Medicial diagnostic ultrasound system and method
First Claim
1. A method for constructing a composite ultrasound image with a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, the method comprising the acts of:
- (a) generating an image comprising at least two image components;
(b) separately storing the at least two image components;
(c) selecting at least one of the at least two image components for image construction;
(d) retrieving the component(s) selected in (c); and
(e) constructing a composite image from the retrieved components.
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Abstract
The preferred embodiments described herein provide a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system and method in which at least two image components of an image are separately stored in the ultrasound system. Because the image components are separately stored, a composite image can be constructed from selected image components. Unlike conventional ultrasound systems that use a frame grabber to perform a what-you-see-is-what-you-get technique of image capture, this preferred embodiment provides selective construction of a composite image, thereby facilitating image presentation, image review, and post-processing functions.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for constructing a composite ultrasound image with a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, the method comprising the acts of:
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(a) generating an image comprising at least two image components;
(b) separately storing the at least two image components;
(c) selecting at least one of the at least two image components for image construction;
(d) retrieving the component(s) selected in (c); and
(e) constructing a composite image from the retrieved components. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 18)
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2. A method of storing an image in a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, the method comprising the acts of:
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(a) generating an image comprising at least two image components; and
(b) separately saving the at least two image components. - View Dependent Claims (3, 19, 20)
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9. A method for performing a post-processing operation with a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, the method comprising the acts of:
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(a) generating an image comprising an ultrasound image data component and at least one other image component;
(b) separately saving the ultrasound image data component and the at least one other image component;
(c) retrieving the saved ultrasound image data component; and
(d) performing a post-processing operation on the retrieved ultrasound image data component. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 21, 22)
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14. A medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system comprising:
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an image path;
a storage device; and
a central processing unit coupled with the image path and the storage device;
wherein the central processing unit is operative to generate an image comprising ultrasound image data from the image path and non-ultrasound image data, and wherein the central processing unit is further operative to separately store the ultrasound image data from the image path and the non-ultrasound image data in the storage device. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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Specification