HIGH FRAME RATE QUANTITATIVE DOPPLER FLOW IMAGING USING UNFOCUSED TRANSMIT BEAMS
First Claim
1. A method of producing a Doppler velocity image, comprising:
- emitting unfocused acoustic signals into a medium over substantially an entire field;
receiving scattered and reflected ultrasonic signals on a transducer array in response to the emission;
processing the received ultrasonic signals to extract information to construct a Doppler velocity signal corresponding to at least one point in the medium; and
generating on a display device the Doppler velocity image from the processed Doppler velocity signal.
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Abstract
An ultrasound imaging system with pixel oriented processing is provided in which a method of producing a Doppler velocity image is accomplished by emitting unfocused acoustic signals into a medium over substantially an entire field; receiving scattered and reflected ultrasonic signals on a transducer array in response to the emission; processing the received ultrasonic signals to extract information to construct a Doppler velocity signal corresponding to at least one point in the medium; and generating on a display device the Doppler velocity image from the processed Doppler velocity signal. Acquisition sequences and signal processing algorithms are described that provide improved quantification of fluid flow parameters, including improved discrimination between regions of blood flow and tissue. Very high frame rate Spectral Doppler and Vector Doppler acquisition modes for real-time and post-acquisition visualization over a large field of view are described.
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Citations
4 Claims
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1. A method of producing a Doppler velocity image, comprising:
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emitting unfocused acoustic signals into a medium over substantially an entire field; receiving scattered and reflected ultrasonic signals on a transducer array in response to the emission; processing the received ultrasonic signals to extract information to construct a Doppler velocity signal corresponding to at least one point in the medium; and generating on a display device the Doppler velocity image from the processed Doppler velocity signal.
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2. An ultrasound processing method, comprising:
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generating an unfocused acoustic signal; receiving scattered and reflected echos of the unfocused acoustic signal at a plurality of receiving elements and obtaining a Doppler velocity echo signal therefrom; mapping given pixels into a region of the Doppler velocity echo signals; organizing the mapped region of the stored Doppler velocity echo signals into an array for the given pixels; processing the array to generate a signal response for the given pixels; and using the signal response to obtain Doppler velocity acoustic information for the given pixel. - View Dependent Claims (3)
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4. A method of producing a spectral Doppler velocity image, comprising:
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emitting unfocused acoustic signals into a medium over substantially an entire field; receiving scattered and reflected ultrasonic signals on a transducer array in response to the emission; processing the received ultrasonic signals to extract information to construct a Doppler velocity signal corresponding to at least one point in the medium; and generating on a display device the Doppler velocity image from the processed Doppler velocity signal.
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Specification