PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16190462
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-11
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["382", "131000"]

Abstract:
An ultrasound system and method are described for acquiring a sequence of ultrasound images of the carotid artery during the delivery of a contrast agent. Plaque in the images is identified and a time-intensity curve is calculated for pixels in the images. The intensity values before and after the arrival of contrast are compared to identify pixels or groups of pixels having perfusion. An anatomical image may be formed showing areas in an image of the plaque of the intensity and presence of perfusion, or the perfusion may be quantified by determining the percentage of pixels in the plaque image which exhibit perfusion. The extent and degree of perfusion is an indicator of the risk of plaque particulates in the blood stream which may lead to stroke-related symptoms.

Claim (Index 1):
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for the evaluation of plaque by contrast enhanced ultrasound, the system comprising:\n an ultrasound imaging probe, wherein the ultrasound probe comprises an array transducer, the array transducer arranged to acquire a sequence of ultrasound images of a plaque region in a carotid artery during contrast agent delivery; a time intensity curve calculator arranged to form a plurality of time intensity curves for the plaque region,\n wherein the plaque region comprises a plurality of pixels, \n wherein the plurality of time intensity curves includes a time intensity curve for a portion of the plurality of pixels; \n a comparator circuit arranged to determine, for the portion of the plurality of pixels, whether contrast is present in the portion of plurality of pixels based on the time intensity curve for the portion of the plurality of pixels; and a display arranged to display the degree of perfusion in the plaque region.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 35.0
- Percentile: 98.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.94203
- Patent Class: 382.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15112290', '12594906', '15323833', '12864273', '12864262']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.3317339699855834
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5560412753767489
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.3541647005247
- Mean Citation Score: 269.541946
- Max Citation Score: 410.80075
- Similarity Product: 403.2127993161381

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 0
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 0

Dataset: test