The invention is based on speed changes of sound/ultrasound pulses and a fixed detecting depth between a transducer and sampling points to collect information of the detecting depth and/or a velocity of motionless and/or moving objects from the sampling points to construct two-dimension or three-dimension images of the sampling points. By taking advantages of a pulse ultrasound and a continuous ultrasound, a method of coded sound pulses can simultaneously collect the information of the detecting depth and the velocity from the sampling points, which improves imaging quality. Calculating a speed of the moving objects by simultaneously detecting time-of-flight (TOF) and TOF shift at same site from two separated piezoelectric (PZT) elements improves testing results with accuracy, simplification and reproducibility. An aliasing can be rectified based on the TOF and the TOF shift.

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.

A method includes receiving ultrasound echo signals produced in response to a pulsed ultrasound field interacting with anatomical tissue and flow of structure therein. The method further includes generating electrical signals indicative thereof. The method further includes beamforming the electrical signals producing beamformed data. The method further includes constructing a real-time image of the anatomical tissue with the beamformed data. The method further includes constructing a de-aliased color images of the flow with the beamformed data. The method further includes visually presenting the real-time image of the anatomical tissue with the de-aliased color images of the flow superimposed thereover.

During transmission, a speed of sound pulses gradually reduces due to acoustic impedance. Regulating a length or a density or a sound speed of the sound pulses affects their average speed in the transmitting medium, sound intensity and detecting depth. Time of flight (TOF) and TOF shift can be used to calculate the depth and moving speed of detecting objects. Calculating a speed of moving objects by simultaneously detecting TOF shift at same site from two separated piezoelectric (PZT) elements improves the testing results with accuracy, simplification and reproducibility. Coding sound pulses to obtained the TOF and the TOF shift will simultaneously calculate the depth and the moving speed of sampling points, which can be used to construct 2D and 3D images for these motionless and/or moving sampling points. Coded sound pulses also improves the quality of the imaging.

A method in accordance with the present disclosure may include transmitting a plurality of ultrasound pulses toward a medium from a transducer array, wherein the plurality of ultrasound pulses includes a sequence of a Doppler burst (10-1, 10-2) comprising a plurality of unfocused first pulses (12) and a B-mode burst comprising one or more second pulses (13). The method may further include detecting echoes responsive to the transmitted sequence, wherein the detecting includes simultaneously detecting, within a field of view, FOV, of the array, a set (14-1, 14-2) of first echoes responsive to the plurality of unfocused first pulses (12), generating Doppler data from signals representative of the set (14-1, 14-2) of first echoes, generating B-mode image data from signals representative of echoes responsive to the one or more second pulses (13), and simultaneously displaying the Doppler data and B-mode image data.

The invention is based on speed changes of sound/ultrasound pulses and a fixed detecting depth between a transducer and sampling points to collect information of the detecting depth and/or a velocity of motionless and/or moving objects from the sampling points to construct two-dimension or three-dimension images of the sampling points. By taking advantages of a pulse ultrasound and a continuous ultrasound, a method of coded sound pulses can simultaneously collect the information of the detecting depth and the velocity from the sampling points, which improves imaging quality. Calculating a speed of the moving objects by simultaneously detecting time-of-flight (TOF) and TOF shift at same site from two separated piezoelectric (PZT) elements improves testing results with accuracy, simplification and reproducibility. An aliasing can be rectified based on the TOF and the TOF shift.

A method includes receiving ultrasound echo signals produced in response to a pulsed ultrasound field interacting with anatomical tissue and flow of structure therein. The method further includes generating electrical signals indicative thereof. The method further includes beamforming the electrical signals producing beamformed data. The method further includes constructing a real-time image of the anatomical tissue with the beamformed data. The method further includes constructing a de-aliased color images of the flow with the beamformed data. The method further includes visually presenting the real-time image of the anatomical tissue with the de-aliased color images of the flow superimposed thereover.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes: an ultrasound probe; a transmission and reception unit that transmits an ultrasound beam from the ultrasound probe toward a subject, receives an ultrasound beam reflected from the subject, and processes a received signal output from the ultrasound probe to generate received data; a complex data generation unit that generates first complex data including amplitude information and phase information by orthogonally detecting the received data generated by the transmission and reception unit using a first center frequency and a first cutoff frequency and generates second complex data by orthogonally detecting the same data as the received data using a second cutoff frequency and a second center frequency lower than the first center frequency; a B-mode processing unit that generates a B-mode image using amplitude information of at least one of the first complex data or the second complex data; a phase difference calculation unit that calculates a first phase difference between frames using phase information of the first complex data and calculates a second phase difference between frames using phase information of the second complex data; a phase difference correction unit that corrects the first phase difference using the second phase difference; and a displacement amount calculation unit that calculates an amount of displacement of a measurement target tissue of the subject using the corrected first phase difference.

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 object of the invention is to provide an ultrasonic imaging device that has a function of setting an optimal velocity range and baseline as initial settings for a target blood flow at the start of spectral Doppler. A control unit that controls transmission and reception of an ultrasonic imaging device performs a first blood flow measurement for acquiring a two-dimensional distribution of blood flow information, and a second blood flow measurement for acquiring a spectrum of a blood flow velocity. A calculation unit that performs Doppler calculation includes: a blood flow velocity estimation unit that estimates a blood flow velocity causing no aliasing, and a measurement condition calculation unit that calculates a measurement condition of the second blood flow measurement by using the blood flow velocity causing no aliasing. The control unit starts the second blood flow measurement under the measurement condition calculated by the measurement condition calculation unit.