Ultrasound and photoacoustic systems and methods for fetal brain assessment during delivery

摘要

Methods and system are described for multi-parametric, non-invasive, and real-time assessment of blood perfusion and oxygenation in the fetal brain during labor and delivery of a fetus through a vaginal birth canal of a maternal pelvis, and include positioning a probe device in the maternal pelvis during active labor, transmitting and receiving a plurality of ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) signals between the probe device and fetal brain, displaying in real-time on an US machine communicatively coupled to the probe device one or more images of venous and arterial blood flow of respective blood vessels in the fetal brain, measuring oxygen saturation of the respective venous and arterial blood vessels based on data from the one or more images, and estimating the oxygen measurement in the fetal brain during active labor based on the measured oxygen saturation.