Method and apparatus for combining topographic flow power imagery with a B-mode anatomical imagery
First Claim
1. A system for imaging the velocity of scatterers flowing past slowly moving tissue, comprising:
- means for supplying basebanded signals derived from ultrasound reflected by the scatterers and by the tissue;
a color flow processor for processing said basebanded signals to output color flow signals representing estimated flow power data of the scatterers, said color flow processor comprising means for compressing said flow power data in accordance with a compression curve transfer function which is shifted away from zero input power;
a B mode processor for processing said basebanded signals to output B mode signals representing the anatomical image data of the tissue;
a display monitor; and
means for combining said B-mode anatomical image data and said estimated flow power data into a frame of image data for display on said display monitor, wherein said combining means comprises;
means for two-dimensional edge-enhancing high-pass topographic filtering of said compressed flow power data;
color mapping means for masking out topographic filtered flow power data within a predetermined range around zero; and
means for outputting the topographic filtered flow power data which was not masked out along with B-mode anatomical image data corresponding to the masked out topographic filtered flow power data to said display monitor.
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Abstract
An ultrasound imaging system for displaying edge-enhanced topographic flow power data surrounded by B-mode anatomical data without masking out any significant edge-enhanced topographic flow power data and without displaying any significant flow power background noise. An improved high-pass topographic filter is used to enhance the edges of the flow in the displayed image in both the horizontal (lateral) and vertical (range) directions. The two-dimensional topographic filter is a digital filter with three taps in each dimension and is incorporated in the acoustic line memory. Also, the raw flow power data is compressed down to 7 bits in such a way that the transfer function is shifted away from zero input power. In this way, the system gain can be set to effectively zero out most of the background noise. After the flow power data passes through the high-pass topographic filter, it is mapped to values between -128 and +127 (8 bits) with zero in the middle. The system gain is set so background flow power noise will be mapped relatively uniformly to within ±2 of zero out of the topographic filter. The center of the color map (within ±2 of zero) is masked out so that any edge-enhanced topographic flow power that maps within this range is not displayed and, instead, the B-mode imagery is displayed.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for imaging the velocity of scatterers flowing past slowly moving tissue, comprising:
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means for supplying basebanded signals derived from ultrasound reflected by the scatterers and by the tissue; a color flow processor for processing said basebanded signals to output color flow signals representing estimated flow power data of the scatterers, said color flow processor comprising means for compressing said flow power data in accordance with a compression curve transfer function which is shifted away from zero input power; a B mode processor for processing said basebanded signals to output B mode signals representing the anatomical image data of the tissue; a display monitor; and means for combining said B-mode anatomical image data and said estimated flow power data into a frame of image data for display on said display monitor, wherein said combining means comprises; means for two-dimensional edge-enhancing high-pass topographic filtering of said compressed flow power data; color mapping means for masking out topographic filtered flow power data within a predetermined range around zero; and means for outputting the topographic filtered flow power data which was not masked out along with B-mode anatomical image data corresponding to the masked out topographic filtered flow power data to said display monitor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for imaging the velocity of scatterers flowing past slowly moving tissue, comprising the steps of:
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supplying basebanded signals derived from ultrasound reflected by the scatterers and by the tissue; processing said basebanded signals to output color flow signals representing estimated flow power data of the scatterers; compressing said flow power data in accordance with a compression curve transfer function which is shifted away from zero input power; processing said basebanded signals to output B mode signals representing the anatomical image data of the tissue; two-dimensional edge-enhancing high-pass topographic filtering of said compressed flow power data; masking out topographic filtered flow power data within a predetermined range around zero; outputting the topographic filtered flow power data which was not masked out along with B-mode anatomical image data corresponding to the masked out topographic filtered flow power data; and displaying said outputted B-mode anatomical image data and topographic filtered flow power data as a frame of an image. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system for imaging the velocity of scatterers flowing past slowly moving tissue, comprising:
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means for supplying basebanded signals derived from ultrasound reflected by the scatterers and by the tissue; a color flow processor for processing said basebanded signals to output color flow signals representing estimated flow power data of the scatterers, said color flow processor comprising means for compressing said flow power data in accordance with a compression curve transfer function which is shifted away from zero input power; a B mode processor for processing said basebanded signals to output B mode signals representing the anatomical image data of the tissue; a display monitor; and means for combining said B-mode anatomical image data and said estimated flow power data into a frame of image data for display on said display monitor, wherein said combining means comprises; color mapping means for masking out flow power data within a predetermined range around zero; and means for outputting the flow power data which was not masked out along with B-mode anatomical image data corresponding to the masked out flow power data to said display monitor. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A system for imaging the velocity of scatterers flowing past slowly moving tissue, comprising:
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means for supplying basebanded signals derived from ultrasound reflected by the scatterers and by the tissue; a color flow processor for processing said basebanded signals to output color flow signals representing estimated flow power data of the scatterers; means for two-dimensional edge-enhancing high-pass topographic filtering of said estimated flow power data; a display monitor; and means for outputting the topographic filtered flow power data to said display monitor. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification