow is an important indicator for assessing blood vessel function. In addition, blood flow can also be used to indirectly assess circulatory system function in the human body. Are often used to assess the maturity of a patient's fistula and to assess the health of the blood vessels.

When the existing ultrasonic equipment is used for measuring the blood flow velocity and the blood flow volume, the operation steps of a doctor are complicated. At present, the blood flow measurement in clinical diagnosis is mainly performed by operating a trackball by a doctor, then manually measuring the diameter and blood flow velocity of a blood vessel image, and then calculating the corresponding blood flow. Therefore, during measurement, a doctor needs to perform multiple operations, which causes unnecessary time cost to be increased, and greatly reduces the measurement efficiency.

Therefore, how to reduce the operation burden of a doctor in blood flow measurement and realize automatic measurement is of great significance.

Disclosure of Invention

The application at least provides a blood flow measuring method, a device and a storage medium.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a first aspect of the present application provides a blood flow measuring method, including: acquiring a first ultrasonic image; determining ultrasound acquisition parameters for the target vessel based on the first ultrasound image; and measuring blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel by using the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters, wherein the blood flow parameters comprise at least one of flow speed and flow.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a second aspect of the present application provides an ultrasound apparatus, which includes a processor and a memory coupled to each other, wherein the processor is configured to execute a computer program stored in the memory to perform the method described in the first aspect.

To solve the above technical problem, a third aspect of the present application provides a computer storage medium storing a computer program, which when executed by a processor can implement the method described in the first aspect.

The beneficial effect of this application is: different from the situation in the prior art, the scheme of the application can determine the ultrasonic acquisition parameters aiming at the target blood vessel according to the obtained first ultrasonic image, and further obtain the flow velocity or flow parameter of the target blood vessel. Therefore, the blood flow parameters can be automatically calculated without manual operation of a user or manual measurement after image freezing, so that the operation burden of the user is reduced, and the measurement efficiency is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present application, the drawings required in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without inventive labor. Wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a first embodiment of a method of blood flow measurement of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a first schematic view of a display interface of the blood flow measurement method of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a second schematic view of a display interface of the blood flow measurement method of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a second embodiment of the blood flow measurement method of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a third embodiment of the blood flow measurement method of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the ultrasound apparatus of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computer storage medium according to the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

When the blood flow parameter is measured by the ultrasonic device, the ultrasonic probe can be used for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, and then the blood flow parameter can be measured based on the transmitted ultrasonic wave signal and the received echo signal. For example, the blood flow parameter may be obtained directly by using the transmitted ultrasonic signal and the received echo signal, or the blood flow parameter may be measured by performing ultrasonic imaging using the received echo signal. The blood flow parameter includes at least one of a blood flow rate (hereinafter referred to as a flow rate) and a blood flow volume (hereinafter referred to as a flow volume).

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a blood flow measuring method according to a first embodiment of the present application. Specifically, the following steps may be included:

step S11: a first ultrasound image is acquired.

When measuring the blood flow parameters, the ultrasound imaging may be performed on the human tissue such as blood vessels, and then the blood flow parameters may be further measured according to the received echo signals and/or the ultrasound images obtained according to the echo signals.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the ultrasonic probe may be controlled to transmit the ultrasonic signal first, and then imaging may be performed according to the received echo signal to obtain the first ultrasonic image. The ultrasonic probe can emit an ultrasonic signal perpendicular to the skin surface to obtain a first ultrasonic image, so that the subsequent adjustment of the correction angle is facilitated to measure the blood parameter. For example, when the ultrasound apparatus is in the B mode, the ultrasound apparatus may obtain a first ultrasound image by using a gray-scale blood flow imaging technique and transmitting an ultrasound signal by using an ultrasound probe, and the obtained first ultrasound is a gray-scale map.

When the ultrasonic probe continuously transmits the ultrasonic signals for imaging, the device can perform imaging according to the continuously received echo signals, namely, the first ultrasonic image is dynamically updated. In one embodiment, a fixed frame of image may be displayed as soon as the first ultrasound image is obtained.

In the first ultrasound image, information of the blood vessel, such as a vessel wall, a depth from the skin, a trend, and the like, is included. Since the blood flow parameters need to be measured, in the first ultrasound image, the longitudinal cutting information of the blood vessel needs to be included.

After the first ultrasonic image is acquired, the device can be displayed in a first display area of a display interface of the device, so that a user can conveniently view the first ultrasonic image.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a first schematic view of a display interface of the blood flow measuring method of the present application. In fig. 2, a first display area 201 of the display interface 200 is located at an upper portion of the display interface 200. In the first display area 201, a first ultrasound image may be displayed.

In one embodiment, the apparatus may acquire the first ultrasound image according to a detection instruction input by a user. For example, the user may input an instruction to start detection to the device by a button of the device, a touch operation to a screen, or a voice control, etc. For the device, after the user performs the operation of starting the detection, the detection instruction of the user is received. The device can start relevant detection immediately after receiving a detection instruction of a user.

Step S12: ultrasound acquisition parameters are determined for the target vessel based on the first ultrasound image.

Because the blood flow parameters are measured, the device can automatically determine the blood vessels to be measured according to preset rules. The measured vessel is defined as the target vessel. In one embodiment, the number of the blood vessels included in the first ultrasound image may be more than one, and the device may measure each blood vessel respectively, that is, the number of the target blood vessels is several, and the device may select one of the blood vessels as the target blood vessel. The target vessel may also be selected by the user in the first ultrasound image to be determined.

Upon measurement, the device may automatically determine ultrasound acquisition parameters for the target vessel. For example, in the measurement, the device may automatically determine the ultrasound acquisition parameters based on the first ultrasound image, in particular based on vessel information such as a vessel wall, a trend, etc. of the vessel in the first ultrasound image. In particular, the device may analyze the first ultrasound image using an algorithm pre-stored in the device to determine ultrasound acquisition parameters. The algorithm for determining ultrasound acquisition parameters may then update the algorithm by having the device access the network.

Ultrasound acquisition parameters are understood to be parameters that can be adjusted with the ultrasound probe. For example, the ultrasound acquisition parameters may be the frequency, wavelength, intensity, etc. of the transmitted ultrasound, or the position, width, or deflection angle, correction angle, etc. of the sampling gate.

The sampling gate can be understood as the position of the target blood vessel where the flow velocity and the flow rate need to be measured, and is represented as two mutually parallel line segments on the ultrasonic image, and a straight line is arranged between the two mutually parallel line segments for indicating the flow direction of blood, and can be understood as a blood flow direction indicating line. The position of the sampling gate may be, for example, in the middle part of the vessel, or on the wall of the vessel, or inside the vessel. The width of the sampling gate is the distance between two mutually parallel line segments of the sampling gate. The emission deflection angle of the ultrasound probe means the deflection angle with respect to the case where the ultrasound waves are emitted perpendicularly to the skin. The correction angle is the included angle between the direction of the ultrasonic wave emitted by the probe and the direction of blood flow. It is understood that if there are a plurality of target blood vessels, there may be a plurality of corresponding sampling gates, deflection angles, and correction angles. In particular, the adjustment of the sampling gate and the correction angle can be achieved by adjusting the ultrasound waves emitted by the ultrasound probe.

In some embodiments, the ultrasound acquisition parameters may also be adjusted by the user.

Step S13: and measuring the blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel by using the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters.

After the ultrasonic acquisition parameters are determined, the equipment can control the ultrasonic probe to send out an ultrasonic signal according to the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters so as to automatically measure the measurement flow speed or flow.

In one embodiment, the device may transmit pulsed Doppler (PW) ultrasound signals to measure flow velocity or flow. In addition, continuous ultrasonic waves can be transmitted simultaneously to perform real-time ultrasonic imaging.

After the ultrasonic probe sends out a transmitting signal, the ultrasonic signal is reflected by a human body, and the ultrasonic signal received by the ultrasonic probe is defined as an echo signal. The device analyzes the echo signal of the transmitted signal, which may be analyzing the intensity, frequency magnitude, etc. of the echo signal.

In one embodiment, the device may automatically measure the magnitude of the flow velocity by analyzing the frequency of the echo signal due to the presence of the doppler effect. The flow rate is calculated as follows:

f_D＝f₀·f′ (2)

in the above formula (1) and formula (2), v represents the flow velocity, c is the propagation velocity of the sound wave in the human tissue, and f₀For the frequency of the transmitted signal, f' is the frequency of the echo signal, f_DFor frequency shift, θ is the angle between the direction of the probe emitting the acoustic wave and the direction of the blood flow, i.e. the correction angle.

After the flow velocity is measured, the device can calculate a corresponding flow parameter according to the flow velocity parameter and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel. For example, the flow velocity is multiplied by the cross-sectional area, and the obtained result is the flow parameter in unit time. When the unit of the flow rate is centimeter per second (cm/s), the product of the flow rate and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel is the flow per second value of the target blood vessel. The flow rate value per second of the target blood vessel is multiplied by 60, and the blood flow rate value of the target blood vessel in 1 minute is obtained.

By the scheme, the equipment can automatically determine the ultrasonic acquisition parameters according to the obtained first ultrasonic image, and further automatically obtain the flow velocity or flow parameters of the target blood vessel by using the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters. Therefore, automatic measurement of blood flow parameters is realized, manual operation of a user is not needed, and the measurement efficiency is improved.

In one embodiment, the device may perform displaying the blood flow parameter of the target blood vessel in obtaining the blood flow parameter, so as to facilitate the user to know the relevant blood flow parameter. For example, the flow rate parameter or the flow rate parameter may be displayed on a display interface of the device.

In one embodiment, after step S12, the device may further include the step of acquiring and displaying at least one image associated with the target vessel using the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters. Specifically, the device emits an ultrasound signal according to the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters, and acquires and displays an image associated with the target blood vessel according to the received echo signal, wherein the image may include a grayscale ultrasound image, a color ultrasound image and a spectrogram.

The grayscale ultrasound image is obtained by the ultrasound device by using a grayscale blood flow imaging technique, that is, the ultrasound device is in a B mode. In the grayscale ultrasound image, information of the blood vessel, such as the trend, width, etc. of the blood vessel, can be included. The color ultrasound image is obtained by the ultrasound device by using a color blood flow imaging technology, and is an image obtained by the ultrasound device in a C mode, namely, color real-time blood flow information is superposed on the basis of a gray ultrasound image. In a color ultrasound image, the blood flow signal is displayed in color, for example, red may be set to represent blood flow towards the probe, and blue represents blood flow away from the probe; the blood flow velocity is related to the color brightness, the velocity is high, the color brightness is strong, the velocity is low, and the color brightness is weak. For example, the first ultrasound image may be a grayscale ultrasound image or a color ultrasound image. The spectrogram is a graph of the instantaneous flow rate for the target vessel as a result of analysis of the spectral information by the device.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a second schematic view of a display interface of the blood flow measuring method of the present application. The first display region 301 displays a color ultrasound image, and the region 3011 displays color flow information.

In one embodiment, when the device is in the duplex mode, the device may display the grayscale ultrasound image and the spectrogram simultaneously; when the device is in a triplex mode, the device can simultaneously display a grayscale ultrasound image, a spectrogram and a color ultrasound image. In one embodiment, the device may also display only the spectrogram.

Since the device can continuously transmit ultrasound signals and receive echo signals, this means that the device can continuously use the echo signals for the measurement and imaging of blood flow parameters. For example, the device may repeatedly perform the above-mentioned blood flow parameter measuring and displaying steps, that is, the device may repeatedly perform the above-mentioned step S13 by using the echo signals continuously received and the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters, and refresh the blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel in real time. Therefore, the real-time measurement of the flow speed or the flow parameter can be realized, and the dynamic update of the flow speed or the flow parameter is realized.

In addition, the device may also repeat the steps of acquiring and displaying at least one image associated with the target vessel. For example, the device may perform imaging by using echo signals that are continuously received, that is, the grayscale ultrasound image, the color ultrasound image, and the spectrogram may be refreshed in real time based on the latest echo signals, and the three images are dynamic when embodied on the screen.

Therefore, a user does not need to perform repeated operation to freeze the image and adjust the ultrasonic acquisition parameters when measuring the blood flow rate or the blood flow volume each time, but the blood flow rate or the blood flow volume is automatically measured by the equipment, so that the blood vessel parameters and the related blood vessel images are refreshed in real time, the operation is simplified, and the measurement efficiency is improved. In addition, the image related to the target blood vessel is refreshed in real time, so that the user can know the dynamic blood flow condition of the target blood vessel, and the diagnosis effect is improved.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a second embodiment of the blood flow measuring method of the present application. The present embodiment is a further extension of the above-mentioned "acquiring and displaying a spectrogram using determined ultrasound acquisition parameters", and specifically, the following steps S21 and S24 may be performed after step S12 or step S13.

Step S21: echo signals obtained based on ultrasound acquisition parameters are acquired.

After the device determines the ultrasound acquisition parameters, an ultrasound probe of the device may transmit ultrasound signals based on the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters. Thus, the device may also receive echo signals obtained based on the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters by means of the ultrasound probe.

Step S22: and analyzing the echo signal by using a preset analysis algorithm to determine the spectrum parameters of the spectrogram.

The device may analyze the echo signal based on a preset analysis algorithm to determine spectral parameters of the spectrogram. The preset analysis algorithm may be an algorithm pre-stored on the device, and the device may update the preset adjustment algorithm during use.

The spectral parameters may be, for example, instantaneous flow positive and negative, a range of the ordinate of the spectrogram, a baseline position of the spectrogram, a dynamic range of the device, and a gain parameter of the device.

In one embodiment, the device may perform at least one of the following steps S221-S225 to determine spectral parameters of a spectrogram.

Step S221: and if the instant flow velocity of the target blood vessel is a negative value, determining to perform spectrum inversion on the generated spectrogram.

As can be understood from the formula (1) in step S13, when the correction angle is greater than 90 degrees, the cos θ value is a negative value, and therefore, the obtained flow velocity value of the target blood vessel is a negative value. In the spectrum image, the spectrum is represented downward, which is not in accordance with the habit of looking at the picture of people. Therefore, the spectrum inversion operation can be performed on the spectrum, so that the spectrogram can be upward to be closer to the user's viewing habit. The spectrum inversion may specifically be taking the absolute value of the flow rate, making it positive. In one embodiment, the spectrum inversion operation may not be performed. Of course, the user can manually select whether to perform the spectrum inversion operation on the device as needed.

