Ultrasonic transmit pulses for nonlinear ultrasonic imaging
First Claim
1. A method for using an ultrasonic wave transmitter to insonify an acoustic target in the body with a waveform of fundamental frequency components and substantially no harmonic components at the target, comprising the steps of:
- determining the nonlinear effects upon a transmitted ultrasonic wave between said transmitter and said target; and
transmitting a predistorted ultrasonic wave which has been predistorted in consideration of said nonlinear effects.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are provided for producing harmonic contrast images with harmonic components produced by the contrast agent with little interference from nonlinear tissue interaction. A method is described for developing predistorted ultrasonic transmit signals, the predistortion of which will be counteracted by the nonlinear effects of tissue and result in substantially linear waveforms at the location of the contrast agent. The echoes returned by the contrast agent will contain nonlinear components resulting from the interaction of a linear waveform with the agent, with reduced nonlinear components from nonlinear tissue effects.
29 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for using an ultrasonic wave transmitter to insonify an acoustic target in the body with a waveform of fundamental frequency components and substantially no harmonic components at the target, comprising the steps of:
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determining the nonlinear effects upon a transmitted ultrasonic wave between said transmitter and said target; and transmitting a predistorted ultrasonic wave which has been predistorted in consideration of said nonlinear effects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method for using an ultrasonic wave transmitter to insonify an acoustic target in the body with a waveform of fundamental frequency components and substantially no harmonic components at the target, comprising the steps of:
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determining the nonlinear effects upon a transmitted ultrasonic wave between said transmitter and said target; and transmitting a predistorted ultrasonic wave which has been predistorted in consideration of said nonlinear effects; wherein said step of determining comprises using a tissue model; wherein said step of using a tissue model comprises using a mathematical model which includes a term representing nonlinear tissue effects; and wherein said mathematical model comprises the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov model.
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5. A method for using an ultrasonic wave transmitter to insonify an acoustic target in the body with a waveform of fundamental frequency components and substantially no harmonic components at the target, comprising the steps of:
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determining the nonlinear effects upon a transmitted ultrasonic wave between said transmitter and said target; and transmitting a predistorted ultrasonic wave which has been predistorted in consideration of said nonlinear effects; wherein said step of determining comprises; determining the form of a linear field at said target; and determining the form of a transmitted ultrasonic wave which will result in said linear field in consideration of the nonlinear effects between said transmitter and said target. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for using an ultrasonic transducer array to insonify an acoustic target in the body with a waveform of fundamental frequency components and substantially no harmonic components at the target, comprising the steps of:
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determining a linear field at said target which would result from transmission of a waveform by said transducer array; determining characteristics of a transmit waveform which would result in said linear field at said target after passage through a nonlinear medium; and transmitting a predistorted ultrasonic wave which has been predistorted in consideration of said characteristics. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for using an ultrasonic transducer array to insonify an acoustic target in the body with a waveform of fundamental frequency components and substantially no harmonic components at the target, comprising the steps of:
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utilizing a tissue model having diffraction and nonlinear characteristics to determine the effects upon an ultrasonic wave transmitted between said transmitter and said target; and transmitting a predistorted ultrasonic wave which has been predistorted in consideration of said effects. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which is capable of transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a target in the body which will result in insonification of the target with a substantially linear field, comprising:
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an ultrasonic transducer; a memory for storing predistortion characteristics for a transmit waveform; and a transmitter, coupled to said ultrasonic transducer and responsive to said stored predistortion characteristics, for transmitting ultrasonic waves which have been predistorted in consideration of tissue distortion effects between said transducer and said target. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for producing harmonic contrast agent enhanced images with reduced interference from tissue nonlinearity comprising:
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an array of ultrasonic transducer elements; means for exciting the elements of said array with predistorted transmit waveforms which result in the development of a substantially linear field at a target region of the body; means for receiving echo signals from contrast agent at said target region having nonlinear signal components mainly resulting from the interaction of a linear waveform with said contrast agent; and means for utilizing the nonlinear signal components of said received echo signals to form an ultrasonic image of said contrast agent. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification