An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus 1 includes: a data acquisition unit 3 that repeatedly transmits an ultrasound beam to a subject a plurality of times in a range over a plurality of scanning lines to acquire a time-series data string of reflected waves from the subject; an analysis target data selection unit 7 that estimates the amount of relative positional deviation of a scatterer of the subject which is included in the time-series data string and excludes time-series data satisfying an exclusion condition based on the amount of positional deviation of the scatterer from the time-series data string to select analysis target data; an MTI filter unit 8 that removes a clutter component from the analysis target data; and a blood flow information estimation unit 9 that analyzes the analysis target data from which the clutter component has been removed to estimate blood flow information of the subject.

To uniformly extract a secondary flow based on quantitative calculation even in a complicated blood flow in a heart chamber or a blood vessel. There is provided a secondary flow detection device, including: a degree-of-swirl map calculation unit that obtains a velocity vector map calculated based on an echo signal reflected by an inspection target, calculates, as a value indicating a degree of a spatial change of a velocity vector, a degree of swirl based on the velocity vector map, and calculates, as a degree-of-swirl map, a spatial distribution of an iso-degree-of-swirl line obtained by connecting the degree of swirl of an equal value; a secondary flow candidate extraction unit that extracts, as a secondary flow candidate, an iso-degree-of-swirl line satisfying a predetermined condition among the iso-degree-of-swirl line indicated in the degree-of-swirl map; a feature amount calculation unit that calculates a feature amount of the velocity vector inside the secondary flow candidate; a secondary flow determination unit that determines whether the secondary flow candidate is a desired secondary flow based on the feature amount; and a secondary flow extraction unit that extracts and outputs the secondary flow determined by the secondary flow determination unit.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a flow imaging processing method, which may include determining flow imaging parameters, where the flow imaging parameters include a sound speed for calculation, a center frequency of the transmitting pulse for exciting a probe and a imaging depth; obtaining a velocity measurement range; and determining the first target number of the different transmit angles according to the sound speed for calculation, the center frequency of the transmitting pulse, the imaging depth and the velocity measurement range. The embodiments of the present disclosure also provide an ultrasound imaging device.

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces an image of shear wave velocities by transmitting push pulses to generate shear waves. A plurality of tracking lines are transmitted and echoes received by a focusing beamformer adjacent to the location of the push pulses. The tracking lines are sampled in a time-interleaved manner. The echo data acquired along each tracking line is processed to determine the time of peak tissue displacement caused by the shear waves at points along the tracking line, and the times of peaks at adjacent tracking lines compared to compute a local shear wave velocity. The resultant map of shear wave velocity values is color-coded and displayed over an anatomical image of the region of interest.

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is used to measure volume flow. An ultrasound probe operating in the biplane mode is used to acquire a vessel in a long axis view in a first Doppler image, and simultaneously in a transverse view in a second Doppler image. Volume flow is calculated from the transverse view of the vessel. The plane of the second image is aligned with the Doppler angle of the first image so that angle correction determined for the first image can be used for angle correction in the volume flow calculation.

The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for a flow velocity detection. The method may include obtaining image data; determining, based on the image data, a parameter of at least one detection point, the parameter being related to a phase change; and determining a first flow velocity of the at least one detection point based on the parameter related to the phase change and a location relationship among the at least one detection point, at least one transmission point, and a plurality of receiving points.

The embodiments of the present disclosure disclose an ultrasound imaging method and system, the method may include transmitting a plurality of plane wave ultrasound beams to a scan target and acquiring corresponding plane wave echo signals; transmitting focused ultrasound beams to the scan target and acquiring corresponding focused beam echo signals; acquiring a plurality of velocity components of a target point in the scan target using the plane wave echo signals, and acquiring velocity vectors of the target point according to the plurality of velocity components; acquiring an ultrasound image of the scan target using the focused beam echo signals; and displaying the velocity vector and the ultrasound image.

An ultrasound imaging system may include a probe, a transmitting circuit which may excite the probe to transmit ultrasound beams towards a scanning target in at least three ultrasound propagation directions; a receiving circuit and a beamforming unit which may respectively receive the echoes of the ultrasound beams in the ultrasound propagation directions to obtain the echo signals in each of the ultrasound propagation directions; a data processing unit which may obtain velocity vectors of target points in the scanning target using the echo signals in each of the ultrasound propagation directions and obtain ultrasound images of at least a portion of the scanning target using the echo signals; and a display which may display the velocity vectors and the ultrasound images.

A method includes continuously transmitting, with a transducer array, an ultrasound signal in one direction. The method further includes beamforming, with a beamformer, an echo signal received by the transducer array using on a predetermined apodization function. The echo signal is generated in response to an interaction of the ultrasound signal with flowing structure. The method further includes estimating, with a velocity processor, a vector velocity of the flow, including velocity components, as a function of depth and time from the beamformed echo signals using transverse oscillation vector velocity estimation. The method further includes generating, with a measurement processor, a quantitative measurement from the velocity components. The method further includes visually displaying, with a display monitor, the quantitative measurement.

Apparatus and methods of use are provided for complex flow imaging and analysis that is non-invasive, accurate, and time-resolved. It is particularly useful in imaging of vascular flow with spatiotemporal fluctuations. This apparatus is an ultrasound-based framework called vector projectile imaging (VPI) that can dynamically render complex flow patterns over an imaging view at millisecond time resolution. The VPI apparatus and methods comprise: (i) high-frame-rate broad-view data acquisition (based on steered plane wave firings); (ii) flow vector estimation derived from multi-angle Doppler analysis (coupled with data regularization and least-squares fitting); and (iii) dynamic visualization of color-encoded vector projectiles (with flow speckles displayed as adjunct).