Step S222: and counting the maximum instantaneous flow speed of the target blood vessel within a preset time, and determining the range of the ordinate of the spectrogram based on the maximum instantaneous flow speed.

And (3) counting the maximum instant flow rate of the target blood vessel within preset time, namely, calculating the instant flow rate value of blood corresponding to each moment within the preset time, wherein the maximum flow rate value is the maximum instant flow rate in all the obtained instant flow rate values.

The range on the ordinate is the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value on the ordinate. For example, a maximum value on the ordinate is 40cm/s and a minimum value is-20 cm/s, the range on the ordinate is 70. In order to make the spectrogram highly suitable overall, the range of the ordinate of the spectrogram can be adjusted based on the obtained maximum instantaneous flow rate value of the target blood vessel. For example, the range of the ordinate of the spectrogram may be rounded such that the overall height of the spectrogram is about 70% of the range of the ordinate, with the spectrum located in the middle of the ordinate. For example, when the maximum instantaneous flow rate is 40cm/s, the minimum value on the ordinate may be-10 cm/s, the maximum value may be 40cm/s, and the range on the ordinate is 60.

In one embodiment, the range of the ordinate may be adjusted manually by the user, or may be adjusted continuously by the user after the range of the ordinate is adjusted by the device. The user can adjust the display by a button or a knob of the device, or perform touch operation in an adjustment area displayed on the display interface. Therefore, the user can adjust the range of the vertical coordinate according to the requirement of the user, so that the height of the spectrogram can better meet the requirement of the user.

Step S223: and adjusting the baseline position of the spectrogram so that the spectrogram can be displayed in a preset position range of a preset display area of the display interface.

The baseline of the spectrogram, i.e. the horizontal axis of the spectrogram, is used to represent time, and corresponds to a value of 0 in the vertical axis, i.e. a flow rate of 0. The preset display area, which is an area for displaying the spectrogram in the display interface, may be located at the bottom of the display interface. The preset position range may be a part of the second display region, for example, a region having an area of 70% to 80% of the second display region from top to bottom in the second display region.

In order to enable the spectrum of the spectrogram to be displayed in a preset position range of a preset display area of the display interface, the baseline of the spectrogram can be adjusted. For example, when the height of the display area in the longitudinal axis direction is 8cm, the position of the baseline may be adjusted to be located 2cm away from the bottom of the display area, so that the spectrum can be displayed at a portion 2cm away from the bottom of the display area, and the spectrogram can be located within the preset position range of the preset display area. The preset display area may be the second display area in fig. 2 described above.

In one embodiment, the baseline position may be manually adjusted by the user, or may be continuously adjusted by the user after the baseline position is adjusted by the device. The user can adjust the display by a button or a knob of the device, or perform touch operation in an adjustment area displayed on the display interface. Therefore, the user can adjust the baseline position according to the requirement, so that the spectrogram can be displayed at a reasonable position.

Step S224: based on the amplitude variation range of the echo signal, a dynamic range is determined.

Dynamic range is the ratio between the maximum signal correspondence and the minimum signal that the device can detect, process or display. In the echo signals received by the ultrasonic probe, in order to make the intermediate frequency spectrum of a spectrogram more obvious and well-arranged, the dynamic range of the ultrasonic probe can be adjusted based on the amplitude change range of the echo signals. For example, in the spectrogram, a part of the area is displayed as bright white and a part of the area is displayed as full black, which indicates that the dynamic range is too small, and a part of the signals with stronger signal strength and a part of the signals with smaller signal strength cannot be processed. If the brightness difference of most areas in the spectrogram is not large and the layering sense is lacked, the dynamic range is too large.

Therefore, the device can preset a plurality of different dynamic ranges, so as to count the gray distribution in the spectrogram, and if the pixel point with the gray of 255 is larger than the first preset value, the dynamic range can be increased; if the pixel point with the gray scale of 255 is smaller than the second preset value, the dynamic range can be reduced.

Therefore, the dynamic range can be automatically adjusted through the system, so that the frequency spectrum in the spectrogram can be more obvious and distinct, and the analysis by a user is facilitated.

In one embodiment, the dynamic range may be adjusted manually by the user, or may be adjusted continuously by the user after the dynamic range is adjusted by the device. The user can adjust the display by a button or a knob of the device, or perform touch operation in an adjustment area displayed on the display interface. Therefore, the user can adjust the dynamic range according to the requirement, so that the spectrogram can better meet the requirement of the user.

Step S225: based on the intensity of the echo signal, gain processing is performed on the echo signal.

In the echo signal that ultrasonic probe received, can carry out gain processing to echo signal, strengthen the intensity of signal promptly to make the intermediate frequency spectrum of spectrogram can be brighter, the user of being convenient for observes.

After the ultrasonic wave enters the human body, there is attenuation in intensity as the transmission distance or transmission time increases. Therefore, the intensity of the echo signal whose signal intensity is smaller than the third preset value can be enhanced, i.e., gain processed. Of course, all received echo signals may be emphasized so that the entire intermediate frequency spectrum of the spectrogram may be brighter.

In one embodiment, the gain may be adjusted manually by the user, or may be adjusted continuously by the user after the gain is adjusted by the device. The user can adjust the display by a button or a knob of the device, or perform touch operation in an adjustment area displayed on the display interface. Therefore, the user can adjust the gain and process the echo signal according to the requirement, so that the spectrogram can better meet the requirement of the user.

Through the steps, the spectrum parameters can be automatically determined by analyzing the echo signals by using a preset analysis algorithm without manual operation of a user, so that the operation steps of the user are simplified, the operation burden of the user is reduced, and the diagnosis and treatment efficiency of the user is improved.

Step S23: and acquiring and displaying a spectrogram based on the determined spectral parameters.

After the spectral parameters are determined, a spectrogram generated based on the determined spectral parameters can be displayed on a display interface.

See fig. 2. The second display area 202 in fig. 2 is a spectrogram.

Because the device may continuously receive the echo signals, the device may generate a continuously refreshed spectrogram based on the continuously received echo signals to display the latest spectral situation, i.e., the spectrogram is dynamically refreshed.

In one embodiment, the target period may be displayed in a spectrogram to inform a user of a corresponding period of the measured maximum flow rate or average flow rate of the target period.

In one embodiment, a flow velocity or flow rate curve of the spectrogram can be fitted based on the maximum value of each point on the horizontal axis of the spectrogram. So that the user can more easily see the change in flow rate or flow.

In one embodiment, the spectrogram of the maximum flow rate and the average flow rate, or the maximum flow rate and the average flow rate, may be displayed in the spectrogram at the same time, so as to facilitate the user to compare these parameters.

In one embodiment, each period in the spectrogram can be further marked, for example, two parallel lines parallel to the vertical axis can be used to mark each period.

After the spectrogram is displayed, the user may also select to perform the freeze operation, for example by clicking on a screen or by a button of the device. The freezing is that the ultrasonic probe stops transmitting ultrasonic signals, and generates a spectrogram based on echo signals received in the last preset time. The refreshing is stopped on the display screen, namely the displayed spectrogram.

After the user performs the freezing operation, the apparatus may continue to step S24.

Step S24: and responding to a freezing instruction of a user, fixedly displaying the current spectrogram, determining the optimal period from the current spectrogram, and acquiring and displaying the blood parameters of the target blood vessel in the optimal period.

After the device detects that the user performs the freezing operation, the device can fixedly display the current spectrogram in response to a freezing instruction of the user. And fixedly displaying the current spectrogram, namely fixing the displayed spectrogram at the moment on a display interface after the device detects that the user performs the freezing operation, namely that the displayed spectrogram cannot be continuously refreshed at the moment.

At this point, the device may automatically determine the optimal period from the current spectrogram. The optimal period may be determined by a determination algorithm preset by the device. Meanwhile, the equipment can also correspondingly acquire the echo signal corresponding to the optimal period and calculate the blood flow parameters. That is, the device will acquire and display the blood flow parameters of the target vessel during the optimal period. In addition, the device can mark the optimal period automatically determined by the device in a fixed spectrogram.

See fig. 2. On the second display area 202 in fig. 2, T represents the best period determined by the device.

In one embodiment, the user may select a portion of the spectrum from the fixed spectrogram to perform the blood flow parameter calculation.

By freezing the frequency spectrum, the blood flow parameters of the optimal period can be automatically obtained for the user to refer to, and the diagnosis efficiency of the user is improved. In addition, the user can select the frequency spectrum by himself to obtain the blood flow parameter data required by the user.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a third embodiment of the blood flow measuring method of the present application. This embodiment is a further extension of the first embodiment, and specifically, the implementation may include the following steps:

step S31: a first ultrasound image is acquired.

For the description of this step, please refer to step S11, which is not described herein again.

Step S32: and detecting whether a detection instruction of the user is received.

After the first ultrasonic image is acquired, the user can observe the condition of the blood vessel of the patient through the first ultrasonic image. At this time, the user may activate the function of the device for automatically measuring the blood flow parameter by inputting a detection instruction. For example, the user may perform an operation of starting detection on the device by a button of the device, a touch operation on a screen, or a voice control, etc.

For the device, the device detects whether a detection instruction of the user is received. After receiving the detection instruction from the user, the device may continue the blood flow parameter measuring step, i.e., continue to perform step S33 described below.

In one embodiment, the user may input the detection instruction before acquiring the first ultrasound image, that is, perform step S32 and then perform step S31. At this time, after the device acquires the first ultrasound image, the device may directly measure the blood flow parameter based on the first ultrasound image.

In one embodiment, after step S31, before step S32, the device may also enter the pre-PW mode. The device enters the pre-PW mode, which may be in response to an operation of a user, or the device automatically enters the pre-PW mode after acquiring the first ultrasound image. The first ultrasound image will continue to be displayed while the device is in the pre-PW mode. In the pre-PW mode, the user can adjust ultrasound acquisition parameters. For example, adjustment of the sampling gate, the deflection angle, the correction angle, etc. At this time, the first ultrasound image may be displayed with a sampling gate, an ultrasound analog line emitted by the ultrasound probe, and the like. Meanwhile, other adjustable ultrasonic acquisition parameters can be displayed on a display interface of the equipment so that a user can manually adjust the parameters.

When the device is in the pre-PW mode, the user may also input a detection instruction, that is, when the device is in the pre-PW mode, the device may perform measurement based on the ultrasound acquisition parameters determined by the user, and when the user does not have the determined parameters, the device may automatically determine.

Step S33: ultrasound acquisition parameters are determined for the target vessel based on the first ultrasound image.

For the description of this step, please refer to step S12.

In one embodiment, step S33 can be specifically realized by step S331 and step S332.

Step S331: a first vessel region corresponding to the target vessel is determined in the first ultrasound image.

Because the first ultrasound image includes information of the blood vessel, the apparatus can determine a first blood vessel region corresponding to the target blood vessel in the first ultrasound image. When there are several target blood vessels, there may be several first blood vessel regions.

The first vessel region is the location of the distribution of the target vessel in the ultrasound image, including the vessel wall and the portion within the vessel wall. In one embodiment, the first blood vessel region may be determined according to the gray value of each pixel point in the first ultrasound image.

In one embodiment, the device may automatically process the first ultrasound image using a region identification network to obtain a region identification result, wherein the region identification result is used for indicating the position of the first blood vessel region in the first ultrasound image. When there are several target blood vessels, there are several first blood vessel regions.

A first vessel region in the first ultrasound image is identified, which is essentially an image segmentation. The image segmentation field is different from a simple image classification task, and the task generally requires that not only the category of the image is output, but also the position of the category image is included. In order to obtain the region identification result, one way is to classify the pixel according to the pixels around the pixel, that is, a sliding window based neural network (this network classifies the picture by taking the pixel as a unit), which trains each patch (patch) in the image once, and has a large amount of calculation and high redundancy (there is a relevant pixel between each patch).

Compared with the prior art, the calculation amount of the image classification and segmentation is smaller when the image is taken as a whole, so that the area identification network of the embodiment can also be a U-Net neural network optionally.

U-Net uses a network structure that includes down-sampling and up-sampling. The down-sampling is used to gradually present the environment information, and the up-sampling is a process of restoring detail information by combining the down-sampled layer information and the up-sampled input information, and gradually restoring the image accuracy.

Optionally, the region identification result of the first ultrasound image is a binary map corresponding to the first ultrasound image. The binary image means that there are only two gray levels in the image, that is, the gray level of any pixel in the image is two gray levels, for example, 0 or 255, which represent black and white respectively.

In the binary image, the pixel value corresponding to the target blood vessel region is different from the pixel values at other positions. By generating a binary image, the first blood vessel region can be segmented by setting the pixel value of the target blood vessel region to 255 and the pixel values of other positions to 0. In addition, the first blood vessel region in the first ultrasonic image can be correspondingly obtained by obtaining the coordinates of each pixel point of the segmented first blood vessel region.

The obtained region identification result may include two edge lines and a portion within the two edge lines. The region identification result is represented on the first ultrasound image by a blood vessel wall representing a blood vessel edge line and a portion inside the blood vessel wall representing the blood vessel edge line.

Step S332: based on the first vessel region, ultrasound acquisition parameters are determined.

After the device identifies the first blood vessel region, the ultrasound acquisition parameters can be determined through the information of the target blood vessel, such as the trend, the shape, the distance between the upper and lower blood vessel walls and the like of the blood vessel in the first blood vessel region.

In one embodiment, the position and width of the sampling gate may be determined by the following step S3321.

Step S3321: determining a final position of the sampling gate in the length direction of the first blood vessel region, and acquiring a width of the sampling gate in the final position, wherein the width of the sampling gate is not larger than the first blood vessel diameter of the first blood vessel region in the final position.

