Physiological Features of the Internal Jugular Vein from B-Mode Ultrasound Imagery

摘要

Traditional methods of capturing vital signs by monitoring electrical impulses are quite effective however this data has the potential to be extracted from alternative technology. Non-invasive monitoring using low-cost ultrasound imaging of arterial and venous vasculature has the potential to detect standard vital signs such as heart and respiratory rate as well as additional parameters such as relative changes in circulating blood volume. This paper explores the feasibility of using ultrasound to monitor these signals by detecting spatial and temporal changes in the internal jugular vein (IJV). Ultrasound videos of the jugular in the transverse plane were collected from a subset of healthy subjects. Frame-by-frame segmentation of the IJV demonstrates frequency characteristics similar to certain physiological systems. Heart and respiratory rate appear to be present in IJV cross-sectional area variations in select ultrasound clips and may provide information regarding the severity of a patient's illness.