ULTRASOUND IMAGING METHOD AND DEVICE WITH PREDICTION OF ARTEFACTS INDUCED BETWEEN RECONSTRUCTION MODES

• US 20150023136A1
• Filed: 07/16/2014
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission)
• Original Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission)
• Inventors: BREDIF, Philippe, IAKOVLEVA, Ekaterina, CHATILLON, Sylvain
• Granted Patent: US 9,846,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 367/7
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/0672 by acoustic tomography medical tomography A61B8/13
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/069 Defect imaging, localisation and sizing using, e.g. time of flight diffraction [TOFD], synthetic aperture focusing technique [SAFT], Amplituden-Laufzeit-Ortskurven [ALOK] technique
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/07 by measuring propagation velocity or propagation time of acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/262 by electronic orientation or focusing, e.g. with phased arrays phased arrays per se G10K11/34
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52017 particularly adapted to short-range imaging G01S7/53 takes precedence
• 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: G10K 11/346 using phase variation

Abstract

The invention relates to an ultrasound imaging method for imaging a part (1), characterised by the implementation of the following steps:

• • selecting a first sub-region ({tilde over (Z)}) of the part from a first image (I^A(Z)) of a region (Z) of the part (1),
  • determining, for each point of the first selected sub-region ({tilde over (Z)}), the times of flight (T_ij^A({tilde over (Z)})) corresponding to the paths according to a first reconstruction mode (A) going through the point from a transmitter i to a receiver j for a set of M*N transmitter-receiver couples of an ultrasound signal;
  • determining a second sub-region of the part, a point (P) of the region belonging to the second sub-region when a time of flight (T_ij^B(P)) of the path according to a second reconstruction mode (B) going through the point (P) from a transmitter i to a receiver j of said set of M*N transmitter-receiver couples coincides with a time of flight (T^A({tilde over (Z)})) of a path according to the first reconstruction mode from a transmitter to a receiver from the transmitter i to the receiver j going through one of the points of the first selected sub-region.

Claims

1. An ultrasound imaging method for imaging a part, comprising the following steps implemented by a processor coupled to a set of M*N transmitter-receiver couples of an ultrasound signal:

selecting a first sub-region of the part from a first image of the part,

determining, for each point of the first selected sub-region, the times of flight corresponding to the paths according to a first reconstruction mode going through the point from a transmitter i to a receiver j for the set of M*N transmitter-receiver couples of an ultrasound signal;

determining a second sub-region of the part, a point of the region belonging to the second sub-region when a time of flight of the path according to a second reconstruction mode going through the point from a transmitter i to a receiver j of said set of M*N transmitter-receiver couples coincides with a time of flight of a path according to the first reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j going through one of the points of the first selected sub-region.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising a reconstruction of a second image of the region of the part by a synthetic focusing according to the second reconstruction mode according to which, for each point of the region, and for each transmitter-receiver i-j couple, an ultrasound signal considered at a time of flight of the path according to the second reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j while going through the point of the region is exploited uniquely if said time of flight according to the second reconstruction mode coincides with a time of flight of a path according to the first reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j going through one of the points of the first selected sub-region.

3. The method of claim 2, in which the reconstruction of the second image comprises, for each point of the region, the determination of a sum of amplitudes of acoustic signals limited to the acoustic signals received at a receiver j from a transmitter i when the time of flight of the path according to the second reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j while going through the point coincides with a time of flight of a path according to the first reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j while going through one of the points of the first selected sub-region.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising a reconstruction of a second image of the region of the part by a synthetic focusing according to the second reconstruction mode according to which, for each point of the region, and for each transmitter-receiver i-j couple, an ultrasound signal considered at a time of flight of the path according to the second reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j while going through the point of the region is exploited, uniquely if said time of flight according to the second reconstruction mode differs from the times of flight of the paths according to the first reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j going through the points of the first selected sub-region.

5. The method of claim 4, in which the reconstruction of the second image comprises, for each point of the region, the determination of a sum of amplitudes of the acoustic signals limited to the acoustic signals received at a receiver j from a transmitter i when the time of flight of the path according to the second reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j while going through the point does not coincide with one of the times of flight of the paths according to the first reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j while going through the points of the first selected sub-region.

6. The method of claim 1, in which a reconstruction mode is characterised by a type of route comprising several portions and a mode of propagation of the ultrasound signal on each portion of the route.

7. The method of claim 6, in which the first reconstruction mode is a mode according to which each ultrasound signal follows a direct route with two portions, the mode of propagation of the signal being lateral on each of the portions.

8. The method of claim 7, in which the second reconstruction mode is a mode according to which each ultrasound signal follows a direct route with two portions and the mode of propagation of the signal is different on each of the portions, or a mode according to which each ultrasound signal follows an indirect route with three portions at least.

10. A computer program product comprising code instructions for the execution of the steps of the method of claim 1 when said program is run on a computer.

9. An ultrasound imaging device for imaging a part implementing a reconstruction by synthetic focusing, comprising M transmitters of an ultrasound signal in the part to be imaged and N receivers of an ultrasound signal coming from the part to be imaged, the index i designating one of the transmitters, the index j designating one of the receivers, and t representing the time, and a processor coupled to the M transmitters and the N receivers, wherein the processor is configured to:

select a first sub-region of the part from a first image of a region of the part,

determine, for each point of the first selected sub-region, times of flight corresponding to the paths according to a first reconstruction mode going through the point from a transmitter i to a receiver j for a set of M*N transmitter-receiver couples of an ultrasound signal;

determine a second sub-region of the part, a point of the region belonging to the second sub-region when a time of flight of the path according to a second reconstruction mode going through the point from a transmitter i to a receiver j of said set of M*N transmitter-receiver couples coincides with a time of flight of a path according to the first reconstruction mode from the transmitter i to the receiver j going through one of the points of the first selected sub-region.