Systems and methods for processing ultrasound color flow mapping
First Claim
1. A method of ultrasound color flow mapping comprising:
- separating a positive flow signal and a negative flow signal from ultrasound data by transforming the ultrasound data using a first pair of Hilbert transforms and summing output signals from the pair of Hilbert transforms using one or more summers to generate a separated positive flow signal and a separated negative flow signal;
converting the separated positive flow signal and the separated negative flow signal into a positive flow analytic signal and a negative flow analytic signal using a second pair of Hilbert transforms;
autocorrelating the positive flow analytic signal to obtain a mean positive flow velocity;
autocorrelating the negative flow analytic signal to obtain a mean negative flow velocity; and
performing color flow mapping using the mean positive flow velocity and the mean negative flow velocity.
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Abstract
In one aspect, the invention relates to an ultrasound imaging system that includes an ultrasound receiver configured to receive ultrasound signals scattered from a sample in real time; an acoustic beam former; and an ultrasound data demodulation system. In one embodiment, the ultrasound imaging system further includes a processing system configured to process demodulated scan data and perform ultrasound image generation and flow processing and a display configured to show ultrasound image data and blood flow velocity data relative to such image data. Signals that include positive flow information and negative flow information are separated from received signals using phase-filters and analytic signal transforms such that a first and a second autocorrelation signal processing stage is used to generate mean positive flow, mean negative flow, and variance data for such flows.
15 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method of ultrasound color flow mapping comprising:
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separating a positive flow signal and a negative flow signal from ultrasound data by transforming the ultrasound data using a first pair of Hilbert transforms and summing output signals from the pair of Hilbert transforms using one or more summers to generate a separated positive flow signal and a separated negative flow signal; converting the separated positive flow signal and the separated negative flow signal into a positive flow analytic signal and a negative flow analytic signal using a second pair of Hilbert transforms; autocorrelating the positive flow analytic signal to obtain a mean positive flow velocity; autocorrelating the negative flow analytic signal to obtain a mean negative flow velocity; and performing color flow mapping using the mean positive flow velocity and the mean negative flow velocity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification