A method of generating an ultrasound elastic image includes: inducing a shear wave that propagates in a second direction by transmitting a first ultrasound signal including a push signal to an object in a first direction, by a curved array probe; transmitting a second ultrasound signal to the object and receiving an echo signal reflected by the object in response to the second ultrasound signal, via the curved array probe; and generating an elastic image of the object by using the received echo signal. The second ultrasound signal includes a plane wave having a straight line waveform parallel to the second direction.

A system for boundary identification includes a memory (42) to store shear wave displacements through a medium as a displacement field including a spatial component and a temporal component. A directional filter (206, 208) filters the displacement field to provide a directional displacement field. A signal processing device (26) is coupled to the memory to execute a boundary estimator (214) to estimate a tissue boundary in a displayed image based upon a history of the directional displacement field accumulated over time.

Shear waves are detected with ultrasound. The detection of the shear wave is constrained using prior measurements in a more controlled environment (e.g., less noise). For example, shear waves measured in a phantom are used to constrain the detection of shear waves in a patient to avoid false positive detections.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: an ultrasonic probe for transmitting a first ultrasonic beam BM1 to biological tissue in a subject; a transmission control section for transmitting an ultrasonic beam for generating shear waves in the biological tissue from the ultrasonic probe to the biological tissue while applying steering to the beam; and a region-defining section for defining a region in an ultrasonic image of the subject, wherein the transmission control section transmits the first ultrasonic beam while applying steering to the beam by setting transmission parameters such that the first ultrasonic beam travels closest to and outside of the region.

Methods and systems relate to correcting one-dimensional (1D) shear wave data of an anatomical structure. The methods and systems obtaining a 1D shear wave data from an ultrasound probe of the anatomical structure. The methods and systems adjust a velocity or a pressure of the 1D shear wave data based on the correction model to form adjusted 1D shear wave data. The adjustment of the velocity or the pressure of the 1D shear wave data is based on weights applied to the 1D shear wave data from hidden layers of the correction model. The methods and systems generate a 1D shear wave image based on the adjusted 1D shear wave data.

Methods for determining a mechanical parameter for a sample having a target region include generating a tissue displacement in the target region; transmitting tracking pulses in the target region; receiving corresponding echo signals for the tracking pulses in the target region at a plurality of positions; analyzing the echo signals at one or more multi-resolution pairs of the positions and/or acquisition times; and determining at least one mechanical parameter of the target region based on the echo signals at the one or more multi-resolution pairs of positions and/or acquisition times.

Sparse tracking is used in acoustic radiation force impulse imaging. The tracking is performed sparsely. The displacements are measured only one or a few times for each receive line. While this may result in insufficient information to determine the displacement phase shift and/or maximum displacement over time, the resulting displacement samples for different receive lines as a function of time may be used together to estimate the velocity, such as with a Radon transform. The estimation may be less susceptible to noise from the scarcity of displacement samples by using compressive sensing.

Circuitry for ultrasound devices is described. A multilevel pulser is described, which can provide bipolar pulses of multiple levels. The multilevel pulser includes a pulsing circuit and pulser and feedback circuit. Symmetric switches are also described. The symmetric switches can be positioned as inputs to ultrasound receiving circuitry to block signals from the receiving circuitry.

A system for delivering ultrasound energy to an internal anatomical target includes an ultrasound transducer having multiple transducer elements collectively operable as a phased array; multiple driver circuits, each being connected to at least one of the transducer elements; multiple phase circuits; a switch matrix selectably coupling the driver circuits to the phase circuits; and a controller configured for (i) receiving as input a target average intensity level and/or an energy level energy to be applied to the target and/or a temperature level in target, (ii) identifying multiple sets of the transducer elements, each of the sets corresponding to multiple transducer elements for shaping and/or focusing, as a phased array, ultrasound energy at the target across tissue intervening between the target and the ultrasound transducer, and (iii) sequentially operating the transducer-element sets to apply and maintain the target average energy level at the target. In various embodiments, the controller operates each of the transducer element sets in accordance with a pulse-width modulation pattern having a duty cycle selected to achieve the target average intensity level, energy level, and/or temperature level at the target in accordance with a time constant of the target tissue.

A method of acquiring an image of a body by an array of ultrasonic transducers connected in rows and columns. The method includes: performing N successive shots of the same ultrasonic wave in the direction of the body, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; and after each shot, implementing a reception phase of a return ultrasonic wave reflected by the body, where, during each of the reception phases, an electrical variable quantity representative of the received wave is read on each row electrode of the device, and where, between any two of the N reception phases, the sign of the individual contribution of at least one elementary ultrasonic transducer of the array is modified.