Patent ID: 8900149

Claim:
A quantitative method for measuring ventricular dysynchrony of a heart comprising: actuating a portable ultrasound imaging system including a transducer probe and a hand-held processor housing having a display and a control panel; forming a B-mode reference image of moving cardiac tissue including a septal wall and a lateral wall of a heart with the portable ultrasound imaging system; using the B-mode reference image to form a first plurality of gates defining a first region of interest of the cardiac tissue including the septal wall, the first plurality of gates being associated with a first pulsed wave spectral Doppler line having a first direction, the B-mode reference image further being used to form a second plurality of gates defining a second region of interest of the cardiac tissue including the lateral wall, the second gate being associated with a second pulsed wave spectral Doppler line having a second direction that is different from the first direction, the first pulsed wave spectral Doppler line and the second pulsed wave spectral Doppler line being rendered in a single image frame for measuring a lateral wall and a septal wall of a heart; performing Doppler imaging to obtain pulsed wave spectral Doppler data of the first region of interest using an average movement associated with the first plurality of gates to provide motion data for the septal wall and the second region of interest using an average movement associated with the second plurality of gates to provide motion data for the lateral wall; and determining ventricular dysynchrony between the septal wall and the lateral wall using the pulsed wave spectral Doppler data.