Flow spectrograms synthesized from ultrasonic flow color doppler information

• US 20060052698A1
• Filed: 02/03/2004
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Loupas, Thanasis
• Granted Patent: US 7,815,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/437
• 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 8/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display composite display in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52074
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/467 characterised by special input means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/469 for selection of a region of interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/582 using transmission of interrupted pulse-modulated waves and based upon the Doppler effect resulting from movement of targets
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52074 Composite displays, e.g. split-screen displays; Combination of multiple images or of images and alphanumeric tabular information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52084 related to particular user interfaces special user input means for ultrasonic medical diagnostic devices A61B8/467

Abstract

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are described by which a user can delineate a region of interest (122, 128) in a colorflow Doppler image. The ultrasound system processes the Doppler pixel information of the region of interest (122, 128) to produce a spectrogram illustrating motion at the region of interest (122, 128) as a function of time. In a preferred embodiment the Doppler pixel information is processed by histograms to produce the spectrogram data.

Claims

1. A method for producing a spectrogram from a plurality of two or three dimensional ultrasound images depicting motion comprising:

delineating a region of interest (ROI) in one of the images, the ROI comprising a plurality of pixels where motion is present in the image;

forming histograms of the motion data of the pixels of the ROI in a plurality of images over a plurality of defined temporal intervals;

mapping the histograms to temporally discrete display elements; and

displaying the display elements as a spectrogram for the ROI.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ultrasound images comprise colorflow images, and wherein the defined temporal intervals comprise frame rate intervals.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the motion data of the pixels of the ROI comprises at least one of velocity information and Doppler power information.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising capturing a sequence of colorflow images in an image buffer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying further comprises displaying a two or three dimensional image on which an ROI is delineated, wherein the spectrogram is concurrently displayed.

6. A method for displaying the distribution of a motion characteristic occurring at a region of interest in a two or three dimensional ultrasound image of the body comprising:

acquiring a sequence of spatially dimensioned ultrasound images in which a motion characteristic is displayed;

delineating a region of interest (ROI) in one of the images where motion is present in the image;

processing the motion data from image points of the delineated ROI to determine the distribution of a motion characteristic as a function of time; and

displaying the distribution of the motion characteristic as a function of time.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the images comprise color Doppler images.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the motion characteristic comprises blood flow velocity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein delineating further comprises delineating a plurality of pixels in one of the images.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein processing further comprises processing the motion data of pixels spatially corresponding to the ROI in each of the color Doppler images.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein processing further comprises producing a histogram of the motion data of the ROI of each color Doppler image.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein displaying further comprises mapping histogram data to a plurality o f temporal display elements, wherein a display of the temporal display elements illustrates the distribution of the motion characteristic as a function of time.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the motion characteristic comprises blood flow velocity derivatives in the temporal or spatial domain.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the motion characteristic comprises tissue motion velocity or its derivatives in the temporal or spatial domain.

15. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which provides motion information concerning a location in the body comprising:

an ultrasound probe which transmits ultrasonic energy and receives ultrasonic echo signals in response;

a beamformer coupled to the probe which forms coherent echo signals from spatial locations in the body;

a motion processor responsive to the spatial echo signals which produces image data depicting motion;

a display responsive to the image data which produces two or three dimensional images depicting motion on a spatial basis;

a user control by which a user can delineate a region of interest in an image depicting motion;

a motion characteristic processor, responsive to image signals depicting motion of a region of interest which computes the distribution of a motion characteristic as a function of time, wherein the display displays the distribution of a motion characteristic as a function of time for a delineated region of interest.

16. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 15, wherein the motion processor comprises a Doppler signal processor.

17. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 15, wherein the image data comprise colorflow Doppler data.

18. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 15, wherein the display of the distribution of a motion characteristic as a function of time comprises a spectrogram display.

19. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 15, wherein the display is operated to concurrently display a two or three dimensional image containing a region of interest and a spectrogram illustrating the velocity variation over time for the region of interest.

20. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 15, wherein the motion processor comprises one of a phase-domain or a time-domain signal processor.

21. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 15, wherein the motion characteristic processor comprises a histogram processor.