System and Method for Unattended Monitoring of Blood Flow

摘要

A system and method for unattended monitoring of blood flow using an array of transmitter elements configured to transmit acoustic signals along a transmission direction; an array of receiver elements configured to receive acoustic signals originating from the array of transmitter elements, wherein the array of transmitter elements is arranged approximately orthogonal to the array of receiver elements and wherein each receiver element is configured to provide an output signal; an electronics system comprising a transmitter control subsystem configured to adjust the transmission direction, a receiver control subsystem configured to selectively activate and deactivate receiver elements, thus defining an acoustic aperture, an analog adder circuit, and signal processing circuitry; a fastener to position the elements on a patient; and a processor in communication with the electronics system and configured to enable self-alignment of transmitted acoustic signals based on received acoustic signals and determine a blood flow parameter.