Three dimensional M-mode ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system

• US 5,916,168 A
• Filed: 05/29/1997
• Issued: 06/29/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. (Entegris Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Advanced Technology Laboratories Inc (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Pesque, Patrick Rene, Pedersen, Robert H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lateef, Marvin M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, MAULIN M
• Application Number:
  US08/858,172
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: 128/916, 600/443, 600/450
• US Class Current: 600/443
• 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 8/486 involving arbitrary m-mode
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/543 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8993 Three dimensional imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52058 displaying one measured variable; A-scan display
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/916 Ultrasound 3-D imaging

Abstract

A three dimensional M-mode imaging system and techniques are described for acquiring and forming three dimensional ultrasonic M-mode images from ultrasonic data acquired over time from a stationary scanhead. The resultant images exhibit two spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system comprising:

a transducer for receiving ultrasonic echo information from a region of the body; and

a processor, responsive to said ultrasonic echo information, to produce a three dimensional display of said information,

wherein two of the dimensions of said three dimensional display are spatial and the third dimension is temporal.

38. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 1, wherein said transducer is operated to repetitively acquire echo information for two dimensional ultrasonic image frames over time of substantially the same planar region of the body;

and

wherein said two spatial dimensions relate to the spatial dimensions of said ultrasonic image frames and said third dimension relates to the acquisition time of said ultrasonic image frames.

39. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 38, wherein said processor comprises a three dimensional rendering processor which renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by maximum intensity projection.

40. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 38, wherein said processor comprises a three dimensional rendering processor which utilizes surface rendering to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image.

41. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 40, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor processes said ultrasonic echo information with an opacity-transparency function.

42. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 38, wherein said processor comprises a three dimensional rendering processor which renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by mean intensity projection.

2. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for providing three dimensional M-mode images comprising:

a scanhead for acquiring sequential planes of echo information from a planar region of the body;

a processor for processing said echo information to produce a sequence of B-mode or Doppler images; and

a three dimensional rendering processor which produces a three dimensional image of said images as a function of their temporal displacement.

21. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein:

said scanhead is operated to repetitively acquire two dimensional ultrasonic images over time of substantially the same planar region of the body;

said three dimensional rendering processor renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image from two dimensional ultrasonic image data, wherein two of said three dimensions are spatial dimensions depicted by said image data and the third dimension is the time of acquisition of said two dimensional image data; and

an image display coupled to said three dimensional rendering processor for displaying said three dimensional ultrasonic image; and

further comprising;

a storage device, coupled to said echo information processor and said three dimensional rendering processor, for storing said sequence of images in relation to the time sequence of their acquisition.

22. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by maximum intensity projection.

23. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor utilizes surface rendering to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image.

24. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 23, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor processes said images with an opacity-transparency function.

25. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by mean intensity projection.

26. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 21, wherein said storage device stores said images as image frames, and wherein said third dimension is temporal frame to frame spacing.

27. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 21, further comprising:

a cut plane selector which selects a cut plane of said three dimensional image, which cut plane exhibits said third dimension as one of its dimensions; and

wherein said selected cut plane is displayed on said image display as a two dimensional M-mode image.

28. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 27, wherein said cut plane comprises a plurality of spatially constant A-lines of said two dimensional images.

29. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, further comprising an image tracer for tracing one or more tissue borders of said three dimensional image.

30. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 29, further comprising means for making measurements based upon said tissue border tracings.

31. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, further comprising a receiver, coupled to said scanhead, for acquiring echoes at a harmonic of a fundamental transmit frequency;

and wherein said echo information processor produces harmonic ultrasonic image data.

32. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, further comprising a scanhead controller, coupled to said scanhead, for acquiring two dimensional ultrasonic image echo information in a predetermined phase relationship to a cardiac cycle.

33. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 32, wherein said scanhead controller controls said scanhead to acquire two dimensional ultrasonic image echo information in two or more predetermined phase relationships to a cardiac cycle.

34. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 32, wherein said scanhead controller includes an ECG sensor.

3. A method of forming a three dimensional M-mode image of moving tissue comprising the steps of:

acquiring and processing color Doppler information at large amplitudes and low frequencies from moving tissue over time; and

rendering said color Doppler information to form a three dimensional image presentation wherein two of said dimensions are spatial and the third is temporal.

4. A method of forming a three dimensional M-mode image comprising the steps of:

repetitively acquiring two dimensional ultrasonic images over time of substantially the same planar region of the body;

rendering a three dimensional ultrasonic image from said two dimensional ultrasonic images, wherein two of said three dimensions are spatial dimensions of said planar region and the third dimension is the time of acquisition of said two dimensional images; and

displaying said three dimensional ultrasonic image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said rendering step renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by maximum intensity projection.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said rendering step utilizes surface rendering to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said rendering step processes said two dimensional ultrasonic images with an opacity-transparency function.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein said rendering step renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by mean intensity projection.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein said acquiring step acquired two dimensional ultrasonic image frames, and wherein, in said rendering step, said third dimension is temporal frame to frame spacing.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

selecting a cut plane of said three dimensional ultrasonic image, which cut plane exhibits said third dimension as one of its dimensions; and

displaying said selected cut plane as a two dimensional M-mode image.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said cut plane comprises a plurality of spatially constant A-lines of said two dimensional images.

12. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of tracing one or more tissue borders of said three dimensional ultrasonic image.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of making measurements based upon said tissue border tracings.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein said acquiring step comprises acquiring echoes at a harmonic of a fundamental transmit frequency.

15. The method of claim 4, wherein said acquiring step comprises acquiring two dimensional ultrasonic images in a predetermined phase relationship to a cardiac cycle.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said acquiring step comprises acquiring two dimensional ultrasonic images in two or more predetermined phase relationships to a cardiac cycle.

17. A method of forming a three dimensional Doppler M-mode image comprising the steps of:

repetitively acquiring Doppler echo signals over time of substantially the same planar region of the body;

processing said Doppler echo signals to produce Doppler image data;

rendering a three dimensional ultrasonic image from said Doppler image data, wherein two of said three dimensions are spatial dimensions of said planar region and the third dimension is the time of acquisition of said Doppler image data; and

displaying said three dimensional ultrasonic image.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said processing step produces Doppler velocity, intensity, or variance image data.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said processing step produces Doppler image data from large amplitude, low frequency Doppler echo signals.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said processing step produces Doppler image data of tissue from large amplitude, low frequency Doppler echo signals.

35. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which produces three dimensional Doppler M-mode images comprising:

an ultrasonic scanhead which is operated to repetitively acquire Doppler echo signals over time of substantially the same planar region of the body;

a Doppler processor coupled to receive said Doppler echo signals to produce Doppler image data;

a storage device for storing said Doppler image data in relation to the time sequence of its acquisition;

a three dimensional image processor which renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image from said Doppler image data, wherein two of said three dimensions are spatial dimensions of said planar region and the third dimension is the time of acquisition of said Doppler image data; and

an image display for displaying said three dimensional ultrasonic image.

36. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 35, wherein said Doppler processor produces Doppler velocity, intensity, or variance image data.

37. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 35, wherein said Doppler processor produces Doppler image data from large amplitude, low frequency Doppler echo signals.