Patent ID: 7749165

Claim:
An apparatus for measuring the volume of fluid in a human or animal body cavity using a non-invasive, ultrasound echo technique, comprising: a transducer assembly including a plurality of ultrasound transducers mounted thereon for transmitting and receiving a plurality of ultrasound signals into the body cavity at plural angles of incidence and from plural spatial locations, at least one angle of the plural angles of incidence having a magnitude different from that of another angle of the plural angles of incidence; an activator component configured to activate the transducers to produce transmitted ultrasound signals; a detector component configured to detect body cavity wall echoes from received ultrasound signals; a processor component configured to determine, from said received signals, a body cavity height H and depth D; the processor component further configured to determine a specific measurement configuration corresponding to the body cavity filling degree from the ultrasound signals that intercept the body cavity to thereby select an appropriate predetermined correction factor K corresponding to that specific measurement configuration, for optimal calculation of the volume; the processor component further configured to calculate the fluid volume according to the formula H×D×K.