Methods and systems for characterizing fluids from a patient

Inventors

Satish, Siddarth • Miller, Kevin

Assignees

Stryker Corp

Abstract

Methods for characterizing fluids from a patient. A time series of images of a conduit are received, and a conduit image region in the images is identified. The conduit image region may include a shallow section and/or a deep section. The shallow section includes a dimension of the conduit along an optical axis of the camera such that opacity of the fluids from redness associated with red blood cells or hemoglobin is limited to permit pixel color visualization in the images. The deep section includes a dimension is along the optical axis such that the redness provides a minimum opacity to permit the pixel color visualization. A concentration of a blood component of the fluids is determined based on the pixel color visualization. A volume of blood passing through the conduit is estimated based on the estimated concentration of the blood component and an estimated volumetric flow rate.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to computer-implemented methods and a system including a camera, one or more processors, and a display for estimating a volume of blood within fluids being drawn through a conduit. A time series of images of a conduit image region is received, and the conduit image region is configured with an optical-axis section in which opacity associated with redness associated with red blood cells or hemoglobin is limited or provides minimum opacity to permit pixel color visualization in the time series of images.

The method estimates a concentration of a blood component based on the pixel color visualization from the time series of images. The method further estimates a volumetric flow rate of the fluids and then estimates the volume of blood passing through the conduit based on the estimated blood component concentration and the estimated volumetric flow rate.

In related aspects, the conduit image region includes a shallow section in which a dimension along an optical axis of the camera limits opacity to permit pixel color visualization, or includes a deep section in which a dimension along the optical axis provides minimum opacity to permit pixel color visualization. In other aspects, an optical fiducial is imaged with the camera and a database is accessed using a code of the optical fiducial to obtain conduit-related information that includes at least one dimension associated with a conduit image region.

Claims Coverage

The partial content includes three independent claims (clm-00001, clm-00014, clm-00018). Across these, the claims share the core workflow of receiving or acquiring conduit image information, estimating blood component concentration from pixel color visualization, estimating a volumetric flow rate, and computing and displaying the estimated volume of blood. The independent claims differ primarily in how the conduit image region is configured for pixel color visualization and in whether conduit-related dimension information is obtained via an optical fiducial and database lookup.

Taken together, the independent claims cover estimating a volume of blood by deriving blood component concentration from pixel color visualization in a conduit image region and combining it with an estimated volumetric flow rate to compute the blood volume for display. The key differentiators are the conduit image region’s optical-axis shallow or deep configuration that controls opacity from redness associated with red blood cells or hemoglobin, and the use of an optical fiducial and a database to obtain conduit-related dimension information.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications