Various approaches for generating an ultrasound focus at a target region and receiving signals therefrom using an ultrasound transducer having multiple transducer elements include acquiring multiple images of the target region and one or more path zones located on beam paths between the transducer elements and the target region; determining one or more tissue characteristics associated with the target region based on the acquired images; determining multiple profile parameters associated with each of the transducer elements based at least in part on the determined tissue characteristic; based at least in part on the profile parameters, operating at least first ones of the transducer elements to collectively transmit an ultrasound beam to the target region so as to create a focus thereon with desired properties; and based at least in part on the profile parameters, operating at least second ones of the transducer elements to receive acoustic signals from the target region and, in response thereto, adjusting operation of the at least first ones of the transducer elements to thereby improve the focus at the target region.

A system for characterizing tissue includes a probe that delivers a continuous and periodic mechanical vibration to a tissue of a subject; an ultrasound emitter that emits a sequence of ultrasound shots and an ultrasound receiver that receives corresponding echo signals to track how the tissue is moved by the periodic mechanical vibration delivered to the tissue; and a control module programmed to provide homogeneity information to an operator of the system, the homogeneity information being determined from at least some of the echo signals and being representative of the ability of the tissue to transmit elastic waves and of the homogeneity of the tissue with respect to the propagation of elastic waves.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a present embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to acquire a contrast image and a vascular structure image which includes the vascular structure in an image acquisition mode capable of capturing the vascular structure. The processing circuitry is configured to extract data indicating the vascular structure from the vascular structure image. The processing circuitry is configured to superimpose the data indicating the vascular structure on the contrast image to generate a superimposed image. The processing circuitry is configured to display the superimposed image on a display.

A measurement and imaging instrument capable of beamforming with high speed and high accuracy without approximate calculation. The instrument includes a reception unit which receives a wave arriving from a measurement object to generate a reception signal; and an instrument main body which performs a lateral modulation while superposing two waves in a two-dimensional case and three or four waves in a three-dimensional case in beamforming processing of the reception signal in which at least one wave arriving from the measurement object is processed as being transmitted or received in the axial direction or directions symmetric with respect to the axial direction to generate a multi-dimensional reception signal, performs Hilbert transform with respect to the multi-dimensional reception signal, and performs partial derivative processing or one-dimensional Fourier transform to generate analytic signals of the multi-dimensional reception signals of the two waves or the three or four waves.

Certain embodiments pertain to cross-amplitude modulation (xAM) ultrasound imaging methods and systems.

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.

This invention provides a system and method for enhancing images acquired by an ultrasound scanner. The system and method employs novel techniques that are compatible with the real-world constraints (i.e. energy levels, duration of exam, geometries involved, etc.) of imaging in mammalian tissue (e.g. tissues of human organs containing lesions/tumors), while providing the dramatically image quality.

This invention provides a system and method for background removal from images acquired by an ultrasound scanner in the presence of molecularly bound contrast agent. The system and method employs novel techniques that are compatible with the real-world constraints (i.e. energy levels, duration of exam, geometries involved, etc.) of imaging in mammalian tissue (e.g. tissues of human organs containing lesions/tumors), while providing the dramatically improved signal clarity required to reliably disambiguate contrast agent from other sources of signal intensity.

This invention provides a system and method for background removal from images acquired by an ultrasound scanner in the presence of molecularly bound contrast agent. The system and method employs novel techniques that are compatible with the real-world constraints (i.e. energy levels, duration of exam, geometries involved, etc.) of imaging in mammalian tissue (e.g. tissues of human organs containing lesions/tumors), while providing the dramatically improved signal clarity required to reliably disambiguate contrast agent from other sources of signal intensity.

A measurement and imaging instrument capable of beamforming with high speed and high accuracy without approximate calculation. The instrument includes a reception unit which receives a wave arriving from a measurement object to generate a reception signal; and an instrument main body which performs a lateral modulation while superposing two waves in a two-dimensional case and three or four waves in a three-dimensional case in beamforming processing of the reception signal in which at least one wave arriving from the measurement object is processed as being transmitted or received in the axial direction or directions symmetric with respect to the axial direction to generate a multi-dimensional reception signal, performs Hilbert transform with respect to the multi-dimensional reception signal, and performs partial derivative processing or one-dimensional Fourier transform to generate analytic signals of the multi-dimensional reception signals of the two waves or the three or four waves.