Patent ID: 8861811

Claim:
A computer system for segmenting an m-mode ultrasound image of a blood vessel, comprising: (A) a microprocessor; (B) a computer-readable memory storage device; (C) a prerecorded m-mode data file, stored on the memory storage device, comprising pixel intensity values for a collection of sequentially-recorded ultrasound scans of the blood vessel, each scan indicating the positions of boundaries within the blood vessel at the time said each scan was recorded, including boundaries associated with an anterior wall of said blood vessel and boundaries associated with a posterior wall of said blood vessel; (D) a matrix generator, encoded on the memory storage device, comprising computer-readable instructions to cause the microprocessor to generate and store on the memory storage device a two-dimensional m-mode matrix comprising the pixel intensity values, wherein the computer-readable instructions are configured to cause the microprocessor to parse the prerecorded m-mode data file according to a predefined file format specification; (E) a matrix splitter, encoded on the memory storage device, comprising computer-readable instructions to cause the microprocessor to generate and store on the memory storage device an anterior wall region sub matrix and a posterior wall region sub matrix, wherein said anterior wall region sub matrix comprises the portion of the two-dimensional m-mode matrix containing the boundaries associated with the anterior wall, and said posterior wall region sub matrix comprises the portion of the two-dimensional m-mode matrix containing the boundaries associated with the posterior wall; (F) a scan correlator, encoded on the memory storage device, comprising computer-readable instructions to cause the microprocessor to (i) select a region sub matrix, and (ii) produce and store on the memory storage device a displacement matrix for the selected region sub matrix by executing a cross-correlation function on all pairs of scans in said selected region sub matrix and calculating the relative offset between said all pairs of scans as an index to a peak of the executed cross-correlation function; (G) a relative wall motion waveform calculator, encoded on the memory storage device, comprising computer-readable instructions to cause the microprocessor to calculate and store on the memory storage device a relative wall motion waveform for an intima-lumen boundary in the selected region sub-matrix based on the displacement matrix; and (H) an absolute offset calculator, encoded on the memory storage device, comprising computer-readable instructions to cause the microprocessor to calculate and store on the memory storage device an absolute offset for the relative wall motion waveform.