Ultrasonic harmonic flash suppression

• US 6,454,714 B1
• Filed: 10/20/2000
• Issued: 09/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ATL Ultrasound Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Ng, Gary, Jago, James R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaworski, Francis J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, MAULIN M
• Application Number:
  US09/693,059
• Time in Patent Office: 704 Days
• Field of Search: 600/447, 600/448, 600/449, 600/443, 600/300, 367/11
• US Class Current: 600/443
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/481 involving the use of contrast agent, e.g. microbubbles introduced into the bloodstream analysis of echo signal exploiting properties of a contrast enhancer in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52039
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5276 due to motion
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8961 using pulse compression
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8963 using pulse inversion
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52028 using digital techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52038 involving non-linear properties of the propagation medium or of the reflective target
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52039 exploiting the non-linear response of a contrast enhancer, e.g. a contrast agent diagnostic techniques involving the use of contrast agents A61B8/481

Abstract

Ultrasonic imaging apparatus and method are described for reducing the flash artifact in ultrasonic harmonic images. Harmonic signals are separated by pulse inversion separation which uses multiple transmit pulses which may be subject to motion artifacts. The motion artifacts are detected and subtracted from the harmonic signals to produce harmonic images with reduced flash artifacts. The motion artifacts may also be reduced by notch filtering. In another embodiment the amount of motion in the image is detected and the flash artifact is reduced in accordance with the detected motion. The amount of artifact signal which is removed is variable in accordance with anticipated image motion or clinical application.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which produces harmonic images with reduced motional artifacts comprising:

a transducer which transmits fundamental frequency signals and receives echo signals in response thereto at a harmonic frequency;

a harmonic signal separator circuit which separates the harmonic signal components of the received echo signals;

an image display, responsive to the harmonic components, which produces a harmonic ultrasonic image;

a motion detection circuit which detects motion signal components in the received echo signals; and

a motion artifact cancellation circuit, responsive to the motion detection circuit and coupled to the image display, which reduces motion artifacts in the harmonic ultrasonic image.

2. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 1, wherein the harmonic signal separator circuit comprises a pulse inversion processing circuit.

3. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 1, wherein the motion detection circuit comprises a filter circuit.

4. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 3, wherein the transmitted fundamental frequency signals exhibit a nominal center fundamental frequency, and wherein the filter is set to detect signals in the vicinity of the nominal center fundamental frequency.

5. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 3, wherein the motion detection circuit is responsive to separated harmonic signal components of the received echo signal which may be contaminated by motion artifacts.

6. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 5, wherein the motion artifact cancellation circuit comprises a subtractor which subtracts motion signal components from harmonic signal components which may be contaminated by motion artifacts.

7. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 5, wherein the motion artifact cancellation circuit comprises a notch filter which is set to remove signal components at an artifact signal frequency.

8. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 7, wherein the transmitted fundamental frequency signals exhibit a nominal center fundamental frequency, and wherein the notch filter is set to remove signal components in the vicinity of the nominal center fundamental frequency.

9. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 1, further comprising a speckle reduction circuit, responsive to separated harmonic signal components of the received echo signal which may be contaminated by motion artifacts, which reduces the speckle content of harmonic signal components.

10. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 9, wherein the speckle reduction circuit reduces the speckle content of harmonic signal components by frequency compounding.

11. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 10, wherein the speckle reduction circuit compounds bands of detected harmonic frequency signals.

12. A method for reducing motion artifacts from an ultrasonic harmonic image comprising:

transmitting a fundamental frequency transmit signal;

receiving echo signals at a harmonic of the fundamental frequency, which echo signals may also be contaminated by motion artifacts;

detecting motion artifacts in the received echo signals; and

utilizing the detected motion artifacts to reduce motion artifacts in a displayed harmonic image.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising separating harmonic signals from the received echo signals, which separated harmonic signals may be contaminated by motion artifacts.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein separating comprises separating harmonic signals from the received echo signals by pulse inversion.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein detecting comprises filtering pulse inversion separated harmonic signals at a motion artifact signal frequency.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmit signal exhibits a nominal fundamental frequency;

and wherein filtering comprises filtering pulse inversion separated harmonic signals in the vicinity of the nominal fundamental frequency.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein utilizing comprises subtracting filtered received signals from the pulse inversion separated harmonic echo signals.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein utilizing comprises subtracting filtered pulse inversion separated harmonic signals of a predetermined amplitude from the pulse inversion separated harmonic echo signals,

wherein the predetermined amplitude is determined by the amount of anticipated motion in the image.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the predetermined amplitude is determined by the application for which the imaging is being performed.

20. A method for reducing motion artifacts from an ultrasonic harmonic image comprising:

transmitting a fundamental frequency transmit signal;

receiving echo signals at a harmonic of the fundamental frequency, which echo signals may also be contaminated by motion artifacts;

detecting the presence of motion in the received echo signals; and

utilizing the detection of motion to reduce motion artifacts a displayed harmonic image.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein reducing motion artifacts is performed by notch filtering.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the transmit signal exhibits a nominal fundamental frequency;

and wherein notch filtering is performed on pulse inversion separated harmonic echo signals in the vicinity of the nominal fundamental frequency.

23. A method for reducing motion artifacts from an ultrasonic harmonic image comprising:

transmitting a fundamental frequency transmit signal;

receiving echo signals at the fundamental frequency and at a harmonic of the fundamental frequency, which echo signals may also be contaminated by motion artifacts;

separating harmonic signals of the echo signals by pulse inversion;

detecting motion artifacts in the separated harmonic signals;

removing motion artifacts from the separated harmonic signals; and

producing an ultrasonic harmonic image using the separated harmonic signals from which motion artifacts have been removed.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein removing motion artifacts is performed by subtraction.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein amplitude-variable motion artifacts are subtracted from the harmonic signals, wherein the amplitude is variable in accordance with the anticipated amount of motion in the region being imaged.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the amplitude is variable in accordance with the clinical application in which the method is being used.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein removing motion artifacts is performed by notch filtering.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising reducing the speckle content of the ultrasonic harmonic image.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein reducing the speckle content is done by frequency compounding.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein detecting motion artifacts comprises detecting the degree of motion contamination of the received echo signals, and wherein the amplitude is variable in accordance with the degree of motion contamination detected.