A61B8/461

Ultrasound shear wave vibro-elastography of the abdomen

A system useful for performing ultrasound elastography of organs such as the liver allows efficient and robust data acquisition. The system may be applied to perform real-time, noninvasive ultrasound imaging of the liver in humans. Steady-state, shear wave absolute elastography is used to measure the Young's modulus of the liver tissue. This method involves the use of an external exciter or vibrator to shake the tissue and generate a shear wave. Accurate placement of an ultrasound transducer facilitates measurement of the tissue motion due to the shear wave. The stiffness of tissues in the region being imaged may be computed from the measured tissue motions. The following innovations address both vibrator and transducer placement, as well as some specific methods to ensure adequate wave propagation, in order to obtain accurate and consistent measurements.

Ultrasound diagnostic system with multimedia information distribution system
11510657 · 2022-11-29 · ·

An ultrasound system with a multimedia information distribution system comprising: a video processor generating a sequence of video frames of at least the ultrasound diagnostic images of a sequence of ultrasound diagnostic images; a media editor for combining the ultrasound video frames with further audio/video data to generate multimedia data; a multimedia encoder encoding the multimedia data in the form of a multimedia file; a media streaming module receiving the said multimedia file and generating a real-time stream of the sequence of multimedia data encoded in the said multimedia file; a web server allowing access to the real-time stream of the multimedia data upon request by a remote client to access the said multimedia file. A corresponding computer implemented method is also disclosed.

Ultrasound imaging system probe cable and connector

An ultrasound probe includes a housing. The housing includes a first end, which internally houses: a transducer array and a tracking sensor, and a second end. The housing further includes a second portion extending between the first and second ends. The second portion houses: a first electrically conductive path extending from the transducer array through the second portion to the second end, which is opposite the first end, and a second electrically conductive path extending from the tracking sensor through the second portion to the second end. The probe further includes a single electro-mechanical connector with a physical interface configured to transfer signals carried by the first and second electrically conductive members off the probe. The probe further includes a single cable that routes the first and second electrically conductive members from the second end to the electro-mechanical connector.

Ultrasound imaging apparatus for predicting fetal growth rate and method of operating the same

Provided is an ultrasound imaging apparatus for predicting fetal growth rate, including: an ultrasound probe configured to transmit ultrasound signals to a fetus and receive ultrasound echo signals reflected from the fetus; a user inputter configured to receive pregnancy information regarding a patient from a user; a communicator configured to receive, from a cloud server, fetal biometric data related to the pregnancy information regarding the patient from among fetal biometric data prestored and accumulated in the cloud server; and a controller configured to generate an ultrasound image of the fetus by using the ultrasound echo signals, measure a size of a body part of the fetus on the ultrasound image, and predict the fetal growth rate based on the measured size of the body part of the fetus and the fetal biometric data received from the cloud server.

Secondary flow detection device, secondary flow detection program, and ultrasonic signal processing device

To uniformly extract a secondary flow based on quantitative calculation even in a complicated blood flow in a heart chamber or a blood vessel. There is provided a secondary flow detection device, including: a degree-of-swirl map calculation unit that obtains a velocity vector map calculated based on an echo signal reflected by an inspection target, calculates, as a value indicating a degree of a spatial change of a velocity vector, a degree of swirl based on the velocity vector map, and calculates, as a degree-of-swirl map, a spatial distribution of an iso-degree-of-swirl line obtained by connecting the degree of swirl of an equal value; a secondary flow candidate extraction unit that extracts, as a secondary flow candidate, an iso-degree-of-swirl line satisfying a predetermined condition among the iso-degree-of-swirl line indicated in the degree-of-swirl map; a feature amount calculation unit that calculates a feature amount of the velocity vector inside the secondary flow candidate; a secondary flow determination unit that determines whether the secondary flow candidate is a desired secondary flow based on the feature amount; and a secondary flow extraction unit that extracts and outputs the secondary flow determined by the secondary flow determination unit.

Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus and method of controlling ultrasound diagnosis apparatus
11589839 · 2023-02-28 · ·

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus including: an ultrasound probe; a processor configured to perform transmission of ultrasound beam from the ultrasound probe to a subject to acquire an ultrasound image; a camera configured to acquire a digital image of a state of the ultrasound probe being in contact with the subject; a touch panel including a display screen displaying the ultrasound image and the digital image; an interface to receive instruction to acquire the ultrasound image and/or the digital image from a user; and a memory configured to store the ultrasound image and the digital image, wherein the processor is further configured to: exclusively control between the acquisition of the ultrasound image and the acquisition of the digital image according to instruction received by the interface; and save the ultrasound image and the digital image of the same inspection in the memory in association with each other.

Systems and methods for making frequency-based adjustments to signal paths along intravascular ultrasound imaging systems

An adaptor for adjusting electrical signals propagated along an electrically-conductive path between a drive unit and a catheter of an intravascular ultrasound imaging system includes a catheter connector disposed along a first end of a housing and configured to receive the catheter. A drive-unit connector is disposed along a second end of the housing and is configured to couple the adaptor to the drive unit. A catheter-conductor interface electrically-couples to a transducer conductor of the catheter. A drive-unit-conductor interface electrically-couples to an electrical conductor of the drive unit. An adaptor conductor electrically-couples the catheter-conductor interface to the drive-unit-conductor interface. A tuning element is electrically-coupled to the adaptor conductor and is configured to adjust electrical signals propagating along the adaptor conductor based, at least in part, on an operational frequency of a transducer disposed in the catheter.

Systems and methods for acquiring raw ultrasound data from an ultrasound machine using a wirelessly connected device

The present embodiments relate generally to systems and methods for acquiring raw ultrasound data from an ultrasound machine using a wirelessly connected device. The systems can be configured to display ultrasound images on a display device and receive input to select the ultrasound images for which to retrieve corresponding raw ultrasound data from the ultrasound machine. A raw data buffer provided at the ultrasound machine may be capable of storing a first time duration of raw ultrasound data. An image display buffer provided at the wireless device may store: processed ultrasound image data corresponding to the raw ultrasound data stored in the raw data buffer; and previously-received processed ultrasound image data that has no corresponding raw ultrasound data stored in the raw data buffer.

Method of processing an image

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with a computer-readable program, which, when executed by a processor, will cause a computer to execute a method of processing an image, wherein the method includes receiving a 2-D color Doppler image. The method additionally includes extracting a single component velocity field of a 2-D plane from the 2-D color Doppler image. Further, the method includes receiving a geometrical boundary of a region of interest within the 2-D color Doppler image. Moreover, the method includes applying a plurality of boundary conditions to the geometrical boundary, an at least one inlet, and an at least one outlet, of the single component velocity field of a 2-D plane. The method additionally includes solving a streamfunction vorticity formulation to reconstruct a transverse velocity component. Further, the method includes outputting a reconstructed 2-D 2-component velocity based on the transverse velocity component.

Systems and methods for ultrasound image quality determination

Methods and systems are provided for assessing image quality of ultrasound images. In one example, a method includes determining a probe position quality parameter of an ultrasound image, the probe position quality parameter representative of a level of quality of the ultrasound image with respect to a position of an ultrasound probe used to acquire the ultrasound image, determining one or more acquisition settings quality parameters of the ultrasound image, each acquisition settings quality parameter representative of a respective level of quality of the ultrasound image with respect to a respective acquisition setting used to acquire the ultrasound image, and providing feedback to a user of the ultrasound system based on the probe position quality parameter and/or the one or more acquisition settings quality parameters, the probe position quality parameter and each acquisition settings quality parameter determined based on output from separate image quality assessment models.