DYNAMIC ULTRASOUND PROCESSING USING OBJECT MOTION CALCULATION

• US 20100185085A1
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Published: 07/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ultrasound Medical Devices, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ultrasound Medical Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: Hamilton, James
• Application Number:
  US12/625,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20100185085A1
• 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 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0858 involving measuring tissue layers, e.g. skin, interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/485 involving measuring strain or elastic properties
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 7/02 Localised ultrasound hyperthermia hyperthermia in general A61F7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52036 using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/5205 Means for monitoring or calibrating
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52065 Compound scan display, e.g. panoramic imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10132 Ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20004 Adaptive image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20048 Transform domain processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments

Abstract

A system and method for transforming ultrasound data includes acquiring ultrasound data, calculating object motion from the data, modifying a processing parameter, processing the ultrasound data according to the processing parameter, and outputting the processed ultrasound data. The system and method may additionally include the calculation of a data quality metric that can additionally or alternatively be used with object motion to modify a processing parameter.

Claims

1. A method for transforming ultrasound data comprising:

acquiring ultrasound data;

calculating object motion from the collected ultrasound data;

modifying a processing parameter using parameter inputs related to the calculated object motion;

processing ultrasound data related to the acquired ultrasound data according to the processing parameter; and

outputting the processed ultrasound data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing includes forming an ultrasound image from the acquired ultrasound data, resampling an ultrasound image, and performing temporal processing.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the temporal processing includes the process of temporal integration.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising calculating a data quality metric (DQM) from the calculated object motion, wherein the parameter inputs include the DQM.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the parameter inputs include the calculated object motion.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of calculating object motion includes performing speckle tracking.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating a data quality metric (DQM) from the calculated object motion, wherein the parameter inputs include the DQM.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the parameter inputs include the calculated object motion.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of calculating object motion includes performing speckle tracking.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the parameter inputs additionally includes the calculated object motion, and wherein the step of modifying a processing parameter includes modifying a first processing parameter using the calculated object motion and modifying a second processing parameter using the DQM.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first parameter affects the resampling coefficients used to resample an ultrasound image during the processing of the ultrasound data and the second parameter affects the image processing process during the processing of the ultrasound data.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating object motion includes performing speckle tracking.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising calculating a data quality metric (DQM) from a cross correction during speckle tracking, wherein the DQM is a data quality index (DQI).

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising sorting data according to the DQI.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of sorting data according to the DQI includes differentiating between pixels of different DQI values and determining the processing of the pixels according to the differentiation.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing includes processing the acquired ultrasound data.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing includes processing the calculated object motion data.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying an outside device according to the outputted processed ultrasound data, wherein the processing of ultrasound data includes calculating the modifications of the outside device.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the steps of calculating object motion, modifying a processing parameter, and processing the ultrasound data, before outputting the ultrasound data.

20. A system for handling ultrasound data comprising:

an ultrasound acquisition device for collecting ultrasound data;

a motion processor that calculates object motion from the ultrasound data; and

a data processor that determines processing parameters from calculations from the motion processor and processes the ultrasound data supplied by the ultrasound acquisition device.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising an output device for outputting the processed ultrasound data.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the motion processor additionally produces a data quality metric (DQM) and the data processor uses the DQM to determine the processing parameters.