Granted Patent B2

US 10,987,010 · App. 14/691,105 · Granted Apr 27, 2021

Inventors: Leo J. Grady (Millbrae, CA); Charles A. Taylor (Menlo Park, CA)

Assignee: HeartFlow, Inc.

A61B5/026A61B5/02028A61B5/7246A61B5/7275A61B5/7278A61B5/74A61B8/06A61B8/0891G16H50/20G16H50/50A61B5/742A61B8/488

Abstract

Claims (71)

1. A computer-implemented method of determining blood flow deviation in a patient's vasculature, the method comprising:

receiving an electronic representation of a reference vasculature from a population-based healthy blood flow vasculature or a population-based diseased blood flow vasculature;

receiving a patient-specific model of a patient's vasculature representing a patient-specific healthy blood flow vasculature or a patient-specific diseased blood flow vasculature, wherein the patient's vasculature and the reference vasculature are of at least a common anatomical region and physiological state;

determining a reference blood flow direction at a location in the reference vasculature using the electronic representation of the reference vasculature;

simulating a blood flow through the patient-specific model;

computing a simulated patient-related blood flow direction at a location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature, using the simulated blood flow through the patient-specific model of the patient's vasculature, the reference vasculature being different from the patient vasculature;

determining a simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation, based on a calculated difference in direction between the reference blood flow direction of the reference vasculature at a plurality of locations and the simulated patient-related blood flow direction of the patient's vasculature corresponding to each of the plurality of locations; and

based on whether the simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation includes a statistical outlier based on the calculated difference at at least one of the plurality of locations, generating

a treatment recommendation for treating each of the plurality of locations of the simulated patient-specific blood flow having the deviation.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a physiological state associated with the patient;

determining the reference blood flow direction based on the physiological state; and

computing the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction further based on the physiological state.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein computing the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction comprises estimating blood flow through the location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising:

determining one or more areas of the patient-specific anatomic model associated with the simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation; and

generating a visual representation based on the one or more areas of the patient-specific anatomic model associated with the simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a visual representation of the location in the patient's vasculature; and

generating the treatment recommendation.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a second patient-related blood flow direction at the location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature, wherein determining the second patient-related blood flow direction includes simulating or estimating blood flow through the location in the patient's vasculature; and

comparing the reference blood flow direction to the second patient-related blood flow direction to determine a difference in direction between the reference blood flow direction of the reference vasculature and the second patient-related blood flow direction of the patient's vasculature.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:

generating the treatment recommendation for the simulated blood flow deviation, further based on a comparison of the difference in direction between the reference blood flow direction and the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction against the difference in direction between the reference blood flow and the second patient-related blood flow direction.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the simulation for the second patient-related blood flow direction includes a vascular geometry different from the geometry of the patient's vasculature or a physiological state different from the physiological state at which the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction is determined.

9. A system for determining blood flow deviation in a patient's vasculature, the system comprising:

at least one data storage device storing instructions for determining blood flow deviation in a patient's vasculature; and

at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method including:

receiving an electronic representation of a reference vasculature from a population-based healthy blood flow vasculature or a population-based diseased blood flow vasculature;

receiving a patient-specific model of a patient's vasculature representing a patient-specific healthy blood flow vasculature or a patient-specific diseased blood flow vasculature, wherein the patient's vasculature and the reference vasculature are of at least a common anatomical region and physiological state;

determining a reference blood flow direction at a location in the reference vasculature using the electronic representation of the reference vasculature;

simulating a blood flow through the patient-specific model;

computing a simulated patient-related blood flow direction at a location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature, using the simulated blood flow through the patient-specific model of the patient's vasculature, the reference vasculature being different from the patient vasculature;

determining a simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation, based on a difference in direction between the reference blood flow direction of the reference vasculature at a plurality of locations and the simulated patient-related blood flow direction of the patient's vasculature corresponding to each of the plurality of locations; and

based on whether the simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation includes a statistical outlier based on the calculated difference at at least one of the plurality of locations, generating

a treatment recommendation for treating each of the plurality of locations of the simulated patient-specific blood flow having the deviation.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the system is further configured for:

receiving a physiological state associated with the patient;

determining the reference blood flow direction based on the physiological state; and

computing the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction further based on the physiological state.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein computing the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction comprises estimating blood flow through the location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the system is further configured for:

determining one or more areas of the patient-specific anatomic model associated with the simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation; and

generating a visual representation based on the one or more areas of the patient-specific anatomic model associated with the simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the system is further configured for:

generating a visual representation of the location in the patient's vasculature; and

generating the treatment recommendation.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the system is further configured for:

determining a second patient-related blood flow direction at the location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature, wherein determining the second patient-related blood flow direction includes simulating or estimating blood flow through the location in the patient's vasculature; and

comparing the reference blood flow direction to the second patient-related blood flow direction to determine a difference in direction between the reference blood flow direction of the reference vasculature and the second patient-related blood flow direction of the patient's vasculature.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the system is further configured for:

generating the treatment recommendation for the simulated blood flow deviation, further based on a comparison of the difference in direction between the reference blood flow direction and the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction against the difference in direction between the reference blood flow and the second patient-related blood flow direction.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the simulation for the second patient-related blood flow direction includes a vascular geometry different from the geometry of the patient's vasculature or a physiological state different from the physiological state at which the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction is determined.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium for use on a computer system containing computer-executable programming instructions for performing a method of determining blood flow deviation in a patient's vasculature, the method comprising:

receiving an electronic representation of a reference vasculature from a population-based healthy blood flow vasculature or a population-based diseased blood flow vasculature;

receiving a patient-specific model of a patient's vasculature representing a patient-specific healthy blood flow vasculature or a patient-specific diseased blood flow vasculature, wherein the patient's vasculature and the reference vasculature are of at least a common anatomical region and physiological state;

determining a reference blood flow direction at a location in the reference vasculature using the electronic representation of the reference vasculature;

simulating a blood flow through the patient-specific model;

computing a simulated patient-related blood flow direction at a location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature, using the simulated blood flow through the patient-specific model of the patient's vasculature, the reference vasculature being different from the patient vasculature;

determining a simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation, based on a difference in direction between the reference blood flow direction of the reference vasculature at a plurality of locations and the patient-related blood flow direction of the patient's vasculature corresponding to each of the plurality of locations; and

based on whether the simulated patient-specific blood flow deviation includes a statistical outlier based on the calculated difference at at least one of the plurality of locations, generating

a treatment recommendation for treating each of the plurality of locations of the simulated patient-specific blood flow having the deviation.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , the method further comprising:

receiving a physiological state associated with the patient;

determining the reference blood flow direction based on the physiological state; and

computing the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction further based on the physiological state.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein computing the simulated patient-specific blood flow direction comprises estimating blood flow through the location in the patient's vasculature corresponding to the location in the reference vasculature.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , the method further comprising:

generating a visual representation of the location in the patient's vasculature; and

generating the treatment recommendation.

Assignments (5)

Continuity (2)

Cited By (19)

US 12,245,882 US 12,283,046 US 12,299,885 US 12,324,695 US 12,324,696 US 12,380,560 US 12,396,695 US 12,406,365 US 12,440,180 US 12,499,539 US 12,555,228 US 12,558,048 US 12,599,352 US 12,620,092 US 12,635,965 US 12,661,078 US 12,670,998 US 12,712,082 US 12,714,382