Ultrasonic characterization of non-linear properties of tissue

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11638574-B2
Application number	US-202016814912-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2020
Priority date	Apr 11, 2019
Publication date	May 2, 2023
Grant date	May 2, 2023

Abstract

Systems and methods for performing diagnostic sonography. Ultrasound information of a subject region can be collected. The ultrasound information can be based on one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses transmitted toward the subject region and backscatter of the subject region from the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses. One or more corresponding harmonic responses and a corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses can be separated from the ultrasound information. Further, one or more non-linear properties of the subject region can be identified based on either or both of the one or more corresponding harmonic responses and the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for performing diagnostic sonography comprising:
transmitting, via an ultrasound transducer, one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses toward a subject region;
receiving, via the ultrasound transducer, backscatter of the subject region from the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses, wherein the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses are defined by the equations:
x ⁡ ( t ) ⁢ e i ⁢ 2 ⁢ π ⁢ f 1 a ⁢ ( e at - 1 ) , θ( f )= A ( f log( f )− f )−( A log f 1 −T start ) f,

where

a
=

ln
⁡
(

f
1

f
2

)

T

,

A
=

T

ln
⁢

f
2

f
1

,

f 1 is a start frequency of an exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulse,
f 2 is a stop frequency of the exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulse,
T is a pulse duration of the exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulse, and
T start is a pulse start time of the exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulse;

collecting, using one or more processors, ultrasound information of the subject region from the backscatter;
processing, using the one or more processors, the ultrasound information to generate one or more images;
separating, using the one or more processors from the ultrasound information, one or more corresponding harmonic responses and a corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses;
identifying, using the one or more processors, one or more non-linear properties of the subject region based on either or both of the one or more corresponding harmonic responses and the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses; and
generating, using the one or more processors, a map of the one or more non-linear properties of the subject region across the subject region.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject region includes in-vivo tissue.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more non-linear properties of the subject region include one or more B/A parameters of the subject region.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising separately filtering the corresponding fundamental response and the one or more corresponding harmonic responses for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses from the backscatter as part of separating the one or more corresponding harmonic responses and the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses from the ultrasound information.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising canceling out the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses from the backscatter to identify the one or more corresponding harmonic responses for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses from the backscatter as part of separating the one or more corresponding harmonic responses and the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses from the ultrasound information.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising applying pulse inversion to cancel out the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses from the backscatter.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
correlating the one or more corresponding harmonic responses with the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses to generate correlated harmonic and fundamental response information; and
identifying the one or more non-linear properties of the subject region based on the correlated harmonic and fundamental response information.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more corresponding harmonic responses are correlated with the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses based on a corresponding time offset between each of the one or more corresponding harmonic responses and the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the correlated harmonic and fundamental response information includes a plurality of ultrasound images of the subject region superimposed with respect to each other by one or more corresponding spatial offsets, the method further comprising:
determining the one or more corresponding spatial offsets from the correlated harmonic and fundamental response information; and
identifying the one or more non-linear properties of the subject region based on the one or more corresponding spatial offsets.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
applying coherent data averaging between the one or more corresponding harmonic responses and the corresponding fundamental response for each of the one or more exponentially swept ultrasound chirp pulses to generate averaged harmonic and fundamental response information; and
identifying the one or more non-linear properties of the subject region based on the averaged harmonic and fundamental response information.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more non-linear properties of the subject region are identified as part of bulk non-linear property estimates for the subject region.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject region is a volume region, the method further comprising identifying the one or more non-linear properties across the volume region.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the ultrasound information is generated across the volume region by one or more volumetric-based ultrasound transducers.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more non-linear properties of the subject region are identified as part of bulk non-linear property estimates for the volume region.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the subject region is a volume of tissue and the one or more non-linear properties are properties of the volume of tissue.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the volume of tissue includes at least one of fatty liver tissue, Cirrhotic liver tissue, Thyroid cancer tissue, Prostate cancer tissue, and Breast cancer tissue.

17. A system for performing diagnostic sonography comprising:
an ultrasound transducer

Assignees

• Shenzhen Mindray Biomedical Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Mclaughlin Glen W
• Gee Albert

Classifications

• A61B8/483

  involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data · CPC title

• A61B8/5223 Primary

  for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data (for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012) · CPC title

• A61B8/5207

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image · CPC title

• A61B8/085

  for locating body or organic structures, e.g. tumours, calculi, blood vessels, nodules · CPC title

• G01S7/52026

  Extracting wanted echo signals (Doppler systems G01S15/50; Doppler short range imaging systems G01S15/8979) · CPC title