ADAPTIVE ULTRASOUND IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON SENSING OF LOCAL MEDIA MOTION

• US 20090054770A1
• Filed: 08/22/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verasonics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Verasonics, Inc.
• Inventors: Daigle, Ronald Elvin
• Granted Patent: US 8,824,743 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/437
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/00 Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves imaging of objects using sonar G01S15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5276 due to motion
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8997 using synthetic aperture techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52046 Techniques for image enhancement involving transmitter or receiver image enhancement by image data processing G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/5205 Means for monitoring or calibrating

Abstract

An image reconstruction system method for forming an image of media using data acquired from an ultrasound transducer, the method including the steps of detecting relative motion between locations in the media and the transducer; determining relative media velocity from the detecting relative motion; setting a reconstruction period for an image point based on the determined velocity; determining the amount of acquired data to use during the reconstruction period based on the reconstruction period; and using the determined amount of acquired data to reconstruct the image point for display. The system includes a data acquisition system, a processor configured to process the data, and an image display device for displaying the image.

Claims

1. A method of processing ultrasound images of media in which an ultrasound transducer is used to acquire imaging data, the method comprising:

acquiring ultrasound imaging data of the media from the ultrasound transducer;

determining relative motion between the media and the ultrasound transducer; and

processing the acquired data to generate images of the media for display in which more acquired data is utilized in image regions having lower levels of relative motion between the media and the transducer than in regions that have higher levels of relative motion for generating an image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the acquired data for an image region comprises processing the acquired data using at least one subset of the acquired data when the relative motion of the image region is greater than a relative motion limit and otherwise using all of the acquired data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the data for an image region comprises processing the data using at least one subset of the acquired data when the relative motion of the image region is greater than a relative motion limit and using at least one additional subset of the acquired data when the relative motion falls below one or more descending motion limits.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring ultrasound imaging data comprises:

generating an acoustic signal;

receiving at least one echo of the acoustic signal at a plurality of receiving elements and obtaining an echo signal therefrom;

storing each echo signal from each of the plurality of receiving elements;

mapping a given pixel into a region of the stored echo signals;

organizing the mapped region of the stored echo signals into an array for the given pixels; and

wherein processing the acquired data comprises;

processing the array to generate a response for the given pixels; and

using the response to obtain acoustic information for the given pixel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the ultrasound imaging data comprises transmitting a planar or near-planar wavefront acoustic signal.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein acquiring the ultrasound imaging data comprises obtaining multiple transmit and receive data acquisitions using a plurality of steering angles of the flat wavefront acoustic signal when transmitting the flat wavefront acoustic signal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the ultrasound imaging data comprises acquiring the ultrasound imaging data using frequency compounding.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring ultrasound imaging data comprises acquiring ultrasound imaging data using spatial compounding.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the array for a pixel comprises using a first subset of the acquisition data when the relative motion exceeds the limit and is less than a first threshold, using a second subset of the acquired data when the relative motion is greater than the first threshold and less than a second threshold, and using a third subset of the acquisition data when the relative motion is greater than the third threshold.

9. An ultrasound processing method, comprising:

generating an acoustic signal with a transducer;

receiving at least one echo from the acoustic signal and acquiring echo signal data therefrom, and detecting relative motion between the media and the transducer at an image construction point;

storing the acquired echo signal data from each of a plurality of receiving elements;

mapping a given pixel into a region of the stored acquired echo signal data;

organizing the mapped region of the stored acquired echo signal data into an array for the given pixel; and

determining whether the relative motion exceeds a limit, and processing the array for each pixel using a subset of acquisition data when the relative motion between the media and the transducer exceeds the limit and otherwise using all acquisition data when the relative motion between the media and the transducer does not exceed the limit in order to generate an image.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein processing the array for a pixel using a subset of acquisition data comprises using a first subset of the acquisition data when the relative motion exceeds the limit and is below a first threshold, and using a second subset of the acquisition data when the relative motion exceeds the first threshold.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein detecting media motion comprises determining the velocity of relative movement between the media and the transducer at one or more image points and processing comprises utilizing the velocity to process the arrays for a region of pixels and generate at least a portion of an image therefrom.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the velocity of the relative motion is used in processing to control a length of a reconstruction period for an image point.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein when the velocity for an image point is low, a longer reconstruction period is used and more acquisition data is used.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the acquisition data includes different spatial and frequency information.

16. An image reconstruction method for forming an image of media using data acquired from an ultrasound transducer, the method comprising:

detecting relative motion between locations in the media and the transducer;

determining relative media velocity from the detected relative motion;

setting a reconstruction period for an image point based on the determined velocity;

determining the amount of acquired data to use during the reconstruction period based on the setting of the reconstruction period; and

using the determined amount of acquired data to reconstruct the image point for display.

17. An image reconstruction system for forming an image of media, the system comprising:

a data acquisition system adapted to acquire data from the media to detect relative motion between locations in the media and the transducer;

a processor adapted to determine relative media velocity from the detected relative motion, to set a reconstruction period for an image point based on the determined velocity, and determine the amount of acquired data to use during the reconstruction period based on the setting of the reconstruction period; and

a device coupled to the processor for displaying an image of the media.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is adapted to use the determined amount of acquired data to reconstruct the image point for display.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the data acquisition system comprises an ultra transducer.