Medical doppler ultrasound system for locating and tracking blood flow
First Claim
1. A processing system for a Doppler ultrasound system having a transmit circuit configured to independently drive transducer elements of a multi-element transducer to deliver ultrasound to different positions relative to a normal axis extending from the multi-element transducer and further having a receive circuit configured to generate respective receive echo signals resulting from the ultrasound delivered to the different positions in response to each of the transducer elements detecting echo signals, the processing system comprising:
- an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit operably coupled to the receive circuit and configured to digitize the receive echo signals into data representing the respective receive echo signals;
a memory for storing data; and
a processor operably coupled to the ADC and transmit circuit and configured to generate control signals to control the transmit circuit to steer ultrasound beams from the transducer and along respective beam axes to respective sample locations, the sample locations arranged spatially across a virtual surface having a lateral extent, wherein each beam axis intersects the virtual surface at only the respective sample location, the processor further configured to process the data from the receive circuit to extract Doppler shift signals and generate Doppler shift data therefrom for each of the sample locations, and configured to store the Doppler shift data for the sample locations in the memory.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for processing echo signals in a Doppler ultrasound system from a region of interest. An ultrasound beam is electronically steered to deliver ultrasound to and receive echo signals from a plurality of sample locations in the region of interest. The echo signals for each sample location are processed to extract Doppler shift signals and Doppler shift data representing the Doppler shift signals are generated. The Doppler shift data accumulated for the sample locations can be used to detect the presence of blood flow in the region of interest, and identify the location in the region of interest at which the presence of blood flow is detected. The blood flow can be tracked by updating the location of the detected blood flow in the region of interest. The blood flow can be further monitored by combining the locating and tracking functionality with an m-mode ultrasound image.
89 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A processing system for a Doppler ultrasound system having a transmit circuit configured to independently drive transducer elements of a multi-element transducer to deliver ultrasound to different positions relative to a normal axis extending from the multi-element transducer and further having a receive circuit configured to generate respective receive echo signals resulting from the ultrasound delivered to the different positions in response to each of the transducer elements detecting echo signals, the processing system comprising:
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an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit operably coupled to the receive circuit and configured to digitize the receive echo signals into data representing the respective receive echo signals; a memory for storing data; and a processor operably coupled to the ADC and transmit circuit and configured to generate control signals to control the transmit circuit to steer ultrasound beams from the transducer and along respective beam axes to respective sample locations, the sample locations arranged spatially across a virtual surface having a lateral extent, wherein each beam axis intersects the virtual surface at only the respective sample location, the processor further configured to process the data from the receive circuit to extract Doppler shift signals and generate Doppler shift data therefrom for each of the sample locations, and configured to store the Doppler shift data for the sample locations in the memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12)
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8. A processing system for a Doppler ultrasound system having a transmit circuit configured to independently drive transducer elements of a multi-element transducer to deliver ultrasound to different positions relative to a normal axis extending from the multi-element transducer and further having a receive circuit configured to generate respective receive echo signals resulting from the ultrasound delivered to the different positions in response to each of the transducer elements detecting echo signals, the processing system comprising:
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an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit operably coupled to the receive circuit and configured to digitize the receive echo signals into data representing the respective receive echo signals; and a processor operably coupled to the ADC and transmit circuit and configured to generate control signals to control the transmit circuit to deliver ultrasound to a plurality of sample locations arranged spatially across a region of interest, wherein the sample locations construct a surface including a region having lateral extent and each sample location of the region having a respective beam axis, the processor further configured to process the data from the receive circuit to extract Doppler shift signals and calculate a power for the Doppler signals for the sampling locations. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 13)
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Specification