Motion detection using ping-based and multiple aperture doppler ultrasound

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11826204-B2
Application number	US-201916298767-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2019
Priority date	Dec 1, 2011
Publication date	Nov 28, 2023
Grant date	Nov 28, 2023

Abstract

A method of full-field or “ping-based” Doppler ultrasound imaging allows for detection of Doppler signals indicating moving reflectors at any point in an imaging field without the need to predefine range gates. In various embodiments, such whole-field Doppler imaging methods may include transmitting a Doppler ping from a transmit aperture, receiving echoes of the Doppler ping with one or more separate receive apertures, detecting Doppler signals and determining the speed of moving reflectors. In some embodiments, the system also provides the ability to determine the direction of motion by solving a set of simultaneous equations based on echo data received by multiple receive apertures.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of imaging a moving object with Doppler ultrasound, comprising:
providing a multiple aperture ultrasound probe comprising a first transmit aperture, a first receive aperture, a second receive aperture, and an imaging field that comprises a plurality of pixels, wherein each of the plurality of pixels comprises a first acoustic path to the first receive aperture and a second acoustic path to the second receive aperture;
computing a plurality of adjustment factors for the first acoustic path and the second acoustic path for each of the plurality of pixels;
transmitting a first unfocused spherical ultrasound wavefront pulse from the first transmit aperture towards the moving object;
receiving echoes of the first unfocused spherical ultrasound wavefront pulse at the first receive aperture;
receiving echoes of the first unfocused spherical ultrasound wavefront pulse at the second receive aperture; and
computing an object velocity vector at one or more of the plurality of pixels based on the received echoes at the first and second receive apertures and one or more of the plurality of adjustment factors.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the plurality of adjustment factors further comprises:
calculating a first angle between the first transmit aperture and the first acoustic path for each of the plurality of pixels; and
calculating a second angle between the first transmit aperture and the second acoustic path for each of the plurality of pixels.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: computing a direction of the object velocity vector.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising computing a magnitude of the object velocity vector.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a magnitude of the object velocity vector is calculated by taking half the sum of the magnitudes of a first velocity measurement and a second velocity measurement; the first velocity measurement taken along a first acoustic path bisecting an angle between the first receive aperture, one of the plurality of pixels, and the second receive aperture; and the second velocity measurement taken along a second acoustic path from the first transmit aperture to one of the plurality of pixels, to the second receive aperture.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving a user input indicating an axis of predominant motion of the moving object.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising: displaying at least one color to indicate motion along the indicated axis of predominant motion.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising: automatically analyzing a plurality of measured velocity vectors to identify at least one axis of predominant motion.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first unfocused spherical ultrasound wavefront pulse is configured to insonify an entire region of interest.

Assignees

• Maui Imaging Inc

Inventors

• Specht Donald F
• Brewer Kenneth D
• Smith David M
• Call Josef R
• Le Viet Nam
• Ritzi Bruce R

Classifications

• A61B8/488 Primary

  involving Doppler signals · CPC title

• A61B8/4444

  related to the probe · CPC title

• A61B8/4488

  the transducer being a phased array · CPC title

• A61B8/461

  Displaying means of special interest · CPC title

• A61B8/5207

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