Ultrasound system and clutter filtering method thereof

• US 10,456,115 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2014
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sogang University Research Foundation
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Koh, Hyun-woo, Yoo, Yang-mo, Yeo, Sun-mi, Lee, Woo-youl, Kim, Young-tae, Shim, Hwan, Lim, Hyung-joon
• Primary Examiner(s): Moher, Amanda Lauritzen
• Application Number:
  US14/258,501
• Publication Number:
  US 20140316274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,016 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1128 using image analysis A61B5/1127 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5269 involving detection or reduction of artifacts for image enhancement algorithms G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8977 using special techniques for image reconstruction, e.g. FFT, geometrical transformations, spatial deconvolution, time deconvolution
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8981 Discriminating between fixed and moving objects or between objects moving at different speeds, e.g. wall clutter filter
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/40326 Singular value decomposition
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20112 Image segmentation details
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20201 Motion blur correction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/00 Image analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/10 Segmentation; Edge detection motion-based segmentation G06T7/215
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/215 Motion-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/60 Analysis of geometric attributes
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/20 Contour coding, e.g. using detection of edges

Abstract

An ultrasound system and a clutter filtering method thereof are provided. The clutter filtering method includes: transmitting an ultrasound signal to an object; receiving a reflection signal reflected from the object; performing a singular value decomposition (SVD) on a plurality of doppler signals constituting the reflection signal; dividing a representation of the object into a plurality of regions according to a result of performing the SVD; determining cutoff frequencies of the plurality of regions according to different methods; and performing clutter filtering on the plurality of regions by using the determined cutoff frequencies.

Claims

1. A clutter filtering method of an ultrasound system, comprising:

transmitting an ultrasound signal to an object;

receiving a reflection signal reflected from the object;

performing a singular value decomposition (SVD) on a plurality of Doppler signals comprising the reflection signal;

identifying a tissue region and a flow region of the object according to a result of performing the SVD;

determining a cutoff frequency of the tissue region by estimating a frequency of the Doppler signal corresponding to the tissue region using an autocorrelation method, multiplying the estimated frequency by a preset coefficient, and adding a result of the multiplying to the estimated frequency and determining a cutoff frequency of the flow region by applying the result of performing the SVD to the flow region; and

performing clutter filtering on the tissue region and the flow region by using the determined cutoff frequency of the tissue region and the flow region.

2. The clutter filtering method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the tissue region and the flow region comprises:

dividing a representation of the object into the tissue region and the flow region.

3. The clutter filtering method of claim 2, wherein the determining the cutoff frequency of the tissue region and the flow region comprises:

applying a tissue acceleration factor (TAF) method to the tissue region to determine the cutoff frequency of the tissue region.

4. The clutter filtering method of claim 3, wherein the performing the SVD comprises:

forming a matrix defining a characteristic of the object by using the plurality of Doppler signals;

performing the SVD on the matrix to form a plurality of indexes for representing an ultrasound image of the object; and

calculating an average frequency and a power of each of the plurality of indexes.

5. The clutter filtering method of claim 4, wherein the identifying the tissue region and the flow region further comprises:

determining one of a plurality of regions, which has one of the plurality of indexes having an average frequency higher than a preset frequency and a power lower than a preset power, as the flow region; and

determining other regions among the plurality of regions as the tissue region.

6. The clutter filtering method of claim 5, wherein the determining the cutoff frequency of the tissue region and the flow region further comprises:

estimating a clutter signal from the flow region according to the result of performing the SVD and, if an average frequency of the estimated clutter signal is lower than or equal to the preset frequency, determining the average frequency as a cutoff frequency of the flow region.

7. An ultrasound system comprising:

an ultrasound transceiver configured to transmit an ultrasound signal to an object and receive a reflection signal reflected from the object;

a controller configured to perform a singular value decomposition (SVD) on a plurality of Doppler signals comprising the reflection signal, identify a tissue region and a flow region of the object according to a result of performing the SVD, determine a cutoff frequency of the tissue region by estimating a frequency of the Doppler signal corresponding to the tissue region using an autocorrelation method, multiplying the estimated frequency by a preset coefficient, and adding a result of the multiplying to the estimated frequency and determine a cutoff frequency of the flow region by applying the result of performing the SVD to the flow region, and perform clutter filtering on the tissue region and the flow region by using the determined cutoff frequency of the tissue region and the flow region; and

a display unit configured to display a signal on which the clutter filtering is performed, as an image.

8. The ultrasound system of claim 7, wherein when the controller divides a representation of the object into a plurality of regions, the controller divides the representation of the object into the tissue region and the flow region.

9. The ultrasound system of claim 8, wherein when the controller determines the cutoff frequency of the tissue region and the flow region, the controller applies a tissue acceleration factor (TAF) method to the tissue region to determine the cutoff frequency of the tissue region.

10. The ultrasound system of claim 9, wherein when the controller performs the SVD, the controller forms a matrix defining a characteristic of the object by using the plurality of Doppler signals, performs the SVD on the matrix to form a plurality of indexes for representing an ultrasound image of the object, and calculates an average frequency and a power of each of the plurality of indexes.

11. The ultrasound system of claim 10, wherein when the controller divides the representation of the object into the plurality of regions, the controller determines one of the plurality of regions, which has one of the plurality of indexes having an average frequency higher than a preset frequency and a power lower than a preset power, as the flow region, and determines other regions among the plurality of regions as the tissue region.

12. The ultrasound system of claim 11, wherein when the controller determines the cutoff frequency of the tissue region and the flow region of the plurality of regions according to the different methods, the controller estimates a clutter signal from the flow region according to the result of performing the SVD and, if an average frequency of the estimated clutter signal is lower than or equal to the preset frequency, determines the average frequency as a cutoff frequency of the flow region.

13. An ultrasound apparatus comprising:

an ultrasound transceiver configured to transmit an ultrasound signal to an object and receive a reflection signal reflected from the object;

a controller configured to identify, within the object, a flow region where flow exists and a tissue region where flow does not exist according to the reflection signal and a result of performing a singular value decomposition (SVD), select different clutter eliminating filters to eliminate clutter in the tissue region by estimating a frequency of a Doppler signal corresponding to the tissue region using an autocorrelation method, multiplying the estimated frequency by a preset coefficient, and adding a result of the multiplying to the estimated frequency, and in the flow region by applying the result of performing the singular value decomposition (SVD) to the flow region, and perform clutter filtering on a signal comprising the flow region and the tissue region using the selected clutter eliminating filters to output a clutter filtered signal; and

a display configured to display the clutter filtered signal as an image.

14. The ultrasound apparatus of claim 13, wherein the controller is configured to select the different clutter eliminating filters based on a cutoff frequency of the flow region and the tissue region.

15. The ultrasound apparatus of claim 14, wherein the controller is configured to use a first method to determine the cutoff frequency of the flow region and a second method different from the first method to determine the cutoff frequency of the tissue region.

16. The ultrasound apparatus of claim 15, wherein the reflection signal comprises a plurality of Doppler signals, and the controller is configured to perform a singular value decomposition (SVD) on the plurality of Doppler signals and divide a representation of the object into the flow region and the tissue region according to a result of the SVD.

17. The ultrasound apparatus of claim 16, wherein the controller is configured to determine a signal having a highest power among a plurality of signals as a clutter signal, and determine signals having lower powers than the clutter signal as flow and noise signals.

18. The ultrasound apparatus of claim 13, wherein the display is configured to display the image as a 2-dimensional (2D) commercial film (CF) image.