EP0205487A1

EP0205487A1 - Method and device for determining the cardiovasculary characteristics by external process and application thereof to cardiopathies

Info

Publication number: EP0205487A1
Application number: EP19850906077
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bernard Levy; Alain Tedgui; François BORNES
Original assignee: Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique CEA; Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale INSERM
Current assignee: Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale INSERM; Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives CEA
Priority date: 1984-12-07
Filing date: 1985-12-06
Publication date: 1986-12-30
Also published as: FR2574280A1; JPS62501269A; FR2574280B1; WO1986003593A1

Abstract

Dispositif comportant un transducteur (1) pour l'émission au niveau du manubrium de salves d'ultrasons à intervalles de temps réguliers et pour la réception de l'écho Doppler d'une coupe transversale provenant de l'aorte ascendante, un convertisseur analogique numérique des signaux Doppler, deux mémoires-tampons (12, 13) reliées au convertisseur (11) et recevant alternativement un nombre de points images du signal Doppler, un calculateur (14) traitant successivement les données illustratives des points emmagasinés dans les mémoires-tampons pour la formation d'un spectre d'amplitudes et de fréquences correspondant aux points significatifs emmagasinés dans chacune des mémoires-tampons, une mémoire (15) pour emmagasiner les valeurs des amplitudes et fréquences caractéristiques du spectre et un ordinateur (16) relié à ladite mémoire (15) pour effectuer et afficher le calcule (I), qui illustre chaque systole dans le temps.Device comprising a transducer (1) for the emission at the manubrium of bursts of ultrasound at regular time intervals and for the reception of the Doppler echo of a cross section coming from the ascending aorta, an analog-to-digital converter Doppler signals, two buffers (12, 13) connected to the converter (11) and alternately receiving a number of image points of the Doppler signal, a computer (14) successively processing the illustrative data of the points stored in the buffers for forming an amplitude and frequency spectrum corresponding to the significant points stored in each of the buffer memories, a memory (15) for storing the values of the amplitudes and frequencies characteristic of the spectrum and a computer (16) connected to said memory (15) to perform and display the compute (I), which illustrates each systole over time.

Description

Method and device for determining cardiovascular characteristics externally and their application to heart disease

In many cardiovascular diseases, it is useful to be able to know the hemodynamic cycle of a patient to determine the treatment to be applied to it and its evolution. The clinical estimation of the hemodynamic state of a patient frequently leads to errors so that in serious cases, in particular in the case of mechanically ventilated patients, we are led to carry out a cardiac catheterization which makes it possible to quickly check the evolution of a therapy. This is how catheterization is used more and more in intensive care units to control the cardiac output of patients, in particular by the process known as "thermo-dilution".

This process does not give instant information on the blood flow or the flow from the left ventricle, which is very unfortunate since the venous and sympathetic tone can vary simultaneously and unpredictably. Furthermore, it is known that examination methods such as catheterization are not without risk.

The present invention creates a new method which makes it possible to instantly know essential characteristics such as cardiac output, speed of flow of blood, in particular in the aorta, acceleration at the start of systole and , therefore, it becomes possible to intervene very quickly, which is decisive for some patients, especially for mechanically ventilated patients with serious conditions.

According to the invention, the method for determining cardiovascular characteristics externally, in which the Doppler effect is used, is characterized laughed at by determining the cross section of a blood vessel, by determining the distance between a substantially cross section of the blood vessel and part of the patient's body surface, by emitting inside regular time intervals of the ultrasonic bursts, in that the Doppler echo of said bursts is collected at a time interval corresponding to the distance separating the vessel from the part of the patient's body surface, in that '' the successively collected echoes are converted into directional Doppler signals, in that said directional Doppler signals are converted into digital signals, in that one alternately stores a number of digital signals which is a power of 2 in two buffers for short successive sampling time intervals, in that the digital signals coming successively from l are processed alternately by Fourier transformation and in real time 'and the other memory buffers to establish a frequency spectrum and. amplitudes corresponding to each sampling time, and in that the average frequency is calculated

Fmoy = ε (A ² .F) ε A ² to obtain a curve as a function of time, each period of which is the image of a systole.

The invention also extends to a device for implementing the above method, device which by its realization can be produced in a small volume and at a low price given the specificity of its components intended to fill only a limited number of functions although in very short times, and thus the miniaturization that it is possible to carry out of the device makes it possible to implement it even outside intensive care units. In addition, the information provided by the device can be obtained for the most part in direct reading, for example on a cathode-ray screen while allowing as much, possibly, graphic recordings at characteristic moments of a treatment or during the sudden evolution of the patient's condition.

According to this second arrangement of the invention, the device comprises a transducer for the emission of bursts of ultrasound at regular time intervals and for reception of the resulting Doppler echo, a directional circuit for obtaining signals Directional Doppler, an analog to digital converter connected to the directional Doppler circuit, two buffer memories connected to the analog to digital converter and receiving alternately a number of significant image points of the directional Doppler signal, a computer connected to the two buffers and successively processing the illustrative data points stored in said buffer memories for the formation of a spectrum of amplitudes and frequencies respectively illustrating half of the significant points stored each time in each of the buffer memories, a first memory for storing the amplitudes and frequencies spectrum characteristics and a computer connected to said memory to perform at least the calculation ε (A ² . F)

Fmoy = ε A ² and transmit the result of said calculation to a display means.

The invention finds a particularly important application in the establishment of cardiovascular characteristics, in particular at the level of the ascending aorta. According to this third arrangement of the invention, for the determination of the cardiovascular characteristics of the ascending aorta, the transducer is placed in the suprasternal fossa behind the manubrium, being directed downwards to intercept a section of the ascending aorta close to the sigmoid valves. Various other characteristics of the invention will also emerge from the detailed description which follows.

An embodiment of the object of the invention is shown, by way of nonlimiting example, in the accompanying drawing.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the device for implementing the method for determining cardiovascular characteristics, object of the invention.

Fig. 2 is an explanatory anatomical diagram.

Fig. 3 illustrates two curves for obtaining a Doppler signal.

Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a processing phase of the method of the invention.

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates a spectrum obtained by Fourier transformation from the Doppler signals illustrated schematically in FIG. 3.

Fig. 6 is an illustrative curve of cardiovascular characteristics obtained according to the invention in real time.

Fig. 7 is a curve illustrating a three-dimensional representation obtained according to the invention.

Fig. 8 illustrates the so-called three-dimensional representation obtained from the cardiovascular characteristics determined according to the invention from the curves of FIG. 6.

Figs. 9 and 9a are vector representations illustrating the speed of the blood cells in a vessel during a sampling time defined in relation to FIG. 3. In fig. 1 and 2, 1 designates a transducer for the emission of signal bursts and the reception of Doppler signals through a gate 2 leading to a processing circuit 3 for forming directional Doppler signals, that is to say all positive and for example between 0 and 7 KHz.

The transducer 1, door 2 and circuit 3 assembly is adjusted as illustrated in FIG. 3 to first obtain Doppler samples, that is to say that in successive time intervals T, T ₁ ... T _n , for example of 10 ^-4 s, first of all a burst of high frequency pulses for example at 4 MHz for a time t.

The frequency of the bursts of pulses is chosen taking into account the approximate known speed of the blood cells, generally between 0 and 150 cm / s in the ascending aorta during a systole so that the Doppler signal, that is to say the difference between the transmitted frequency and the received frequency, ie a directional frequency preferably included in the audible frequencies, for example between 0 and 7 KHz, as indicated above.

To determine the cardiovascular characteristics at the level of the ascending aorta, the procedure is as illustrated in FIG. 2. In this figure, 4 designates the left ventricle of the heart, 5 designates the sigmoid valves and 6 the ascending aorta.

To allow the characteristics of acceleration, speed and flow in the upstream part of the ascending aorta to be determined, the transducer 1 is applied at the level of the suprasternal fossa 7, that is to say behind manubrium 8 of the patient and said head 1a is maintained so that its axis is substantially vertical and directed downward as illustrated by axis 9, so that said axis is approximately concentric to a cross section 10 of the part of the aorta ascending near the sigmoid valves. An anatomical study can moreover be carried out for each patient concerned before the examination by means of an ultrasound observation making it possible to locate the section 10 at approximately 6 cm from the suprasternal pit 7 and, likewise, the aortic section at the Cut level 10 is normally known from tables or easily determined by ultrasound observation.

When the position of the cut 10 has been chosen correctly, the time t _{1 must be set} to elapse between the end of the burst of high frequency pulses emitted during the time t and the opening of the door 2 making it possible to receive the Doppler echo.

In practice and in the example considered in section 10, the time t ₁ is for example between 60 and 80 μs, the door 2 then remaining open for a time t ₂ for example between 1 and 3 μs. As illustrated in fig. 3, said time t ₂ represents the sampling time of the Doppler frequency.

In practice and taking into account the numerical indications given in the foregoing, the section 10 has a diameter of approximately 3 cm and a thickness of between 0.75 and 2.25 mm when the level at which the echo is to be appreciated is 4.5 to 6 cm away from the receiving transmitting part of the transducer head 1a.

The directional Doppler signal from circuit 3 is applied to an analog-to-digital converter 11 intended for alternately loading two buffer memories 12 and 13 which are connected to a processing computer 14 in which said buffer memories are alternately discharged as illustrated diagrammatically in fig. 4.

In the case of the digital example stated in the foregoing, analog digital conversion is carried out so that each buffer memory 12, 13 receives successively a integer number of points, which is a power of 2 and, preferably, each memory receives 128 points constituting the digital image of the Doppler signal corresponding to a sampling time period of 5 ms.

The processing calculator 14 comprises a calculation software 14a causing it to perform a Fourier transformation for each of the data received alternately from one and the other memories in successive sampling time periods of 5 ms.

Fig. 5 shows that the processing computer 14 establishes, during each 5 ms period of time, a spectrum of 64 values of frequency F and 64 values of amplitude A.

The values of the frequencies and the amplitudes thus calculated during each lapse of time of 5 ms are stored in memories 15 of amplitudes and frequencies connected to a computer 16 (fig. 1) which, in the example described in the following , is designed to perform two types of calculations and which can therefore be constituted in the form of a unit specific to these only types of calculations, which allows it to be performed in reduced form and relatively inexpensively.

The computer 16 receiving the data from the memories 15 performs from each spectrum conforming to that of FIG. 5 an average frequency calculation in real time, that is to say as each spectrum is established.

The calculation of the average frequencies corresponds to the formula ε (A ² .F)

Fmoy = ε A ² The results of the calculation above make it possible to draw a curve of average frequencies as a function of time, that is to say a curve which is an image in time in particular of the acceleration and the speed of the blood during each systole at the level of section 10 of FIG. 2.

The above shows that the front edge of each pulse I of the curve of FIG. 6 corresponds to the acceleration that the blood undergoes at the start of the systole, the front edge of said curve thus being a very important illustration of the cardiac state since the acceleration that the blood undergoes in the ascending aorta near the valves sigmoid is an image of the contractility of the heart muscle.

The area of each pulse I also corresponds to the volume of blood ejected during systole, this volume can thus be easily calculated by the computer 16 which only has to carry out the integral of each pulse.

Since the section of the aorta is also known as explained in the foregoing, the product of the velocity by this section can also be easily executed by the computer to know the blood flow to each systole.

The curve of fig. 6 being a frequency curve as a function of time and this curve delimiting with precision the successive sytoles and diastoles, the durations of the latter are also determined in a simple manner.

