Systems and methods for improving soft tissue contrast, characterizing tissue, classifying phenotype, stratifying risk, and performing multi-scale modeling aided by multiple energy or contrast excitation and evaluation are provided. The systems and methods can include single and multi-phase acquisitions and broad and local spectrum imaging to assess atherosclerotic plaque tissues in the vessel wall and perivascular space.

An apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a first obtaining unit configured to obtain an ultrasound image generated by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from an object, a display control unit configured to control a display unit to display the ultrasound image, a second obtaining unit configured to obtain a photoacoustic signal generated by receiving photoacoustic waves generated from light irradiated to the object, and a saving control unit configured to obtain information representing a save instruction given when the ultrasound image is being displayed, and configured to save in a storage unit the ultrasound image corresponding to a time point of the save instruction and information derived from the photoacoustic signal based on the information representing the save instruction.

An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes a position detector, and control circuitry. The position detector detects a position in a three-dimensional space of one of an ultrasonic image and an ultrasonic probe. The control circuitry uses a vivisection view defined in a three-dimensional space. The control circuitry associates a structure related to a subject included in the ultrasonic image with a structure included in the vivisection view using a position and orientation in a first three-dimensional coordinate system of the structure related to the subject included in the ultrasonic image and a position and orientation in a second three-dimensional coordinate system of the structure included in the vivisection view.

An operation method of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes executing one or more imaging series of steps with an ultrasound transducer; and applying a polarization processing to the ultrasound transducer one or more of before, after, and interleaved between the one or more imaging series of steps, where the polarization processing is separate from the one or more imaging series of steps.

Various approaches for computationally characterizing tissue in an anatomic target region include generating multiple sonications to transient acoustic reflectors at or proximate to the target region; measuring reflection signals of the sonications off the transient acoustic reflectors; based on the measurements, identifying the reflection signals originating from single transient acoustic reflectors; and based at least in part on the identified reflection signals, generating a digital map including a tissue characteristic.

An ultrasonic method for quantifying the nonlinear shear wave elasticity of a medium, the method comprising the following steps: A1.—collecting a temporal succession of shear wave elasticity data from the medium, A2.—applying, to the medium, a deformation that successively changes according to a predetermined sequence of deformations, during the collection of the shear waves, A3.—observing the actual evolution of deformation, and B.—quantifying the nonlinear elasticity of the medium depending on the temporal succession of data and the evolution of deformation.

Imaging devices, systems, and methods are provided. Some embodiments of the present disclosure are particularly directed to imaging a region of interest in tissue with photoacoustic and ultrasound modalities. In some embodiments, a medical sensing system (100) includes a measurement apparatus (102) configured to be placed within a vascular pathway. The measurement apparatus may include a sensor array (106) comprising two or more sensor modalities. The sensor array may be configured to receive sound waves created by the interaction between emitted optical pulses and tissue, transmit and receive ultrasound signals, and rotate around a longitudinal axis of the measurement device. The medical sensing system may also include a processing engine operable to produce images of the region of interest and a display configured to visually display the image of the region of interest.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasound probe, an image generation unit that generates an ultrasound image on which a breast of a subject is captured by performing transmission and reception of an ultrasound beam by using the ultrasound probe for the subject, a schema image generation unit that generates a schema image on which a region of interest is plotted based on a synthesized two-dimensional image generated by using a series of radiation images obtained by tomosynthesis imaging and on which the breast of the subject is captured, information on a tomosynthesis image accompanying the synthesized two-dimensional image and corresponding to the region of interest on the synthesized two-dimensional image, and information on the region of interest, and a monitor that displays the ultrasound image, the synthesized two-dimensional image, and the schema image.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus (1) includes an ultrasound probe (2), an image generation unit (22) that generates an ultrasound image including a region of interest of a breast of a subject captured in a radiation image, an image adjustment unit (27) that adjusts the radiation image and the ultrasound image such that the region of interest captured in the ultrasound image and the region of interest captured in the radiation image have an identical orientation on the basis of radiation image orientation information stored in a tag of the radiation image and probe orientation information of the ultrasound probe (2) in a case where the ultrasound image is captured, and a monitor (24) that displays the radiation image and the ultrasound image that have been adjusted by the image adjustment unit (27).

A pulse signal corresponding to rotation of an imaging core is input, and a repetition frequency of the input pulse signal is converted in accordance with the number of radially-aligned lines of an ultrasound tomographic image. Based on the pulse signal of which the repetition frequency has been converted, a drive signal for an ultrasound transceiver is generated to obtain an ultrasound tomographic image with the number of lines. A valid pulse is determined in accordance with the number of lines from the pulse signal of which the repetition frequency has been converted. A signal having a pulse train selected, based on the valid pulse from a pulse signal representing a cycle of a light source of light for interfering with the light from an optical transceiver is generated as a pulse signal representing a timing of sampling of an optical coherence signal for generating an optical tomographic image.