SPECTRAL DOPPLER WITH MULTIPLE SPATIALLY DISTINCT GATES

• US 20100022884A1
• Filed: 07/28/2008
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Henderson, Steve, Srinivasan, Seshadri, Ustuner, Kutay F., Freiburger, Paul D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,414,805 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/453
• 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 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/461 Displaying means of special interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52066 Time-position or time-motion displays
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52071 Multicolour displays; using colour coding; Optimising colour or information content in displays, e.g. parametric imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52095 using multiline receive beamforming

Abstract

Spatially distinct Spectral Doppler information is displayed. A spectrum is determined for each of a plurality of spatial locations, such as associated with different receive beams. Given a plurality of spectra at different spatial locations, an image may be generated as a function of the spectra. For example, a two-dimensional image has display values for different pixels or locations derived from one or more characteristics of the spectra, such as the maximum velocity with energy above a threshold for each location. As another example, the spectrum from the set of spectra with the highest maximum velocity is selected for generating a spectral strip display.

Claims

1. A method for displaying spatially distinct Spectral Doppler information, the method comprising:

obtaining spatial and temporal ultrasound samples for a plurality of spatially distinct locations;

estimating a spectrum for each of the spatially distinct locations from the temporal ultrasound samples; and

displaying an image, the image being a function of the spectra for the plurality of spatially distinct locations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining comprises obtaining the spatial ultrasound samples at a substantially same time in response to a plurality of receive beams responsive to a same transmit beam.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining comprises sampling along a plurality of scan lines and ranges.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining comprises obtaining a plurality of the spatial ultrasound samples for each of the plurality of spatially distinct locations, and wherein estimating comprises applying a Fourier transform to the temporal ultrasound samples representing each of the spatially distinct locations, the spectrum for each of the spatially distinct locations comprising energy as a function of frequency.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying the image comprises identifying a first of the spectra as a function of a spectral characteristic and displaying a spectral strip representing the first of the spectra.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein identifying the first of the spectra comprises identifying the first of the spectra having a maximum frequency.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising displaying an additional image representing a one, two, or three-dimensional region and highlighting the spatially distinct location associated with the first of the spectra.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying the image comprises displaying a one, two, or three-dimensional region representing the spatially distinct locations, a display value for each of the spatially distinct locations being a function of the respective spectrum.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the display value for each of the spatially distinct locations is a function of a maximum velocity of the respective spectrum.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising distinguishing between arterial and venous flow for each of the spatially distinct locations as a function of the respective spectrum, and wherein the display value for each of the spatially distinct locations is a function the distinction between arterial and venous flow.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying the image comprises determining a difference between at least two of the spectra and displaying a spectral strip representing the difference.

22. The method of claim 7 wherein the highlighting the spatially distinct location associated with the first of the spectra comprises color coding the spatially distinct location and the first of the spectra in a corresponding manner.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

adapting a region of interest as a function of estimated spectra including the spectrum, the region of interest being for estimating additional spectra.

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a velocity scale as a function of the spectrum.

11. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for displaying spatially distinct Spectral Doppler information, the storage medium comprising instructions for:

calculating a first spectrum for a first spatial location and a first period;

calculating a second spectrum for a second spatial location and the first period, the second spatial location different than the first spatial location; and

generating an image as a function of the first and second spectra.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein calculating comprises applying a Fourier transform to ultrasound samples acquired during the first period from first and second scan lines in response to a same transmit event, the first spatial location on the first scan line and the second spatial location on the second scan line.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising instructions for calculating at least one hundred additional spectra for respective spatially different spatial locations, and wherein generating the image comprises generating the image as a function of the first, second and additional spectra.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein generating the image comprises displaying a time varying one, two, or three-dimensional representation of a Doppler frequency shift, the Doppler frequency shift at the first and second spatial locations being a function of the first and second spectra, respectively.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein generating the image comprises comparing the first and second spectra, selecting the first spectrum as a function of the comparison, and generating a spectral strip of frequency modulated by energy as a function of time, the spectral strip including information from the first spectrum.

16. A system for displaying spatially distinct Spectral Doppler information, the system comprising:

a transmit beamformer operable to transmit a transmit beam;

a receive beamformer operable to form a plurality receive beams in response to the transmit beam, each of the receive beams sampled at a plurality of depths;

a processor operable to estimate a spectrum for each of the depths of each of the receive beams and to generate display values as a function of the spectra; and

a display operable to display an image of the display values.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is operable to generate the display values as a spectral strip display, the spectral strip display being a function of one of the spectra selected as a function of a comparison of the spectra.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is operable to generate the display values for a two-dimensional image representing a region sampled by the receive beams, the display values for each location of the two-dimensional image being a function of the respective spectrum.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the display values are a function of maximum velocities from the spectra.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is operable to generate the display values for a one or three-dimensional image representing a region sampled by the receive beams, the display values for each location of the one or three-dimensional image being a function of the respective spectrum.