WO2007023433A1

WO2007023433A1 - Medical data acquisition system

Info

Publication number: WO2007023433A1
Application number: PCT/IB2006/052859
Authority: WO
Inventors: Carole Schwach; Sieglinde Neerken; Gerhardus Lucassen; Marion Geerligs; Frederikus De Vreede; Robertus Hekkenberg; Nicole Eikelenberg
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date: 2005-08-23
Filing date: 2006-08-18
Publication date: 2007-03-01

Abstract

A medical data acquisition system (100) comprises a store (120) for storing a set (200) of different control parameters that may be applied to the system (100). The set (200) is used for automatically applying appropriate parameters to the system (100) to facilitate data acquisition of a given patient type and/or body part. The appropriate parameters may be automatically applied to the system (100) in response to operator input indicating a selection of the given patient type and/or body part. Alternatively, the appropriate parameters may be automatically applied to the system (100) in response to a system pre-scan performed on the given patient type and/or body part.

Description

Medical Data Acquisition System

The present invention relates to a medical data acquisition system and more particularly, to a system in which appropriate acquisition parameters for facilitating acquiring medical data from a particular patient type and/or body part may be automatically set by the system.

There are many types of medical data acquisition systems. One system, described in our co-pending application EP 04106494.0 is an automatic blood vessel finder and blood pricking system. The system comprises an apparatus for localizing a blood vessel and based on information provided by the apparatus, the system automatically guides a needle into a blood vessel. In common with many medical data acquisition systems, the system described in EP 04106494.0 requires that the operator selects and inputs various acquisition settings, for example, field of view, focus depth, intensity etc, in order for the system to operate efficiently. The specific settings that are optimum for a particular circumstance depend upon the condition of the patient and the selected body site for needle insertion. Typical patient conditions to be considered are, whether or not the patient is male or female, adult or child, obese or not, or suffering from a given illness, for example cancer, or not. The needle may need to be inserted into an arm, a leg, neck or some other body part. Optimizing the settings of an acquisition device dependent upon patient type, body site or a combination of the two, is time consuming and requires experience from the operator, both in interpretation of output data and in operating the system. Various parameters need to be set to get proper data, for example, a medical image.

Embodiments of the present invention aim to alleviate the above described problem. According to the present invention there is provided a medical imaging system comprising a store for storing a set of different imaging parameters that may be applied to the system and wherein the set is used for automatically applying appropriate imaging parameters to the imaging system to facilitate imaging of a given patient type and/or body part. In one embodiment, the appropriate acquisition parameters are automatically applied to the system in response to operator input indicating a selection of the given patient type and/or body part. In an alternative embodiment, the appropriate acquisition parameters are automatically applied to the system in response to a system pre-scan performed on the given patient type and/or body part.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a system embodying the present invention. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a data set of pre-settings.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a system 100 embodying the present invention. The system 100 has an acquisition module 108, a detection and control system 110, a control unit 112, a cannula control 114, a cannula mount 116 and a cannula 117 rigidly mounted to the cannula mount.

In use, scan data obtained by the acquisition module 108 is processed by the detection and control system 110 to accurately locate a patient's blood vessel 102 situated in the patient's flesh 106 under skin 104. The control unit 112 has a processing unit (not shown) for processing data obtained from the detection system 110, in order to determine a puncture location of the blood vessel 102 that is ideally suited for an insertion of the cannula 117.

The cannula control 114 controls movement of the cannula mount 116 and the cannula 117 so that the cannual is automatically inserted into the blood vessel 102 at the puncture location determined by the control unit 112.

In these respects, the system 100 is identical to the system described in our co- pending application EP 04106494.0.

Advantageously, the system 100 utilises pre-settings to automatically set the acquisition parameters applied by the acquisition module 108 to those settings optimum for locating a vein in a particular body part of a particular patient type.

In one embodiment, an operator need only input to the system 100 a selection of patient type and a body part and the system 100 sets its acquisition parameters accordingly.

To this end, the detection and control system 110 comprises a memory 120 storing a data set of pre-settings based on 'classical' anatomy parameters. An example data set 200 is illustrated schematically in a 'matrix format' in Figure 2.

