Ultrasound imaging with variable line density
First Claim
1. A method for intravascular imaging, the method comprising:
- introducing an ultrasonic transducer into a vessel, the transducer being disposed at a distal portion of a catheter;
using a module operably coupled to a proximal portion of the catheter to provide a number of trigger signals per rotation of the ultrasonic transducer, the module comprising a rotary encoder comprising hardware steps configured to define the number of trigger signals;
rotating the ultrasonic transducer at least one rotation; and
triggering a first sequencer operation and a second sequencer operation with each trigger signal,wherein the first sequencer operation and the second sequencer operation each comprise stimulating the ultrasonic transducer to transmit an ultrasonic signal into the vessel;
wherein at least the second sequencer operation comprises receiving a backscattered ultrasound signal from the vessel with the ultrasonic transducer.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention generally relates to intravascular ultrasound imaging and to systems and methods to improve line density and image quality. The invention provides an intravascular imaging system that uses a clock device to provide a set of trigger signals for each revolution of the imaging catheter and capture various patterns of scan lines for each set of trigger signals. The system can be operated to capture two scan lines of data for each trigger signal thereby doubling scan line density compared to existing systems. The clock device can be provided by hardware, such as a rotary encoder, that is configured to define a maximum number of trigger signals that the module can provide per rotation of the catheter.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for intravascular imaging, the method comprising:
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introducing an ultrasonic transducer into a vessel, the transducer being disposed at a distal portion of a catheter; using a module operably coupled to a proximal portion of the catheter to provide a number of trigger signals per rotation of the ultrasonic transducer, the module comprising a rotary encoder comprising hardware steps configured to define the number of trigger signals; rotating the ultrasonic transducer at least one rotation; and triggering a first sequencer operation and a second sequencer operation with each trigger signal, wherein the first sequencer operation and the second sequencer operation each comprise stimulating the ultrasonic transducer to transmit an ultrasonic signal into the vessel; wherein at least the second sequencer operation comprises receiving a backscattered ultrasound signal from the vessel with the ultrasonic transducer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An intravascular imaging system comprising:
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a catheter with an ultrasonic transducer; a rotary encoder coupled to the catheter comprising a number of hardware steps and configured to produce a plurality of rotary encodes per each 360°
rotation of the catheter corresponding to the number of hardware steps; anda processor in communication with the rotary encoder and configured to cause the ultrasonic transducer to transmit an ultrasonic pulse at a fundamental frequency and an ultrasonic pulse at a harmonic of the fundamental frequency and receive a backscattered ultrasound signal in response to each rotary encode of the plurality of rotary encodes.
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7. A system for intravascular imaging, the system comprising:
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an ultrasonic transducer disposed at a distal portion of an intravascular imaging instrument; a module operably coupled to a proximal portion of the intravascular imaging instrument, the module configured to provide a number of trigger signals per rotation of the ultrasonic transducer, the module comprising a rotary encoder comprising hardware steps configured to define the number of trigger signals; and a processor configured to trigger a first sequencer operation and a second sequencer operation in response to each trigger signal, wherein the first sequencer operation and the second sequencer operation each comprise stimulating the transducer to transmit an ultrasonic signal into a vessel, wherein at least the second sequencer operation further comprises receiving a backscattered ultrasound signal from the vessel with the ultrasonic transducer. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification