Measurement algorithms of cross-section area and blood speed for noninvasive blood flow measurement system

The purpose of this paper is to propose measurement algorithms of cross-section area and blood speed of an artery by controlling a robotic system equipped with an ultrasound probe for large pulsation and a displacement towards the out-of-plane of a US image. Detecting the position and speed of a bleeding source is required as the first step in treating internal bleeding in emergency medical medicine. However, the current methods for detecting a bleeding source involve an invasive approach and cannot quantitatively estimate the speed of bleeding. Therefore, current emergency medical care requires an alternative system to address these problems. In this study, we aim to develop a robotic system for detecting bleeding source based on the blood flow measured by using a noninvasive modality like an ultrasound (US) imaging device. Some problems related to the measurement error still need to be addressed before we can create this system. In particular, the blood flow measurement error in the abdominal area is typically large, because the pulse amplitude and displacement of the artery is too large even to adequately control the probe. As the first step in solving these problems, we focused on the large pulse amplitude and displacement of the artery towards the out-of-plane of a US image, and developed measurement algorithms to control the probe. We conducted flow volume measurement experiments using an ultrasound phantom containing artery model and a manipulator equipped with a US probe (BASIS-1). The results present the first experimental validation of the proposed algorithms.