Adaptive weighting for adaptive ultrasound imaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12025754-B2
Application number	US-202117406502-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2021
Priority date	Oct 10, 2018
Publication date	Jul 2, 2024
Grant date	Jul 2, 2024

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for performing ultrasound imaging. Channel domain data can be received from an ultrasound transducer to form one or more channel domain data sets. A first ultrasound processing operation can be applied to the channel domain data to generate a first subset of one or more images from the one or more channel domain data sets. A second ultrasound processing operation can be applied to the channel domain data to generate a second subset of one or more images from the one or more channel domain data sets. Image characteristics of the first subset of one or more images and the second subset of one or more images can be regionally analyzed to identify regional image characteristics of the first and second subsets of one or more images. The first subset of one or more images can be blended with the second subset of one or more images based on the regional image characteristics to generate one or more composite images.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, from an ultrasound transducer, channel domain data to form one or more channel domain data sets;
applying an ultrasound processing operation to at least a portion of the channel domain data using a first variable that modifies the ultrasound processing operation to generate a first subset of one or more images from the one or more channel domain data sets;
applying the ultrasound processing operation to at least a portion of the channel domain data using a second variable that modifies the ultrasound processing operation to generate a second subset of one or more images from the one or more channel domain data sets;
analyzing one or more image characteristics of a first plurality of regions of the first subset of one or more images and a second plurality of regions of the second subset of one or more images; and
generating one or more composite images from the one or more channel domain data sets by blending regions of the first plurality of regions and the second plurality of regions that optimize the one or more image characteristics, wherein the first variable and second variable are different and include different coherent combination coefficients or different coherent transmit coefficients.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein values of the coherent transmit coefficients are selected to suppress one or more side-lobes of the transmit profile.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more image characteristics include one or a combination of noise clutter level, detail resolution, contrast resolution, temporal resolution, spatial resolution, penetration, and mean variance.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising coherently processing the first subset of one or more images and the second subset of one or more images before analyzing the one or more image characteristics of the first plurality of regions of the first subset of one or more images and the second plurality of regions of the second subset of one or more images.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein coherently processing the first subset of one or more images and the second subset of one or more images comprises either or both non-linear signal extraction and synthetic aperture filtering.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
backend processing the one or more composite images to generate one or more backend processed composite images; and
displaying the one or more backend processed composite images on a display.

7. A system for performing ultrasound imaging comprising:
one or more processors; and
a computer-readable medium providing instructions accessible to the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from an ultrasound transducer, channel domain data to form one or more channel domain data sets;
applying an ultrasound processing operation to at least a portion of the channel domain data using a first variable that modifies the ultrasound processing operation to generate a first subset of one or more images from the one or more channel domain data sets;
applying the ultrasound processing operation to at least a portion of the channel domain data using a second variable that modifies the ultrasound processing operation to generate a second subset of one or more images from the one or more channel domain data sets;
analyzing one or more image characteristics of a first plurality of regions of the first subset of one or more images and a second plurality of regions of the second subset of one or more images; and
generating one or more composite images from the one or more channel domain data sets by blending regions of the first plurality of regions and the second plurality of regions that optimize the one or more image characteristics, wherein the first variable and second variable are different and include different coherent combination coefficients or different coherent transmit coefficients.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein values of the coherent transmit coefficients are selected to suppress one or more side-lobes of the transmit profile.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more image characteristics include one or a combination of noise clutter level, detail resolution, contrast resolution, temporal resolution, spatial resolution, penetration, and mean variance.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
coherently processing the first subset of one or more images and the second subset of one or more images before analyzing the one or more image characteristics of the first plurality of regions of the first subset of one or more images and the second plurality of regions of the second subset of one or more images.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein coherently processing the first subset of one or more images and the second subset of one or more images comprises either or both non-linear signal extraction and synthetic aperture filtering.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
backend processing the one or more composite images to generate one or more backend processed composite images; and
displaying the one or more backend processed composite images on a display.

Assignees

• Shenzhen Mindray Biomedical Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Mclaughlin Glen W
• Gee Albert
• Napolitano David J

Classifications

• G01S15/8997 Primary

  using synthetic aperture techniques · CPC title

• G01S7/52095

  using multiline receive beamforming · CPC title

• G01S15/8993

  Three dimensional imaging systems · CPC title

• G01S7/52047 Primary

  for elimination of side lobes or of grating lobes; for increasing resolving power · CPC title

• A61B8/5207 Primary

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