An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is described which utilizes one or more transducer arrays affixed to the head of a patient to diagnose and treat stroke victims. The transducer headset produces a two or three dimensional image of the vasculature inside the cranium, preferably assisted by a microbubble contrast agent. A vascular flow map is produced by the system which may be diagnosed for signs of a blood clot. If a blood clot is detected, a therapeutic beam is transmitted while the contrast agent is present to break up the blood clot by the disruption of microbubbles. The headset may also be used in a monitoring application to detect the recurrence of blood clots in a stroke victim.

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured: to generate a piece of reflected-wave data by performing a phased addition process while using reflected-wave signals generated by transmitting an ultrasound wave with respect to mutually the same scanning line; to speculate a degree of saturation of the reflected-wave signals observed before the phased addition process on the basis of a relationship between signals and noise in a data sequence represented by a set made up of pieces of the reflected-wave data; and to output a result of the speculation. The processing circuitry is configured to cause a display to display data based on the result of the speculation.

While 3D ultrasound imaging is becoming a powerful tool in medical field. the main drawback is the difficulty to image large 3D volume. mainly related to the dimensions of the 2D array of transducers. In order to not lose in spatial resolution, it is necessary to use an array of transducers. wherein the size of the transducers does not exceed the wavelength of the ultrasound wave. Such requirement leads to dimensions of array for imaging large 3D volume which are not reachable or at too high cost with the current technology. The present disclosure overcomes the above technology limitation by using greater transducers, and where each transducer has a reception surface with a curved shape or is fitted with an acoustic lens. Such configuration of transducers leads to 2D array of transducers suitable for imaging large 3D volume, as a brain or a heart. with high resolution and high sensitivity.

A method and system for generating arbitrary ultrasonic waveforms using a tri-state transmitter. Three variants of the device are described to provide functionality in three usage scenarios.

An ultrasound signal processing device that generates, for each detection wave, a first complex Doppler signal sequence through quadrature detection of a reception signal sequence; generates tissue velocity data by calculating velocity values for each set of coordinates of observation points in a region of interest from the first complex Doppler signal sequence; generates a second complex Doppler signal sequence by performing clutter removal filter processing on the first complex Doppler signal sequence; generates first velocity data by calculating velocity values for each set of coordinates of the observation points from the second complex Doppler signal sequence; and generates, for each set of coordinates of the observation points, second velocity data based on the first velocity data and the tissue velocity data, and third velocity data by applying a correction to velocity values of the second velocity data that have an absolute value equal to or less than a threshold.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a transmitter, a receiver and a hardware processor. The transmitter outputs a drive signal for a C-mode image to an ultrasound probe. The receiver obtains a reception signal from the probe. The processor sets at least one mask in a frame of packet data of the reception signal; calculates a covariance matrix from a plurality of packet data included in the mask; calculates an eigenvector for the mask from the covariance matrix; calculates a first filter coefficient for the packet data by using the eigenvector and a gain matrix; performs interpolation on the first filter coefficient to calculate a second filter coefficient for packet data of each position in the frame; filters the packet data of the position by using the second filter coefficient; and generates C-mode image data from the filtered packet data.

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is described which quantifies regurgitant flow through a mitral valve, including the automatic indication of the location of a regurgitant orifice in an ultrasound image. A clinician images the regurgitant valve and indicates in the image the presumed location of the regurgitant orifice (130). A flow quantification processor is responsive to this initial location estimate by the clinician to calculate a refined estimation of the orifice location. The refined location is indicated on the ultrasound image by the imaging system, either by relocating an icon placed by the clinician, or displaying a second icon (132) on the image at the refined location.

Described here are systems and methods for imaging blood flow in a subject's vasculature, which may include small blood vessels, using ultrasound without the need for a contrast agent. A locally implemented low-rank matrix decomposition is used together with adaptive cutoff values to provide noninvasive ultrasound blood flow imaging capable of imaging the subject's vasculature with very high spatial and temporal resolution, and without the administration of contrast agents such as microbubble contrast agents. Thus, in some instances the systems and methods can be used to image blood flow in small vessels and tissue microvasculature with high spatial and temporal resolution.

A Doppler measurement system includes a random generator outputting a control signal encoding a random selection, and an ultrasonic array transducer for emitting a sequence of transmit pulses at a target at either an adjustable steering angle (plane wave imaging) or from a selectable non-sequential transducer element order (synthetic aperture imaging) corresponding to the random selection and for receiving an echo of each transmit pulse reflected from the target. Each transmit pulse is independently adjusted to a steering angle (plane wave imaging) or selectable transducer element order (synthetic aperture imaging) corresponding to a unique random selection so that the sequence of transmit pulses is a random sweep. The system can also include a memory for storing echo data, and a processor connected to the memory for using transmit data and echo data to extract a Doppler parameter. Methods of Doppler measurement and computer-readable medium can incorporating the measurement system.

Methods of ultrasound imaging, some of which comprise: generating one or more transmit beams towards a target region; defining one or more reception phase centers (defined reception phase centers), and for each of the one or more defined reception phase centers defining one or more reception boresights (defined reception boresights); for each of the one or more defined reception phase centers, for each of the one or more defined reception boresights, generating two or more receive beams using a probe (26) comprising a transducer array (30), wherein each of the two or more receive beams uses the corresponding defined reception phase center and the corresponding defined reception boresight, and wherein each of the two or more receive beams is associated with a different and distinct beam pattern; for each receive beam, producing beamformed range-gate data; and processing the beamformed range-gate data, said processing comprising, for at least one of the one or more defined reception phase centers, for at least one of the one or more defined reception boresights: for one or more range-gates, computing one or more variability features and/or one or more derivative/slope features (the variability features and derivative/slope features are collectively referred to as clutter suppression features), being functions of the beamformed range-gate data associated with at least one of the two or more receive beams, wherein a variability feature for a range-gate is an estimate of the variability of the signal received by the different elements of transducer array (30) for the range-gate, and wherein a derivative/slope feature for a range-gate is an estimate of a function of spatial derivatives of the signal received by the different elements of transducer array (30) for the range-gate, wherein the spatial derivatives are applied along one or more axes of the probe (26) and/or along the range axis; and for each of the one or more range-gates, computing a metric value, wherein the metric value depends on values of one or more of the one or more clutter suppression features for the range-gate.