SNR IMPROVEMENT AND OPERATOR-INDEPENDENCE USING TIME-VARYING FRAME-SELECTION FOR STRAIN ESTIMATION

• US 20170079619A1
• Filed: 09/20/2016
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Edan Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Edan Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Seshadri
• Granted Patent: US 11,202,618 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4427 Device being portable or laptop-like
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/485 involving measuring strain or elastic properties
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5215 involving processing of medical diagnostic data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5269 involving detection or reduction of artifacts for image enhancement algorithms G06T5/00

Abstract

An ultrasound processing system includes an ultrasound interface and processing electronics. The ultrasound interface receives imaging information. The processing electronics are coupled to the ultrasound interface and are configured to utilize the ultrasound imaging information to use time-varying frame selection to estimate strain so that the processing electronics perform the time-varying frame selection by comparing a single frame to a plurality of previous frames and selecting a single comparison set for each frame for strain estimation.

Claims

1. An ultrasound processing system for elastography, comprising:

an ultrasound interface that receives ultrasound imaging information; and

processing electronics coupled to the ultrasound interface and configured to utilize the ultrasound imaging information to use time-varying frame selection to estimate displacement and/or strain;

wherein the processing electronics perform the time-varying frame selection by comparing a single frame to a plurality of previous frames and selecting a single comparison set for each frame for displacement and/or strain estimation.

2. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics use multi-frame displacement estimation for comparing frames.

3. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein processing electronics select frame comparison sets with adequate mean strain.

4. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics select frame comparison sets with the best signal to noise ratio.

5. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the strain is estimated by normalizing the displacement and/or strain of the frame comparison sets.

6. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics display displacement and/or strain images that have a displacement meeting given criteria.

7. The ultrasound processing system of claim 6, wherein the processing electronics use a desired displacement and/or strain for the given criteria.

8. The ultrasound processing system of claim 7, wherein the desired displacement and/or strain is input by the user.

9. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics select the frame comparison sets to use based on the desired displacement and/or strain.

10. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics select the frame comparison set to use based on a weighted system.

11. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the weighted system includes displacement and/or strain average and desired displacement and/or strain.

12. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics predict a periodicity of motion.

13. The ultrasound processing system of claim 12, wherein the periodicity of motion is determined using the history of mean displacement over time.

14. The ultrasound processing system of claim 1, wherein the processing electronics feedback the selected frame comparison sets.

15. The ultrasound processing system of claim 14, wherein the feedback of the selected frame comparison sets is used in previous cycles for displacement and/or strain estimation.

16. An ultrasound machine comprising:

an ultrasound engine configured to receive ultrasound returns representative of an ultrasound scene for display; and

an ultrasound processor configured to normalize strain for displacement and/or strain estimation, wherein the ultrasound processor causes a display output to be generated after processing the displacement and/or strain estimation using frame comparison sets.

17. A method of signal to noise ratio improvement in elastography using time-varying frame selection strain estimation, the method comprising:

receiving imaging and displacement and/or strain data;

comparing each frame to previous frames;

selecting a frame comparison set for each frame;

estimating a final displacement and/or strain;

processing imaging data; and

displaying an image.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein after a defined period, the determined comparison sets are used to estimate the final displacement and/or strain through feedback.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the estimated final strain is estimated by normalizing the displacement and/or strain estimation.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the frame comparison sets are selected based on mean displacement and/or strain.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the frame comparison sets are selected based on SNR.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the frame comparison sets are selected based on a combination of factors.