As illustrated in fig. 1, the computer 16 is normally connected to a screen 17 making it possible to permanently display the characteristics calculated by the computer.

A keyboard 18 is associated with the computer 16 to allow the operator to store in memory for a more or less long time, for example 5 to 7 seconds, the coordinates of the curve of FIG. 6 and thus allow then to make a plot by means of a writer 19 of the data of the curve of FIG. 6 which have been frozen in memory for the time selected above. It can be seen from the above that, by the means described, the invention makes it possible, for example at each cardiac period, to know the blood volume ejected during systole, to know the ejection time, the maximum blood speed, maximum blood acceleration and cardiac output, results which allow them to appreciate the cardiovascular state and in particular the contractility characteristics of the muscle.

The method of the invention also extends to the determination and the visualization of the differences in speed of the blood glovules in the vessel studied by showing the results obtained in the form of a three-dimensional plot which thus appears in the manner a relief representation. For this and as shown in fig. 7, the amplitude and frequency spectra of the memory 15 are transferred to the computer 16 to be stored and processed there in deferred time, that is to say that the succession of amplitude and frequency data allows from the curve according to fig. 5 to trace at the end of each sampling time of 5 ms a first envelope of the spectrum as illustrated by the curve E ₁ of FIG. 7.

The computer 16 is programmed to calculate and then trace the envelope E ₂ of the spectrum of the second sampling time of 5 ms. The plotting of the curve E ₂ and of the following ones is carried out according to coordinates shifted in the time of regular measurements, images of the sampling time of 5 ms as indicated in fig. 7. The calculation of the plot of the curves E ₁ , E ₂ ... E _n of the envelopes of the successive spectra is carried out as shown in FIG. 7 so that only the parts of the envelopes not hidden by the preceding envelopes appear.

The three-dimensional representation which is thus obtained and which is illustrated in FIG. 8 so as to correspond to the time T of FIG. 6 makes it appear in this way, along the amplitude axis the vector velocities, illustrated in figs. 9 and 9a, blood cells between the aortic walls 20 during the three systoles illustrated in said time T, the measurements along the axis of the amplitudes A corresponding to the information given in the previously known representation of the variations in the gray scale.

In the same way as explained in the foregoing, the three-dimensional trace described is obtained by acting on the keyboard 18 of the computer 16 to freeze in the main memory of the latter the data of the successive spectra at 64 amplitudes and 64 frequencies. memories 15 for a time, for example of about 10 seconds or more, to then allow and in delayed time the three-dimensional tracing over a significant period of time corresponding for example to a respiratory cycle, which then allows the observer to '' appreciate the cardiac cycles taking into account the interferences produced on the aortic circulation in the course of the respiratory cycles.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment shown and described in detail, because various modifications can be made without departing from its scope. In particular, what is described in the foregoing can be used for the determination of the vascular characteristics of other vessels, in particular other arteries.

Claims

1 - Process for the determination of cardiovascular characteristics externally in which the Doppler effect is implemented, characterized in that the section of a blood vessel is determined, in that the distance separating a section substantially is determined transverse of the vessel from a part of the patient's body surface, in that it emits within regular time intervals bursts of ultrasound, in that it collects the Doppler echo of said bursts at a time interval corresponding to the distance separating the selected cross-section of the vessel from the part of the patient's body surface, in that the successively collected echoes are converted into directional Doppler signals, in that said directional Doppler signals are converted into digital signals, in that alternately stores a number of digital signals which is a power of 2 during successive sampling time intervals of short-term, in that it is treated alternately by transformation of

Fourier and in real time the digital signals stored to establish a spectrum of frequencies and amplitudes corresponding to each sampling time, and in that the average frequency is calculated

Fmoy = ε (A ^2. F) ε A ² to obtain a time-dependent curve, each positive alternation of which is the image of a systole.

