Contrast imaging with motion correction

• US 6,464,643 B1
• Filed: 10/06/2000
• Issued: 10/15/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Brock-Fisher, George A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaworski, Francis J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, MAULIN M
• Application Number:
  US09/684,858
• Time in Patent Office: 739 Days
• Field of Search: 600/440, 600/441, 600/443, 600/447, 600/458, 600/459, 600/444, 600/449, 600/445, 600/455
• US Class Current: 600/458
• 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: G01S 15/52 Discriminating between fixed and moving objects or between objects moving at different speeds
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52038 involving non-linear properties of the propagation medium or of the reflective target
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52041 detecting modification of a contrast enhancer, e.g. detecting the destruction of a contrast agent by an acoustic wave, e.g. loss of correlation diagnostic techniques involving the use of contrast agents A61B8/481

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method for imaging contrast agents within a patient'"'"'s body. The method generally comprises, receiving echoed signals from the body, processing the received data to correct for motion effects, processing the received data to suppress tissue response, and imaging the contrast agents.

Claims

1. A method for imaging contrast agents within a patient'"'"'s body by which motion-related artifacts are reduced, comprising:

receiving echoed signals from the body;

processing the received data to correct for motion effects using a motion estimate representative of tissue and contrast agent motion within the patient'"'"'s body;

processing the received data to suppress tissue response including time-correcting data received from successive transmit lines using a time-correction function based on said motion estimate; and

imaging the contrast agents.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a plurality of signal lines, at least a subset of which are fired along the same direction, into the body.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising modulating the signal lines in the subset so that they have different transmit characteristics.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the signal lines in the subset are modulated to have different amplitudes.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the signal lines in the subset are modulated to have different phases.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the signal lines in the subset are modulated to have different polarities.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein step of processing the received data to correct for motion effects comprises applying a correction function to the received data to account for variance in the transmitted signal lines.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of processing the received data to correct for motion effects further comprises measuring the Doppler shift of the output of the correction function to generate a motion estimate representative of tissue and contrast agent motion within the body.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the motion estimate is obtained by deriving the average phase change across the signal lines in the subset at a particular imaging depth.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the motion estimate is obtained by deriving a velocity function of the phase change across the signal lines in the subset at a particular imagining depth.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the motion estimate is obtained by cross-correlating data from one signal line in the subset with data from an adjacent signal line in the subset.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the data used for determining the motion estimate is fundamental frequency data.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of processing the received data to correct for motion effects further comprises applying a time-correct function to the received data based upon the motion estimate.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the time-correct function comprises a phase adjustment applied to received slow-time data.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of applying a time-correct function comprises applying a phase correction to coefficients of a contrast agent clutter filter.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of applying a time-correct function comprises applying the time-correct function to the received data with an all-pass resampling filter.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the all-pass resampling filter is a finite-impulse-response filter.

18. The method of claim 2, wherein the processing to suppress stationary tissue response comprises summing signal line data to cancel linear components of the received data.

19. The method of claim 2, wherein the imaging of the contrast agents comprises imaging contrast agent concentration.

20. The method of claim 2, wherein the imaging of the contrast agents comprises imaging contrast agent flow.

21. A system for imaging contrast agents within a patient'"'"'s body by which motion-related artifacts are reduced, comprising:

means for receiving echoed signals from the body, and extracting received data therefrom;

means for processing the received data to correct for motion effects using a motion estimate representative of tissue and contrast agent motion within the patient'"'"'s body;

means for processing the received data to suppress tissue response including applying the time-correction function based on said motion estimate; and

means for imaging the contrast agents.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising means for transmitting a plurality of signal lines along the same direction.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising means for modulating the signal lines so that they have different transmit characteristics.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the means for processing the received data to correct for motion effects comprises means for applying a correction function to the received data to account for variance in the transmitted signal lines.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the means for processing the received data to correct for motion effects further comprises means for measuring the Doppler shift of the corrected received data to generate a motion estimate representative of tissue and contrast agent motion within the body.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising means for applying a time-correct function to the received data based upon the motion estimate to correct the data for motion effects.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the means for applying a time-correct function comprises an all-pass resampling filter.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the means for processing the received data to suppress stationary tissue response comprises means for summing signal line data to cancel linear components of the data.

29. A system for imaging contrast agents within a patient'"'"'s body by which motion-related artifacts are reduced, comprising:

logic configured to receive echoed signals from the body, and extracting received data therefrom;

logic configured to process the received data to correct for motion effects using a motion estimate representative of tissue and contrast agent motion within the patient'"'"'s body;

logic configured to process the received data to suppress tissue response including applying the time-correcting received data using a time-correction function based on said motion estimate; and

logic configured to image the contrast agents.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising logic configured to transmit a plurality of signal lines along the same direction.

31. The system of claim 30, further comprising logic configured to modulate the signal lines so that they have different transmit characteristics.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the logic configured to process the received data to correct for motion effects comprises logic configured to apply a correction function to the received data to account for variance in the transmitted signal lines.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the logic configured to correct the received data for motion effects further comprises logic configured to measure the Doppler shift of the corrected received data to generate a motion estimate representative of tissue and contrast agent motion within the body.

34. The system of claim 33, further comprising logic configured to apply a time-correct function to the received data based upon the motion estimate to correct the data for motion effects.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the logic configured to apply a time-correct function comprises an all-pass resampling filter.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein the logic configured to process the received data to suppress stationary tissue response comprises logic configured to sum signal line data to cancel linear components of the data.