Methods and devices for imaging of microcalcification particles using ultrasound. The method may include delivering a multi-pulse transmit packet of an acoustic line to a predetermined location within a tissue having or suspected of having a microcalcification; causing the microcalcification to move or oscillate, comparing one or more received signals from the location over multiple transmissions, and determining frequency modulation of the returning pulses as a result of the microcalcification oscillation or random pattern movement.

An ultrasound imaging system for imaging soft tissue through bone matter of a subject. The imaging system transmits ultrasound waves via an ultrasound probe toward the subject's bone material at a plurality of incidence angles so that ultrasound waves may pass through and reflect back through bone as both longitudinal and shear waves, which are all used in combination for imaging. The system includes a switch to connect the transducer elements to a commercially available ultrasound driving system, which allow the imaging system to utilize an ultrasound driving system which has fewer electrical transmit/receive channels than the ultrasound probe. The host controller processes the received ultrasound signals to form an image of the subject's soft tissue through matter. The image reconstruction method, along with tracking information, allows the creation of whole-brain two-dimensional, 2D orthogonal, or three-dimensional images, as well as time lapse four-dimensional or tomographical ultrasound images.

Systems and methods for ultrasound imaging using a delay-encoded harmonic imaging (DE-HI) technique is provided. An ultrasound pulse sequence is coded using temporal delays between ultrasound emissions within a single transmission event. This coded scheme allows for harmonic imaging to be implemented. The temporal time delay-codes are applied temporally to multiple different ultrasound emissions within a single transmission event, rather than spatially across different transmitting elements. The received radio frequency (RF) signals undergo a decoding process in the frequency domain to recover the signals, as they would be obtained from standard single emissions, for subsequent compounding. As one specific example, a one-quarter period time delay can be used to encode second harmonic signals from each angle emission during a single multiplane wave (MW) transmission event, rather than inverting the polarity of the pulses as in conventional MW imaging.

Changes in tissue stiffness have long been associated with disease. Systems and methods for determining the stiffness of tissues using ultrasonography may include a device for inducing a propagating shear wave in tissue and tracking the speed of propagation, which is directly related to tissue stiffness and density. The speed of a propagating shear wave may be detected by imaging a tissue at a high frame rate and detecting the propagating wave as a perturbance in successive image frames relative to a baseline image of the tissue in an undisturbed state. In some embodiments, sufficiently high frame rates may be achieved by using a ping-based ultrasound imaging technique in which unfocused omni-directional pings are transmitted (in an imaging plane or in a hemisphere) into a region of interest. Receiving echoes of the omnidirectional pings with multiple receive apertures allows for substantially improved lateral resolution.

A method of imaging a region of interest of a body, the body having sites outside the region which can produce image clutter. The method includes: generating a first pattern of vibration within the body to produce a localised first displacement at the region and localised first displacements at the clutter-producing sites; while the body undergoes the first displacements, generating ultrasound signals from the region, and detecting the ultrasound signals to generate a first image of the region; generating a second pattern of vibration within the body to produce a localised second displacement at the region and localised second displacements at the clutter-producing sites; while the body undergoes the second displacements, generating ultrasound signals from the region, and detecting the ultrasound signals to generate a second image of the region; and combining the first and second images to produce a third image of the region. The first and second vibration patterns are selected such that the first and second displacements combine in the production of the third image to reduce or eliminate the clutter in the third image relative to the clutter in the first and second images.

For noise reduction in elasticity imaging, frequency compounding is used. Displacements caused by the acoustic radiation force impulse are measured using signals at different frequencies, either due to transmission of tracking pulses and reception at different frequencies or due to processing received signals at different sub-bands. The displacements are (a) combined to compound and the compounded displacements are used to determine elasticity or (b) are used to determine elasticity and the elasticities from information at the different frequencies are compounded.

Shear Wave Dispersion Vibrometry (SDUV) is performed such that, after a single instance of their push pulse (218), a plurality of tracking pulses (222) are issued to sample, more than once, each of a plurality of locations (120, 148) on an associated monochromatic shear wave (116) in sampling that at least one of scans the plural locations in separate passes and, with a pulse of the plural tracking pulses, samples multiple ones of the plural locations concurrently. In a supplementary aspect, phase difference, for a given moment, is determined by taking into account intersample delay (156), if the determination relies on samples that are taken at different times.

According to one embodiment, an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes a storage and processing circuitry. The storage is configured to store noise data acquired in advance with respect to each scan line. The processing circuitry is configured to subtract, from raster data sequentially acquired, the noise data corresponding to a scan line of the raster data over a plurality of frames.

Some embodiments relate to a system and method of estimating the viscoelasticity of a material. The system and method includes receiving a plurality of time-amplitude curves measured at a plurality of space points. The time-amplitude curves reflect time evolutions of a propagating mechanical wave. The system and method also include estimating the viscoelasticity of a material between any set of space points using the time-amplitude curves measured at those space points.

Systems and methods for performing shear wave elastography using push and/or detection ultrasound beams that are generated by subsets of the available number of transducer elements in an ultrasound transducer. These techniques provide several advantages over currently available approaches to shear wave elastography, including the ability to use a standard, low frame rate ultrasound imaging system and the ability to measure shear wave speed throughout the entire field-of-view rather than only those regions where the push beams are not generated.