Segmented 3-D cardiac ultrasound imaging method and apparatus
First Claim
1. A method for medical ultrasound imaging, comprising the stepsa) acquiring ultrasound image data representative of three-dimensional volume segments of an image volume of interest in a patient in synchronism with corresponding cardiac cycles of the patient, each of said volume segments containing image data distributed in three dimensions, wherein image data representative of a volume segment is acquired during a single cardiac cycle of the patient;
- andb) combining the image data representative of said volume segments to provide image data representative of a three-dimensional ultrasound image of the image volume.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Ultrasound image data representative of three-dimensional volume segments of an image volume of interest is acquired in synchronism with corresponding cardiac cycles of a patient. The image data representative of the volume segments is combined to provide image data representative of a three-dimensional image of the image volume. The image data acquisition may be synchronized to a selected phase of the patient'"'"'s cardiac cycle, so that the image represents the image volume at the selected phase. Image data for a three-dimensional volume segment may be acquired during each of the cardiac phases of a cardiac cycle.
-
Citations
34 Claims
-
1. A method for medical ultrasound imaging, comprising the steps
a) acquiring ultrasound image data representative of three-dimensional volume segments of an image volume of interest in a patient in synchronism with corresponding cardiac cycles of the patient, each of said volume segments containing image data distributed in three dimensions, wherein image data representative of a volume segment is acquired during a single cardiac cycle of the patient; - and
b) combining the image data representative of said volume segments to provide image data representative of a three-dimensional ultrasound image of the image volume. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 27, 28, 29)
- and
-
14. Apparatus for medical ultrasound imaging, comprising:
-
a transducer comprising an array of transducer elements; a transmitter for transmitting ultrasound energy with said transducer into an image volume of interest in a patient'"'"'s body as a plurality of transmit beams; a receiver for receiving ultrasound echos with said transducer from the image volume in response to said ultrasound energy and for generating received signals representative of the received ultrasound echos; a receive beamformer for processing said received signals to form at least one receive beam for each of said transmit beams and to generate image data representative of the ultrasound echos in said receive beam; an ECG device coupled to the patient for generating an ECG signal representative of the patient'"'"'s cardiac cycle; a controller responsive to said ECG signal for controlling said transmitter and said receive beamformer to acquire image data representative of three-dimensional volume segments of the image volume in synchronism with corresponding cardiac cycles of the patient, each of said volume segments containing image data distributed in three dimensions, wherein image data representative of a volume segment is acquired during a single cardiac cycle of the patient; and a combining circuit for combining the image data representative of said volume segments to provide image data representative of a three-dimensional ultrasound image of the image volume. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31)
-
-
24. Apparatus for medical ultrasound imaging, comprising:
-
means for acquiring ultrasound image data representative of three-dimensional volume segments of an image volume of interest in a patient in synchronism with corresponding cardiac cycles of the patient, each of said volume segments containing image data distributed in three dimensions, wherein image data representative of a volume segment is acquired during a single cardiac cycle of the patient; and means for combining the image data representative of said volume segments to provide image data representative of a three-dimensional ultrasound image of the image volume. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33)
-
-
25. A method for medical ultrasound imaging, comprising acquiring ultrasound image data representative of a three-dimensional volume segment of an image volume of interest in a patient during a single cardiac cycle of the patient, said volume segment containing image data distributed in three dimensions.
-
26. A method for medical ultrasound imaging, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) acquiring ultrasound image data representative of a three-dimensional volume segment of an image volume of interest in synchronism with a selected phase of the patient'"'"'s cardiac cycle said volume segment containing image data distributed in three dimensions, wherein image data representative of the volume segment is acquired during a single cardiac cycle of the patient; (b) repeating step (a) for a plurality of cardiac phases of the patient'"'"'s cardiac cycle; (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) for different three-dimensional volume segments of the image volume during different cardiac cycles of the patient; and (d) combining the volume segment image data for respective cardiac phases to provide three-dimensional ultrasound images that are respectively representative of said cardiac phases. - View Dependent Claims (34)
-
Specification