2 - Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it stores for a significant time, of the order of several seconds, the points of the average frequency curve, in that we trace the curve obtained from said points , in that one integrates the surface the successive alternations of the curve to determine the blood volume, in that one multiplies said speed by the section of the vessel examined to reveal the cardiac output either during each successive systole _/ or at the end of another chosen period of time and in that the slope of the forehead is read before the alternations to determine the blood acceleration, a reflection of the cardiac contractility.

3 - Method according to one of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the successive spectra of the amplitudes and frequencies obtained during each sampling time are memorized, in that the envelopes of the spectra are determined successive and in that the envelopes of the successive spectra are drawn offset along the time axis at intervals corresponding to the sampling time of each of them and so that only the visible part of the envelope of a new spectrum remains apparent with respect to the envelope of the previous spectra, so that a three-dimensional representation is obtained for each systole by showing the duration, the ejection time, the blood speed, the blood acceleration and differences in the speed of blood cells in the examined part of the vessel.

4 - Device for implementing the method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it comprises a transducer (1) for the emission of bursts of ultrasound at regular time intervals and for reception resulting audible frequency Doppler echoes, a directional circuit for obtaining directional Doppler signals, an analog to digital converter connected to the directional Doppler circuit, two memories (12, 13) connected to the analog to digital converter and alternately receiving a number of significant points images of the directional Doppler signal, a computer connected to the two buffer memories and successively processing the illustrative data of the points stored in said buffer memories for the formation of a spectrum of amplitudes and frequencies respectively illustrating half of the significant points stored each time in each of the buffer memories, a first memory (15) in. ur store the amplitudes and characteristic frequencies of the spectrum and a computer (16) connected to said memory (15) to perform at least the calculation

Fmoy = ε (A ² .F) ε A ² and transmit the result of said calculation to a display means

(17).

5 - Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the computer (16) comprises a keyboard (18) for controlling the storage of a determined number of successive data corresponding to the average frequency

Fmoy = ε (A ² .F) εA ² for a significant duration of the order of 5 to 10 s and means for plotting (19) a curve from said frequencies Fmoy calculated.

6 - Device according to one of claims 4 and 5, characterized by means for storing in the computer the successive spectra obtained during the successive sampling times corresponding to the number of points stored alternately in each of the memories (12, 13 ), by means for determining the envelope (E ₁ , E ₂ ... E _n ) of the successive spectra and by means for drawing the visible part of the envelopes (E ₂ ... E _n ) successively at distant intervals from each other to reveal a three-dimensional curve.

7 - Device according to one of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that the analog digital converter (11) is connected to two buffer memories each storing successively 128 characteristic points in a sampling time of 5 ms.

8 - Device according to one of claims 4 to 7, characterized in that the computer (14) connected to the two buffer memories (12, 13) is controlled to perform from 128 points received each 5 ms successively from both buffers a spectrum of 64 amplitudes and

64 frequencies from which the frequency is calculated

Fmoy = ε (A ² .F) ε A ²

9 - Device according to one of claims 4 to 8, characterized in that the layout of the successive envelopes (E ₁ ,

E2 ... E _n ) is performed every 5 ms.

10 - Device according to one of claims 4 to 9, characterized by an adjustable door provided in the head (1a) of the transducer (1) for adjusting the time lapse (t ₁ ) flowing between the end of the emission of the ultrasonic burst and the start of reception of the Doppler echo (t ₂ ).

11 - The application of the method and the device of one of claims 1 to 9 to the determination of the cardiovascular characteristics of the ascending aorta in which the transducer is disposed against the sussternal fossa behind the manubrium being directed towards the bottom to intercept a section of the ascending aorta close to the sigmoid valves.

12 - The application of claim 11 in which the burst of ultrasound is emitted at 4 MHz for a time t, the gate (2) being adjusted so that the Doppler echo is received a time t ₁ equal to 60 to 80 μs after the end of the 4 MHz pulse burst.

13 - Application of claims 11 and 12, characterized in that a burst of ultrasound and a Doppler echo are respectively transmitted and received within regular time intervals of the order of 10 ^-4 s.