After the device has determined the first vessel region corresponding to the target vessel, a final position in the length direction of the first vessel region may be further determined based on the first vessel region. The final position may be automatically determined by the device. The final position may be understood as the position of the device in the first vessel region where the blood flow parameters need to be measured. The longitudinal direction can be understood as the extending direction of the blood vessel wall, that is, the extending direction of the blood vessel edge line of the region identification result obtained in step S331. Since the sampling gate is the location where the measurement of the target blood vessel is to be made, the width of the sampling gate can be set to be no greater than the first blood vessel diameter in the final position of the first blood vessel region.

In one embodiment, an initial position of the sampling gate in the first ultrasound image may be determined first, and a position in a length direction of the first blood vessel region corresponding to the initial position may be used as a final position. In one case, the initial position of the sampling door can be automatically determined by the device, and the device can determine the initial position of the sampling door according to a preset determination algorithm, and generally speaking, the initial position automatically determined by the device is the final position. In another case, the initial position may be determined by the user. The operation of the user to determine the initial position may be to select the initial position of the sampling gate in the first ultrasound image directly after the first ultrasound image is acquired. In the preset PW mode, the initial position of the sampling gate may be selected. That is, the initial position of the sampling gate selected by the user may be determined before step S32.

After the user determines the initial position of the sampling gate, when the initial position is not in the first blood vessel region, the initial position may be moved along one side of the blood vessel wall, for example, along a direction perpendicular to the blood vessel wall or pointing to any point in the blood vessel wall close to the initial position, to a position behind the first blood vessel region, that is, the final position of the sampling gate in the length direction of the first blood vessel region. When the initial position is within the first vessel region, then this position can be directly determined as the final position of the sampling gate in the length direction of the first vessel region.

In one embodiment, obtaining the width of the sampling gate in the final position may include the following

steps

1 and 2.

Step 1: a first vessel diameter of the sampling gate at the final position is acquired.

After determining the final position of the sampling gate in the length direction of the first vessel region, the vessel diameter at that position can be determined, the vessel diameter at the final position being defined as the first vessel diameter. For example, the diameter of the blood vessel may be determined according to the trend of the blood vessel wall in the first ultrasound image, and the obtained blood vessel diameter is the first blood vessel diameter.

In one embodiment, the device may automatically acquire the first blood vessel diameter using the edge line in the region identification result obtained using the region identification network in step S331. Specifically, the obtaining of the first blood vessel diameter of the sampling gate at the final position may include the following steps (r) to (r).

The method comprises the following steps: the final position is taken as the reference position.

The final position of the sampling gate is determined as a reference position for obtaining a first vessel diameter of the first vessel region at the final position, the first vessel diameter being obtained by the reference position.

Step two: and respectively sampling two edge lines of the first blood vessel region to obtain a plurality of groups of edge point pairs, wherein the two edge lines extend along the length direction of the target blood vessel region, and each group of edge point pairs comprises a corresponding sampling point on each edge line.

The region identification result includes two edge lines corresponding to the blood vessel wall of the first ultrasound image and a portion within the two edge lines.

Two edge lines of the first blood vessel region are sampled, i.e. points are taken on the two edge lines to obtain sets of edge point pairs. Each set of edge point pairs includes a corresponding sample point on each edge line. This step may be understood as sampling on the vessel wall in the first vessel region.

The sampling method is, for example, to establish a two-dimensional coordinate system in the first ultrasound image, wherein the X axis extends along the length direction of the target blood vessel region, the Y axis is perpendicular to the X axis, and two sampling points with the same X axis coordinate on two edge lines can be used as a set of edge point pairs.

Step three: and generating a direction reference line of the blood vessel region by using the central points of each group of edge point pairs.

The center point of each group of edge point pairs is the midpoint of the connecting line of the two edge points of the same group of edge point pairs. The device may thus obtain the center point for each set of edge point pairs. In addition, a least square method and coordinates of all central points can be utilized to perform straight line fitting to obtain a fitting straight line, and the direction of the fitting straight line can be used as the trend of the target blood vessel, namely, a direction reference line of the target blood vessel region is generated.

Step IV: and determining a diameter line segment which passes through the reference position and is perpendicular to the reference line, and taking the length of the diameter line segment as the blood vessel diameter of the blood vessel region at the reference position, wherein two ends of the diameter line segment are respectively arranged on two edge lines.

After the directional reference line is obtained, a straight line perpendicular to the directional reference line can be determined. It can be understood that the end points are respectively located on two edge lines, and a diameter line segment passing through the reference position and perpendicular to the reference line is a first blood vessel diameter of the first blood vessel region at the final position. The length of the diameter line segment can be used as the length of the blood vessel diameter of the blood vessel region at the reference position. The length of the diameter line can be calculated from the coordinates of the two points of intersection of the diameter line with the two edge lines, respectively.

By determining the diameter of the first blood vessel by using the two edge lines, the diameter can be determined according to the trend of the two edge lines under the condition that the two edge lines are not parallel to each other, and the accuracy of the diameter detection result can be improved.

In this way, the measurement of the flow rate and the flow can be continued by determining the diameter of the first blood vessel in the final position of the sampling gate.

Step 2: and determining the width of the sampling gate as a preset multiple of the first blood vessel diameter, or determining the width of the sampling gate as a difference between the width of the sampling gate and the first blood vessel diameter not to exceed a preset value, wherein the preset multiple is more than 0 and 1.

When the blood flow parameter of the target blood vessel is measured, different positions of the blood vessel are measured, and the measured blood flow parameters are different, for example, the middle part of the blood vessel is the position with the fastest blood flow speed, and when the whole blood vessel is measured, the measured blood flow speed is the average flow speed which can represent the whole blood vessel.

Based on this, the device can automatically adjust the width of the sampling gate according to the needs of the measurement. In one embodiment, the width of the sampling gate may be determined as a preset multiple of the first blood vessel diameter, the preset multiple being greater than 0 and 1. For example, when the preset multiple is two-thirds, it may represent the maximum flow rate measured for the target vessel. In another embodiment, the width of the sampling gate is determined to differ from the first vessel diameter by no more than a predetermined amount. The average flow rate of the target blood vessel is measured by, for example, setting the width of the sampling gate to be equal to the diameter of the target blood vessel, or setting the width of the sampling gate to be equal to the diameter of the target blood vessel. In one embodiment, the width of the sampling gate may also be user determined.

In one embodiment, when the yaw angle and the correction angle need to be determined, the following steps S3322 and S3323 may be specifically included.

Step S3322: a deflection angle is determined for the target vessel based on the first ultrasound image.

When the deflection angle is determined, the emission deflection angle of the ultrasonic probe can be adjusted to a first preset angle range.

When the flow rate is measured, the measured data is more accurate under the condition that the correction angle is not more than 60 degrees, or more than or equal to 120 degrees and less than 180 degrees. Therefore, the size of the correction angle can be adjusted by adjusting the transmission deflection angle of the ultrasonic probe. The emission deflection angle of the ultrasound probe means the deflection angle with respect to the case where the ultrasound waves are emitted perpendicularly to the skin. The first predetermined angle may be the maximum deflection angle that the probe can support, or may be a set angle, such as 30 degrees, 20 degrees, 15 degrees, etc.

Step S3323: a correction angle is determined for the target vessel based on the first ultrasound image.

The correction angle may be obtained based on the adjusted emission deflection angle, and the correction angle may be corrected.

After the transmitting deflection angle of the ultrasonic probe is adjusted, the correction angle can be continuously determined. In one embodiment, determining the correction angle may be determined using the first ultrasound image. Specifically, the flow direction of blood can be determined by determining the magnitude relationship between the frequency of the echo signal received by the ultrasonic probe and the frequency of the ultrasonic wave to be transmitted, based on the doppler effect. After the blood flow direction is obtained, the blood flow direction can be displayed on a display interface, namely, the blood flow direction is represented by a blood flow direction indicating line in the center of the sampling door.

In addition, in the first ultrasonic image, an ultrasonic simulation line emitted by the ultrasonic probe after the deflection angle is adjusted may be generated, so that an included angle between the blood flow direction indicating line and the ultrasonic simulation line is a correction angle, and the device may obtain the correction angle according to the pixel coordinates of the ultrasonic simulation line and the blood flow direction indicating line.

After the correction angle is obtained, if the correction angle is still more than 60 degrees and less than 120 degrees, the correction angle may be corrected at this time. For example, by adjusting the blood flow direction indicating line, the correction angle can be made to correspond to not more than 60 degrees by deflecting the blood flow direction indicating line. If the correction angle is not larger than 60 degrees after the correction angle is obtained, the correction angle may not be corrected.

When the correction angle is corrected, if the deflection angle of the blood flow direction indicating line is too large, for example, the deflection angle is more than 20 degrees, a prompt can be sent to inform a user that the accuracy of the blood flow parameter measured at the moment is not high, and the initial position of the sampling door is recommended to be reselected, or the device automatically selects the final position of another sampling door to measure the blood flow parameter; or prompting the user to move the ultrasound probe to re-image to obtain a new first ultrasound image, and resuming step S31.

After determining the correction angle, the corrected correction angle may be displayed on a display interface to inform a user of the determined correction angle.

After the ultrasound acquisition parameters are determined, the step of measuring the blood flow parameters may be continued. Please continue to refer to fig. 5.

Step S34: and obtaining the frequency spectrum information of the target blood vessel by using the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters.

After the ultrasound acquisition parameters are determined, the device transmits ultrasound signals based on the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters and receives corresponding echo signals. The spectrum information is information obtained by the target device after analysis based on the received echo signal. The spectral information is, for example, the frequency, intensity or wavelength of the echo information, etc.

Step S35: and determining the blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel based on the frequency spectrum information of the target blood vessel.

After obtaining the spectral information, the device can use the spectral information to determine the blood flow parameters of the target vessel. The blood flow parameters of the target vessel may be determined, for example, from the frequencies of the transmitted ultrasound signals and echo signals, and the correction angle.

In one embodiment, at least one of a maximum flow velocity and an average flow velocity of the target vessel may be determined based on the frequencies of the transmit signal and the echo signal in the spectral information. The device may automatically calculate the maximum flow rate, the average flow rate, or both the maximum flow rate and the average flow rate of the target vessel. Specifically, the maximum flow rate or the average flow rate may be determined according to formula (1) and formula (2) described in step S13 described above. The measurement of the maximum flow rate or the average flow rate can be realized by determining the width of the sampling gate, and in particular, refer to the related description of the width of the sampling gate in step S2321 of the above step.

In one embodiment, at least one of a maximum flow velocity and an average flow velocity of the target vessel over the target period may be obtained based on the spectral information over the target period.

Due to the influence of the heart beat, the flow rate of blood is not constant, but exhibits a periodic variation as the heart beat. Thus, the device may select one or several cycles to measure the flow rate when measuring the maximum or average flow rate to obtain the maximum and average flow rate over the target period. The selected period is defined as a target period. The target period may be determined by the device itself by analyzing the variation period of the flow velocity and/or flow obtained by the echo signal. Of course, the user can select the frequency spectrum from the displayed frequency spectrum.

In the calculating, at least one of a maximum flow velocity and an average flow velocity of the target blood vessel in the target period may be acquired based on the frequencies of the emission signal and the echo signal in the target period. The maximum flow rate of the target period is the average of the maximum flow rates of the target blood vessel measured at various time points in the selected period. The average flow rate for the target period is the average of the average flow rates measured at various time points within the target period. The calculation formula is as follows:

in the formula (3), v₁To v_nThe flow velocity at each time point is measured in a target period, n is the number of flow velocity values obtained in the target period, and v is the average flow velocity of the target period. When the flow rate at each time point of v is the average flow rate, then v is the target weekAverage flow rate over time; when the flow rate at each time point of v is the maximum flow rate, then v is the maximum flow rate for the target period.

In one embodiment, the device may analyze the spectral information to obtain flow data of the target vessel. Specifically, steps S351 to S353 are included.

Step S351: at least one of a maximum flow velocity and an average flow velocity of the target vessel is determined based on the spectral information of the target vessel.

At least one of the maximum flow rate and the average flow rate of the target blood vessel is determined, which can be referred to the related description of the maximum flow rate and the average flow rate in step S13 and step S35, and will not be described herein again.

Step S352: the cross-sectional area of the target vessel is obtained.

When analyzing the spectrum information, the diameter of the target blood vessel may be determined according to the spectrum information, and the cross section of the target blood vessel may be regarded as a circle, and then the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel may be obtained according to a circular area formula by using the diameter of the target blood vessel. Specifically, the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel may be acquired through steps S3521 to S3524.

Step S3521: a second ultrasound image generated using ultrasound acquisition parameters is acquired.

After the ultrasound acquisition parameters are determined, the ultrasound probe will continue to transmit ultrasound signals. In order to show the latest situation of the target blood vessel, an ultrasound image may be generated based on subsequently obtained echo signals, the obtained image being defined as a second ultrasound image. The second ultrasound image contains information about the target vessel, such as the location, orientation, etc. of the target vessel. The second ultrasound image may be updated in real-time based on the echo signals that are continuously received, i.e., the second ultrasound image is dynamically refreshed. In one embodiment, the second ultrasound image may also be a single frame image, rather than being dynamically refreshed. The second ultrasound image may be obtained using gray scale flow imaging or color flow imaging techniques.

The device may display the second ultrasound image on the display interface, for example, replacing the first ultrasound image in a first display area of the display interface to display the second ultrasound image. In the second ultrasound image, the position of the sampling gate in the second blood vessel region may be marked, and ultrasound acquisition parameters such as the sampling gate (including a blood flow direction indicating line in the center of the sampling gate), an ultrasound simulation line, a deflection angle, a correction angle, and the like may be displayed. The second blood vessel region is a region of the target blood vessel distributed in the second ultrasound image, and includes a blood vessel wall and a region surrounded by the blood vessel wall.

In one embodiment, after determining the ultrasound acquisition parameters, the user may move the ultrasound probe, resulting in a second ultrasound image generated based on the echo signals, which is different from the first ultrasound image, for example, the second ultrasound image does not include the target blood vessel, or the second blood vessel has a greatly changed trend. Based on this, the apparatus may compare the second ultrasound image with the first ultrasound image after obtaining the second ultrasound image, and re-execute step S31 when the difference between the second ultrasound image and the first ultrasound image exceeds the preset range, so as to improve the accuracy of the measured blood flow parameter.

Please refer to fig. 2. The first display area 201 in fig. 2 shows the second ultrasound image. In addition, 2012 in the figure shows a sampling gate, 2013 shows a second blood vessel diameter, 2014 shows a blood flow direction indicating line, and 2015 shows an ultrasonic simulation line emitted by the ultrasonic probe.

Step S3522: determining a second blood vessel region corresponding to the target blood vessel in the second ultrasonic image;

because the second ultrasound image includes information of the target blood vessel, the apparatus can determine a second blood vessel region corresponding to the target blood vessel in the second ultrasound image. In one embodiment, the second blood vessel region may be determined according to the gray value of each pixel point in the second ultrasound image.

In one embodiment, the second ultrasound image may be processed by using a region identification network to obtain a region identification result of the second ultrasound image, and the region identification result is used to indicate the position of the target blood vessel region in the second ultrasound image. For details, please refer to the part of the area identification network in step S331, which is not described herein again, except that the first ultrasound image in step S331 is replaced by the second ultrasound image, and the obtained area identification result is the second blood vessel area obtained based on the second ultrasound image.

Step S3523: a second vessel diameter of the second vessel region at the location of the sampling gate is obtained.

The position of the sampling gate in the second ultrasound image can be determined according to the final position of the sampling gate in the first ultrasound image. In step S33, the final position of the sampling gate in the length direction of the first blood vessel region has been determined, and the width of the sampling gate is also determined. In addition, when the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are obtained, generally, the position of the ultrasonic probe is not changed, so that the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image can be substantially consistent. Therefore, the pixel coordinates of the sampling gate in the second ultrasonic image can be determined through the pixel coordinates of the sampling gate in the first ultrasonic image, so that the position of the second blood vessel region in the sampling gate can be obtained. For example, the pixel coordinates of the sampling gate in the first ultrasound image are directly considered as the pixel coordinates of the sampling gate in the second ultrasound image. Since the sampling gate is located in the first blood vessel region in the first ultrasound image, the sampling gate is also located in the second blood vessel region in the second ultrasound image.

The "obtaining the second blood vessel diameter of the second blood vessel region at the position of the sampling gate" may refer to steps 1 to 4 in step S3321, which is not described herein again, and the difference is that the final position of steps 1 to 4 in step S3321 is replaced with the position of the sampling gate, and the obtained blood vessel diameter is the second blood vessel diameter.

In one embodiment, because the second ultrasound image is updated in real-time, the second vessel diameter may be acquired in real-time based on the real-time updated second ultrasound image.

Step S3524: and obtaining the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel by using the diameter of the second blood vessel.

The cross section of the target blood vessel may be regarded as a circle, and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel may be obtained from a circular area formula using the diameter of the target blood vessel. In one embodiment, because the second vessel diameter is measured in real time, the cross-sectional area of the target vessel obtained is also updated in real time.

Step S353: and obtaining the maximum flow of the target blood vessel by using the maximum flow speed and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel, and/or obtaining the average flow of the target blood vessel by using the average flow speed and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel.

After the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel is obtained, the device may automatically calculate the flow parameter by using the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel and the maximum flow velocity or the average flow velocity of the target blood vessel. In addition, the flow parameter of the target blood vessel can be measured in real time by the device because the flow parameter of the target blood vessel and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel can be measured in real time by the device.

For example, the maximum flow rate of the target blood vessel is multiplied by the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel, and the obtained product is the maximum flow rate of the target blood vessel in unit time; multiplying the average flow velocity of the target blood vessel by the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel to obtain the average flow of the target blood vessel in unit time; multiplying the average flow speed of the target period of the target blood vessel by the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel, and multiplying by the period time to obtain the average flow of the target blood vessel in the target period; and multiplying the maximum flow velocity of the target blood vessel in the target period by the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel, and multiplying by the period time to obtain the maximum flow of the target blood vessel in the target period.

In addition, the obtained flow speed and flow parameters can be displayed on a display interface, so that the user can conveniently check the flow speed and flow parameters.

Therefore, different flow parameters can be obtained according to different flow rates and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel, and various different data can be provided for a user so as to more comprehensively evaluate the condition of the blood vessel.

In an embodiment, the device may further identify a variation period of the flow speed and/or the flow according to the spectrum information, and then automatically select one period or a plurality of periods as a target period, and calculate an average flow speed, or a maximum flow speed, a maximum flow speed in the period in real time. Therefore, the flow speed and/or flow parameters in the target period can be calculated in real time, so that the user can know the flow speed and/or flow condition in the target period updated in real time.

In one embodiment, after step S33 or after step S35, the following step 1 is continuously performed:

step 1: and responding to the adjustment operation of the ultrasonic acquisition parameters by the user, determining new ultrasonic acquisition parameters for the target blood vessel, and re-executing the steps of controlling the ultrasonic probe to send out a transmitting signal and the subsequent steps based on the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters.

The determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters can be always displayed on a display interface of the equipment, so that the observation of a user is facilitated. Meanwhile, the user may also adjust the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters, for example, the ultrasound acquisition parameters may be adjusted on a display interface, or the ultrasound acquisition parameters may be adjusted by using an input button, a knob, or the like of the device. The device may automatically determine without the user adjusted ultrasound acquisition parameters, other than the user adjusted ultrasound acquisition parameters.

For example, the user may reselect the position of the sampling gate on the second ultrasound image, and the device may use the position of the sampling gate reselected by the user as an initial position and obtain a final position, and then calculate the blood flow parameter of the position of the sampling gate selected by the user again in real time and display the blood flow parameter in real time. Of course, the user can also adjust the ultrasonic acquisition parameters such as the deflection angle and the correction angle.

Therefore, the user can adjust the ultrasonic acquisition parameters again, the blood flow parameters can be automatically calculated again by the equipment based on the adjustment of the user, and the blood flow parameters are displayed in a real-time refreshing manner, so that the blood flow parameters of the positions of a plurality of target blood vessels can be automatically measured by the user, the operation of the user is simplified, and the diagnosis efficiency is improved.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a framework of an embodiment of an ultrasound apparatus of the present application. The ultrasonic apparatus 60 includes: a processor 61 and a memory 62 coupled to each other, the processor 61 being configured to execute program instructions stored by the memory 62 to implement the steps of any of the above-described method embodiments. The ultrasound apparatus may further include a touch screen, an ultrasound probe, a communication circuit, etc. as required, in addition to the processor and the memory, which is not limited herein.

In particular, the processor 61 is configured to control itself and the memory 62 to implement the steps in any of the above-described blood flow measurement method embodiments. The processor 61 may also be referred to as a CPU (Central Processing Unit). The processor 61 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. The Processor 61 may also be a general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. In addition, the processor 61 may be commonly implemented by a plurality of integrated circuit chips.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a block diagram of a computer storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention. The computer-readable storage medium 70 stores a computer program 701, which when executed by a processor, is operable to implement the steps of the blood flow measurement method according to any of the embodiments described above.

The computer-readable storage medium 70 may be a medium that can store a computer program, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, or may be a server that stores the computer program, and the server can send the stored computer program to another device for running or can run the stored computer program by itself.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed method and apparatus may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, a division of a module or a unit is merely a logical division, and an actual implementation may have another division, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units through some interfaces, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

Units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be substantially implemented or contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

Claims

1. A blood flow measurement method, comprising:

acquiring a first ultrasonic image;

determining ultrasound acquisition parameters for a target vessel based on the first ultrasound image;

and measuring blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel by using the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters, wherein the blood flow parameters comprise at least one of flow speed and flow.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein after the measuring obtains the blood flow parameter of the target vessel, the method further comprises:

displaying a blood flow parameter of the target vessel;

and/or, after said determining ultrasound acquisition parameters for a target vessel based on said first ultrasound image, the method further comprises:

acquiring and displaying at least one image associated with the target vessel using the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters; wherein the at least one image comprises at least one of: the method comprises the steps of obtaining a gray ultrasonic image by utilizing a gray blood flow imaging technology, obtaining a color ultrasonic image by utilizing a color blood flow imaging technology and representing a frequency spectrum diagram of the instant flow velocity of the target blood vessel.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the measuring and displaying of the blood flow parameter and/or the acquiring and displaying of the at least one image step is performed repeatedly.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said acquiring and displaying said spectrogram using said determined ultrasound acquisition parameters comprises:

acquiring echo signals obtained based on the ultrasonic acquisition parameters;

analyzing the echo signal by using a preset analysis algorithm to determine a spectrum parameter of the spectrogram;

and acquiring and displaying the spectrogram based on the determined spectrum parameters.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the analyzing the echo signal by using a predetermined analysis algorithm to determine the spectral parameters of the spectrogram comprises at least one of the following steps:

if the instant flow velocity of the target blood vessel is a negative value, determining to perform frequency spectrum inversion on the generated spectrogram;

counting the maximum instantaneous flow speed of the target blood vessel within a preset time, and determining the range of the ordinate of the spectrogram based on the maximum instantaneous flow speed;

determining a baseline position of the spectrogram so that the spectrogram can be displayed in a preset position range of a preset display area of a display interface;

determining a dynamic range based on the amplitude variation range of the echo signal;

and performing gain processing on the echo signals based on the intensity of the echo signals.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein after said displaying the spectrogram, the method further comprises:

and responding to a freezing instruction of a user, fixedly displaying the current spectrogram, determining an optimal period from the current spectrogram, and acquiring and displaying blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel in the optimal period.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to said determining ultrasound acquisition parameters for a target vessel based on said first ultrasound image, the method further comprises:

detecting whether a detection instruction of a user is received;

and if the detection instruction is received, executing the steps of determining ultrasonic acquisition parameters for the target blood vessel based on the first ultrasonic image and the subsequent steps.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein after said determining ultrasound acquisition parameters for a target vessel based on said first ultrasound image, the method further comprises:

and responding to the adjustment operation of the user on the ultrasonic acquisition parameters, determining new ultrasonic acquisition parameters for the target blood vessel, and re-executing the determination of the ultrasonic acquisition parameters for the target blood vessel based on the first ultrasonic image and the subsequent steps.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining ultrasound acquisition parameters for a target vessel based on the first ultrasound image comprises:

determining a first blood vessel region corresponding to the target blood vessel in the first ultrasound image;

determining the ultrasound acquisition parameters based on the first vessel region.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the ultrasound acquisition parameters include at least one of: the position of the sampling gate, the width of the sampling gate, the launch deflection angle, and the correction angle.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the ultrasound acquisition parameters include a position and a width of a sampling gate, and wherein determining the ultrasound acquisition parameters based on the first vessel region comprises:

determining a final position of the sampling gate in a length direction of the first blood vessel region, and acquiring a width of the sampling gate in the final position, wherein the width of the sampling gate is not larger than a first blood vessel diameter of the first blood vessel region in the final position.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining the final position of the sampling gate in the length direction of the first blood vessel region comprises:

determining an initial position of the sampling gate in the first ultrasonic image, and taking a position of the initial position corresponding to a length direction of the first blood vessel region as the final position;

the obtaining the width of the sampling gate in the final position includes:

obtaining a first vessel diameter of the sampling gate at the final position;

determining the width of the sampling gate as a preset multiple of the first blood vessel diameter, or determining the width of the sampling gate as a difference between the width of the sampling gate and the first blood vessel diameter not to exceed a preset value, wherein the preset multiple is greater than 0 and 1.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said measuring blood flow parameters of the target vessel using the determined ultrasound acquisition parameters comprises:

obtaining frequency spectrum information of the target blood vessel by using the determined ultrasonic acquisition parameters;

and determining the blood flow parameters of the target blood vessel based on the frequency spectrum information of the target blood vessel.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the blood flow parameter of the target vessel based on the spectral information of the target vessel comprises:

determining at least one of a maximum flow velocity and an average flow velocity of the target blood vessel based on the spectral information of the target blood vessel;

or, the determining the blood flow parameter of the target blood vessel based on the spectral information of the target blood vessel includes:

acquiring the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel;

and obtaining the maximum flow of the target blood vessel by using the maximum flow velocity and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel, and/or obtaining the average flow of the target blood vessel by using the average flow velocity and the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining at least one of a maximum flow velocity and an average flow velocity of the target vessel based on the spectral information of the target vessel comprises:

acquiring at least one of a maximum flow speed and an average flow speed of the target blood vessel in a target period based on the frequency spectrum information of the target blood vessel in the target period;

the obtaining of the cross-sectional area of the target vessel comprises:

acquiring a second ultrasonic image generated by using the ultrasonic acquisition parameters;

determining a second vessel region corresponding to the target vessel in the second ultrasound image;

acquiring a second blood vessel diameter of the second blood vessel region at the position of the sampling gate;

and obtaining the cross-sectional area of the target blood vessel by using the second blood vessel diameter.

16. The method of claim 9 or 15, wherein said determining a first vessel region corresponding to the target vessel in the first ultrasound image or said determining a second vessel region corresponding to the target vessel in the second ultrasound image comprises:

processing an ultrasonic image by using a region identification network to obtain a region identification result of the ultrasonic image, wherein the region identification result is used for representing the position of a blood vessel region in the ultrasonic image;

the obtaining a first blood vessel diameter of the first blood vessel region at the final position or obtaining a second blood vessel diameter of the second blood vessel region at the position of the sampling gate includes:

taking the final position or the position of the sampling door as a reference position;

sampling two edge lines of a blood vessel region respectively to obtain a plurality of groups of edge point pairs, wherein the two edge lines extend along the length direction of the target blood vessel region, and each group of edge point pairs comprises a corresponding sampling point on each edge line;

generating a direction reference line of the blood vessel region by using the central point of each group of the edge point pairs;

and determining a diameter line segment which passes through the reference position and is perpendicular to the direction reference line, and taking the length of the diameter line segment as the blood vessel diameter of the blood vessel region at the reference position, wherein two ends of the diameter line segment are respectively arranged on the two edge lines.

17. An ultrasound device comprising a processor and a memory coupled to each other, the processor being configured to execute a computer program stored by the memory to perform the method of any one of claims 1-16.

18. A computer storage medium, characterized in that it stores a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method of any one of claims 1-16.