Patent ID: 11957517
Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 9:
10. A method of ultrasound imaging of tendon regions comprising:
acquiring ultrasound images of a body part that contains a tendon while supporting the body part and scanning the body part with an ultrasound transducer driven by a motor in a selected trajectory relative to the body part;
segmenting scar tissue from said images and/or from a three-dimensional representation of a tendon in the imaged body part using an automated, computer-implemented image processing to derive a scar tissue estimate of the scar tissue in a selected volume of the body part;
testing the scar tissue estimate and parameters derived from a multiplicity of teaching ultrasound images of the scar tissue associated with respective known tendon healing parameters and deriving an estimate of expected healing parameters for the tendon in said body part using an automated, computer-implemented facility; and
using the estimate of the expected healing parameter of the tendon in said body part to provide one or more of a treatment guide, medication dosing, and disability classification with an automated, computer-implementing facility.