A 3D ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces 3D display images at a 3D frame rate of display which is equal to the acquisition rate of a 3D image dataset. The volumetric region being imaged is sparsely sub-sampled by separated scanning beams. Spatial locations between the beams are filled in with interpolated values or interleaved with acquired data values from other 3D scanning intervals depending upon the existence of motion in the image field. A plurality of different beam scanning patterns are used, different ones of which have different spatial locations where beams are located and beams are omitted. In a preferred embodiment the determination of motion and the consequent decision to use interpolated or interleaved data for display is determined on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces an image of shear wave velocities by transmitting push pulses to generate shear waves. A plurality of tracking lines are transmitted and echoes received by a focusing beamformer adjacent to the location of the push pulses. The tracking lines are sampled in a time-interleaved manner. The echo data acquired along each tracking line is processed to determine the time of peak tissue displacement caused by the shear waves at points along the tracking line, and the times of peaks at adjacent tracking lines compared to compute a local shear wave velocity. The resultant map of shear wave velocity values is color-coded and displayed over an anatomical image of the region of interest.

In an image compressing ultrasound system, for generating an imaging sample, delays are applied transducer-element-wise to respective time samples. The delayed samples are summed coherently in time, the coherently summed delays being collectively non-focused. An image is sparsified based on imaging samples and, otherwise than merely via said imaging samples, on angles (236) upon which respectively the delays for the generating of the imaging samples are functionally dependent. An image-compressing processor (120) may minimize a first p-norm of a first matrix which is a product of two matrices the content of one representing the image in a compression basis. The minimizing is subject to a constraint that a second p-norm of a difference between a measurement matrix and a product of an image-to-measurement-basis transformation matrix, an image representation dictionary matrix, and the matrix representing the image in the compression basis does not exceed an allowed-error threshold. The measurement matrix is populated either by channel data, or by output of a Hilbert transform applied to the channel data in a time dimension.

A method for using an interactive visual guidance tool for an imaging acquisition and display configured for user navigation with respect to a blockage of a field of view detects, and spatially defines, the blockage. It also integrates, with the image for joint visualization, an indicium that visually represents the definition. The indicium is moved dynamically according to movement, relative to the blockage, of the field of view. The indicium can be shaped like a line segment, or two indicia can be joined in a “V” shape to frame a region of non-blockage. The defining may be based on determining whether ultrasound beams in respective directions are blocked.

Ultrasound imaging systems for automatically identifying and saving ultrasound images relevant to a needle injection procedure, and associated systems and methods, are described herein. For example, an ultrasound imaging system includes a transducer for transmitting/receiving ultrasound signals during a needle injection procedure, and receive circuitry configured to convert the received ultrasound signals into ultrasound image data. The image data can be stored in a buffer memory. A processor can analyze the image data stored in the buffer memory to identify image data that depicts a specified injection event of the needle injection procedure, and the identified image data can be stored in a memory for archival purposes.

An object of the invention is to provide an ultrasonic CT device in which a reflected signal or the like from an object disposed close to transducers is received, and a reception signal thereof can be received by a receiver while transceivers whose number is smaller than the number of the transducers are used. The ultrasonic CT device includes: a transducer array in which a plurality of transducers are arranged; transceivers whose number is smaller than the number of the transducers; and a transmission transducer selector and a reception transducer selector disposed for each of the transceivers. While a transmitter included in the transceiver is selectively connected to any of the transducers in the transducer array by the transmission transducer selector, a receiver included in the transceiver is selectively connected to any of the transducers in the transducer array by the reception transducer selector.

Provided is an ultrasound apparatus including: a transmitter configured to generate and output a transmission signal; an ultrasound probe configured to convert the transmission signal output from the transmitter into an ultrasound signal and transmit the ultrasound signal to a target object, and receive an echo signal reflected from the target object and output a reception signal on the basis of the echo-signal; a transmission/reception switch configured to attenuate the transmission signal output from the transmitter and output the attenuated transmission signal, and output the reception signal output from the ultrasound probe; and a receiver configured to receive the attenuated and output transmission signal and the output reception signal, and detect transmission waveform information on the basis of the attenuated transmission signal.

A system and method include control of an ultrasound system transducer to acquire an echo signal power spectrum of a region of tissue for a fundamental frequency band and an echo signal power spectrum of the region of tissue for a harmonic frequency band, wherein a center frequency of the harmonic frequency band is substantially similar to a center frequency of the fundamental frequency band, determination of a first backscatter coefficient based on the echo signal power spectrum of the region of tissue for a fundamental frequency band and an echo signal power spectrum of a reference phantom for the fundamental frequency band, determination of a value representing a second backscatter coefficient and a non-linearity term associated with the region of tissue based on the echo signal power spectrum of the region of tissue for the harmonic frequency band and an echo signal power spectrum of the reference phantom for the harmonic frequency band, determination of the non-linearity term associated with the region of tissue based on the first backscatter coefficient and the value, and display the second backscatter coefficient, the non-linearity term, and a B-mode image of the region of tissue.

Improved ultrasound imaging devices and methods of using the devices are provided. An intraluminal imaging device is configured process imaging data obtained using a single imaging sequence in different processing paths to generate B-mode and flow images. For example, an ultrasound imaging system includes an ultrasound imaging device comprising an array of acoustic elements and a processor in communication with the array. The processor activates the array of acoustic elements to acquire ultrasound data using a sequence of transmit-receive pairs, generates a B-mode image using the acquired ultrasound data, forms a plurality of sub-apertures comprising a portion of the transmit-receive pairs, groups the sub-apertures into temporally-spaced ensembles, determines a flow estimate based on a comparison of at least one of sub-apertures within an ensemble, ensembles within an aperture, or different apertures, and outputs a graphical representation of the B-mode image and the flow estimate to a display.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for automatically updating scan patterns used during ultrasound imaging. A handheld ultrasound system may include an ultrasound device with a two-dimensional array of ultrasound transducers, and a smartphone or tablet that configures the ultrasound device to obtain a first ultrasound image frame using a scan pattern defining an acoustic beam. The system then updates the scan pattern to optimize a view of the desired anatomy. When the system is operating in cardiac imaging mode, the scan pattern may be updated by adjusting the azimuthal tilt and/or the elevational tilt of the acoustic beam. When the system is operating in lung imaging mode, the scan pattern may be updated by adjusting the elevational tilt and/or the translation of the aperture of the array of ultrasound transducers. The system then configures the ultrasound device to obtain a second ultrasound image frame using the updated scan pattern.