The data set includes a first list 201 of possible patient groups selectable by an operator and a second list 202 of possible body sites selectable by an operator. For each combination of patient group and body site, the data set includes appropriate system acquisition parameters (for example field of view, focus depth, intensity and the like), appropriate for locating a vein in that body site of that patient group. For reasons of clarity only a single entry 203 is shown in Figure 2, that for the combination of child patient group and arm body site. The data entry 203 is set in dependence upon average vein depth, average vein size and other such anatomical parameter information available for that combination. The relevant anatomical parameter information may be collected by performing a statistical analysis of the anatomical parameters of patients who qualify for each patient group to obtain average parameter values for each patient group and body part combination. The operator may input his or her selection of patient group and body site to the control system 110 using a suitable data entry device (not shown), for example a keyboard or mouse. In response to receiving this selection, the detection and control system 110 accesses the relevant data set and sets the imaging settings of the acquisition module 108 accordingly. For example, in obese patients the veins at various body sites are located relatively deep below the skin surface compared to other patient types. Thus, the scan settings of the acquisition module 108 are set so that the scanning process starts at the average vein location depth at the targeted body site of obese people.

The operator may apply any necessary fine adjustments to the scan settings that are required to obtain a good result. Alternatively, such fine-tuning may be implemented automatically by the system.

In the above-described embodiment, the system's operator inputs a selection of patient type and body site into the system. In an alternative embodiment the operator need not make this selection. Instead, the system is applied to a body site of a patient and performs several pre-scans and automatically adjusts and optimizes its scanning parameters in response to the results of the pre-scans. Once this process has been completed, the main scanning process may begin.

Preferably, the acquisition module 108 is realized by means of Ultrasound, Near- infrared imaging, Optical Coherence Tomography, Doppler Ultrasound, Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography or Photo Acoustic techniques that allow to generate a signal providing identification of the blood vessel 102. Additionally or alternatively also Doppler techniques may be applied including e.g. Doppler Ultrasound techniques allowing for detection of e.g. blood flow in the blood vessel 102. Also, Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography might be correspondingly applied. Acquisition of location data, geometric data as well as data related to the course of the blood vessel 102, may also be obtained without actually imaging the blood vessel. Therefore, the system 110 does not necessarily have to provide a visual image. Instead the system 110 may be enabled to directly extract blood vessel parameters from the signals acquired by the acquisition module 108.

Once the system 100 has located the blood vessel 102, the cannula 117 may be automatically inserted into the blood vessel 102 in the manner described in our co-pending application EP04106494.

Although described above with reference to a blood vessel finder and cannula insertion system, it is to be understood that the invention may be employed in any type of medical acquisition system in order to examine certain body regions and facilitate the detection of anatomical structures.

Advantageously, systems embodying the invention are easier and quicker to use than standard systems and may be operated by less experienced or less well-trained operators. Having thus described the present invention by reference to a preferred embodiment it is to be well understood that the embodiment in question is exemplary only and that modifications and variations such as will occur to those possessed of appropriate knowledge and skills may be made without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims and equivalents thereof. In the claims, any reference signs placed in parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claims. The word ' 'comprising' ' and "comprises", and the like, does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in any claim or the specification as a whole. The singular reference of an element does not exclude the plural reference of such elements.

Claims

1. A medical data acquisition system (100) comprising a store (120) for storing a set (200) of different acquisition parameters that may be applied to the system and wherein the set is used for automatically applying appropriate acquisition parameters to the system to facilitate acquisition of data from a given patient type and/or body part.

2. A medical data acquisition system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the appropriate acquisition parameters are automatically applied to the system in response to operator input indicating a selection of the given patient type and/or body part.

3. A medical data acquisition system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the appropriate acquisition parameters are automatically applied to the system in response to a system pre- scan performed on the given patient type and/or body part.

4. A medical data acquisition system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the appropriate acquisition parameters that are automatically applied to the system may be finely adjusted by an operator.

5. A medical data acquisition system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the appropriate acquisition parameters automatically applied to the system may be finely adjusted automatically by the system.

6. A medical data acquisition system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the set of different acquisition parameters is determined in dependence upon anatomy parameters of different patient types and/or body parts.

7. A medical data acquisition system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system is a blood vessel locating system.

8. A medical data acquisition system as claimed in claim 7, further comprising a system for automatically inserting a cannula into a located blood vessel.