A61B8/54

Ultrasound imaging system and method

An ultrasound imaging system for acquiring ultrasound images of an anatomical feature of interest in a subject, comprising a controller operable by a user and configured to: process input ultrasound images to extract anatomical data; determine a set of constraints to be applied to the ultrasound images, the constraints being spatial, temporal and/or of image quality, derived from the extracted anatomical data and/or on user input; monitor the ultrasound images, as they are received, for determining their compliance with the determined constraints; and output an indication based on the determined compliance. The user can adapt the imaging process using the feedback of these indications, and can decide to stop the process based on satisfactory indications.

Ultrasound probe, control method of ultrasound probe, and ultrasound probe inspection system
11712227 · 2023-08-01 · ·

An ultrasound probe includes a housing; a transducer array housed in the housing; a transmission/reception unit which is housed in the housing, transmits ultrasonic wave from the transducer array, and generates a sound ray signal on the basis of a reception signal acquired by the transducer array; an image information data generation unit which is housed in the housing, and generates image information data on the basis of the sound ray signal generated by the transmission/reception unit; a wireless communication unit which is housed in the housing, and wirelessly transmits the image information data generated by the image information data generation unit; a light emission unit which is housed in the housing, and emits light to an outside of the housing; and a light emission control unit which is housed in the housing, and causes the light emission unit to emit light in synchronization with a transmission timing of the ultrasonic wave by the transmission/reception unit in a case of a manufacturing inspection.

ULTRASONIC METHOD FOR QUANTIFYING THE NONLINEAR SHEAR WAVE ELASTICITY OF A MEDIUM, AND DEVICE FOR IMPLEMENTING THIS METHOD

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.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMMEDIATE IMAGE QUALITY FEEDBACK

An apparatus (1) for providing image quality feedback during a medical imaging examination includes at least one electronic processor (20) programmed to: receive a live video feed (17) of a display (6) of an imaging device controller (4) of an imaging device (2) performing the medical imaging examination; extract a preview image (12) from the live video feed; perform an image analysis (38) on the extracted preview image to determine whether the extracted preview image satisfies an alert criterion; and output an alert (30) when the extracted preview image satisfies the alert criterion as determined by the image analysis.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REDUCING INTERFERENCE BETWEEN MRI APPARATUS AND ULTRASOUND SYSTEMS
20230024998 · 2023-01-26 ·

Approaches for performing magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of an anatomic region in conjunction with an ultrasound operation on the anatomic region include transmitting multiple ultrasound waves or pulses having a fundamental frequency and multiple harmonics to the anatomic region; transmitting an MR pulse sequence to the anatomic region and receiving, therefrom, MR signals within a band of frequencies; and causing the band of frequencies to be located between two adjacent frequencies of the harmonics.

SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR ULTRASOUND ACQUISITION WITH ADAPTIVE TRANSMITS
20230025182 · 2023-01-26 ·

Methods and systems are provided for dynamically selecting ultrasound transmits. In one example, a method includes dynamically updating a number of transmit lines and/or a pattern of transmit lines for acquiring an ultrasound image based on a prior ultrasound image and a task to be performed with the ultrasound image, and acquiring the ultrasound image with an ultrasound probe controlled to operate with the updated number of transmit lines and/or the updated pattern of transmit lines.

APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR CONFIGURING ULTRASOUND DEVICES

Ultrasound devices are disclosed. The ultrasound devices have an elevational dimension. Different percentages of the aperture of the ultrasound device corresponding to different percentages of the elevational dimension are utilized in different applications. The resolution of imagine may be adjusted in connection with usage of different percentages of the aperture.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING COLOR DOPPLER IMAGES FROM SHORT AND UNDERSAMPLED ENSEMBLES

An ultrasound imaging system may acquire short and/or undersampled radiofrequency ensembles for generating color Doppler images. The ultrasound imaging system may process the short and/or undersampled ensembles to simulate color Doppler images acquired from long radiofrequency ensembles. In some examples, the ultrasound imaging system may include a neural networks to process the ensembles. In some examples, the neural network may include two serial neural networks. In some examples, during training of the neural network, a power Doppler-based flow mask may be used on the output of the neural network. In some examples, during training of the neural network, an adversarial loss may be used on the output of the neural network.

Ultrasound 3D imaging system

The present invention related to an ultrasound imaging system win which the scan head includes a beamformer circuit that performs far field subarray beamforming or includes a sparse array selecting circuit that actuates selected elements. When using a hierarchical two-stage or three-stage beamforming system, three dimensional ultrasound images can be generated in real-time. The invention further relates to flexible printed circuit boards in the probe head. The invention furthermore related to the use of coded or spread spectrum signaling in ultrasound imagining systems. Matched filters based on pulse compression using Golay code pairs improve the signal-to-noise ratio thus enabling third harmonic imaging with suppressed sidelobes. The system is suitable for 3D full volume cardiac imaging.

ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD OF ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS
20230225708 · 2023-07-20 · ·

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.