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Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and method for acquiring ultrasound data

  • US 9,316,725 B2
  • Filed: 09/19/2007
  • Issued: 04/19/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:

  • an ultrasound probe configured to transmit toward and receive ultrasound signals from a three-dimensional region of a subject over a plurality of slices having different slice directions;

    a transmitting and receiving unit having a beamformer configured to acquire ultrasound data by a plurality of executions of multibeam forming using the beamformer, the ultrasound data comprising a plurality of sets of ultrasound data along a plurality of directions by a one-time transmitting and receiving operation of the ultrasound probe for each of the plurality of slices;

    processing circuitry having a data storage to store said ultrasound data, configured to;

    generate a plurality of sets of synthesized ultrasound data using the ultrasound data acquired during each of said executions, each of the sets of synthesized ultrasound data being acquired along a respective plurality of different receiving directions with respect to a transmitting direction over at least two of the slices, andgenerate image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data;

    whereinthe transmitting and receiving unit executes a plurality of scans along a scan direction which is essentially perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting, the scans being performed in different slice directions which are essentially perpendicular to the scan direction;

    the processing circuitry is configured to synthesize sets of ultrasound data relating to different scans and generate the synthesized ultrasound data,the transmitting and receiving unit scans a first slice by repeating four-beam multibeam forming having a predetermined spread along the scan direction and to scan a second slice by repeating said four-beam multibeam forming, the scan of said second slice being started from a scan position located one half of the predetermined spread from a start position of the scan of the first slice; and

    the processing circuitry is configured to synthesize 2 sets of ultrasound data for the multibeam forming of the first slice and synthesize 2 sets of ultrasound data for the multibeam forming of the second slice, the 2 sets of ultrasound data corresponding to the second slice relating to directions having essentially a same scan direction component as directions relating to the 2 sets of ultrasound data corresponding to the first slice.

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