Ultrasound imaging device and system, and image enhancement method for contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11737734-B2
Application number	US-202016849958-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2020
Priority date	Oct 16, 2017
Publication date	Aug 29, 2023
Grant date	Aug 29, 2023

Abstract

An ultrasound imaging device and system, and an image enhancement method for ultrasound radiography and imaging. Image enhancement coefficients of location points in a examined biological tissue are computed first according to radiography channel data, and then, weighted processing is performed on the image enhancement coefficients and beam forming data.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An image enhancement method for contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging, comprising:
obtaining contrast-enhanced channel data, wherein, an ultrasound probe is configured to transmit ultrasound waves to an examined biological tissue containing contrast agents and receive ultrasound echo signals to obtain the contrast-enhanced channel data, each receiving element of multiple receiving elements of the ultrasound probe is configured to receive the ultrasound echo signals to obtain a piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data, the multiple receiving elements of the ultrasound probe are configured to receive the ultrasound echo signals to obtain multiple pieces of the contrast-enhanced channel data, and the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to one location point in the biological tissue;
calculating an image enhancement coefficient at the one location point in the examined biological tissue according to the contrast-enhanced channel data, the image enhancement coefficient being indicative of correlations among the multiple pieces of the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the multiple receiving elements;
performing a beam-forming on the contrast-enhanced channel to obtain a beam-formed data at the one location point; and
performing weighting processing on the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data to obtain contrast-enhanced image data corresponding to the one location point in the examined biological tissue.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the image enhancement coefficient at the one location point in the examined biological tissue according to the contrast-enhanced channel data comprises:
calculating a correlation between each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data, and determining the image enhancement coefficient according to the correlations.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein calculating the correlation between each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data comprises:
performing an envelope detection on each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data to obtain envelope data, and calculating the correlation between each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data according to the envelope data, wherein the envelope detection comprises an envelope detection at a power; or
calculating the correlation between each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data directly using the contrast-enhanced channel data; or
performing a phase detection on each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data to obtain phase data, and calculating the correlation between each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data according to the phase data; or
performing a Fourier transform on each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data to obtain frequency domain data, and calculating the correlation between each piece of the contrast-enhanced channel data according to the frequency domain data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the weighting processing on the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data comprises: multiplying the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data corresponding to the one location point.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: after obtaining the contrast-enhanced channel data, performing time delay processing on the contrast-enhanced channel data.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: before obtaining the contrast-enhanced channel data:
performing time delay processing on the ultrasound echo signals to obtain time-delayed data; and
extracting contrast-enhanced channel data representing contrast agent information from the time-delayed data.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the weighting processing on the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data to obtain the contrast-enhanced image data corresponding to the one location point in the examined biological tissue comprises:
performing the weighting processing on the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data to obtain weighted image data comprising multiple weighted images respectively corresponding to multiple angles of using the ultrasound probe; and
performing coherent compound processing on the multiple weighted images to obtain the contrast-enhanced image data by compounding the multiple weighted images.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein,
obtaining the contrast-enhanced channel data using the ultrasound probe comprises:
obtaining contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the multiple angles of using the ultrasound probe, wherein, the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the multiple angles are derived from ultrasound echo signals of the ultrasound waves transmitted to the examined biological tissue by the ultrasound probe in the multiple angles, and, when transmitting in each angle of the multiple angles, the multiple receiving elements of the ultrasound probe are configured to receive the ultrasound echo signals corresponding to an angle of the multiple angles to obtain multiple pieces of the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the one location point in the examined biological tissue in the angle; and

performing the weighting processing on the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data to obtain the weighted image data and performing the coherent compound processing on the multiple weighted images to obtain the contrast-enhanced image data comprises:
obtaining the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data corresponding to the one location point in the angle according to the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the one location point in the angle, performing the weighting processing on the image enhancement coefficient and the beam-formed data corresponding to the one location point in the angle to obtain a weighted image corresponding to the one location point in the angle, obtaining the multiple weighted images corresponding to the multiple angles, and performing the coherent compound processing on the multiple image data corresponding to the multiple angles to obtain the contrast-enhanced image data by compounding the multiple weighted images.

9. An image enhancement method for contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging, comprising:
transmitting ultrasound waves to a region of interest containing contrast agents;
receiving echoes of the ultrasound waves to obtain echo signals;
extracting contrast-enhanced channel data according to the echo signals, wherein multiple pieces of the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to one time point are received through multiple receiving elements of an ultrasound probe to obtain contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the time point;
calculating an image enhancement coefficient according to the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the time point;
obtaining beam-formed data according to the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the time point; and
adjusting the beam-formed data according to the image enhancement coefficient to obtain contrast-enhanced image data.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein adjusting the beam-formed data according to the image enhancement coefficient comprises: multiplying the beam-formed data by the image enhancement coefficient.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the image enhancement coefficient is indicative of correlations among multiple pieces of the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the multiple receiving elements of the ultrasound probe.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein calculating the image enhancement coefficient corresponding to the time point according to the contrast-enhanced channel data corresponding to the time point comprises:
performing an e

Assignees

• Beijing Shen Mindray Medical Electronics Tech Research Institute Co Ltd
• General Hospital Of Chinese Pla
• Shenzhen Mindray Biomedical Electronics Co Ltd
• Beijing Shen Mindray Med Elec Tech Res Inst Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Xirui
• Tang Jie
• Luo Yukun
• Zhang Mingbo
• Sang Maodong
• Xiang Lanxi
• Qin Donghai
• Fan Wei

Classifications

• G06T5/90

  Dynamic range modification of images or parts thereof · CPC title

• A61B8/481 Primary

  involving the use of contrast agents, e.g. microbubbles introduced into the bloodstream · CPC title

• G06T5/007

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T5/50

  using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title