Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Philips Image Guided Therapy Corporation

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.v.

David Hope Simpson

Francois Guy Gerard Marie Vignon

Jun Seob Shin

Andrew Hancock

Seungsoo Kim

Sheng-Wen Huang

Robert Gustav Trahms

Vijay Thakur Shamdasani

Earl M Canfield

Keith William Johnson

Liang Zhang

Yiqun Yang

Hua Xie

Jean-Luc Francois-Marie Robert

David W Clark

Shiying Wang

Unmin Bae

Anup Agarwal

Xiaowen Hu

James Robertson Jago

Jeffry E Powers

Gary Cheng-How Ng

Thanasis Loupas

Matthew Bruce

Changhong Hu

Douglas Maxwell

Michael Schauf

Peter N Burns

Earl M Canfield, Ii

Cyrille Villet

Improved ultrasound imaging devices and methods of operating the devices that minimize grating lobe artifacts in an ultrasound image are provided. For example, an ultrasound imaging system analyzes the ultrasound data at different frequency bands and generates a grating-lobe-minimized image based on minimum signals identified for each pixel among the plurality of frequency ranges. In one embodiment, an ultrasound imaging system includes an ultrasound transducer array configured to obtain ultrasound data, and a processor in communication with the ultrasound transducer array. The processor is configured to receive the ultrasound data, generate an ultrasound image based on a first frequency range of the ultrasound data, generate a grating-lobe-minimized ultrasound image based on a plurality of second frequency ranges of the ultrasound data, combine the ultrasound image and the grating-lobe-minimized ultrasound image to generate a combined ultrasound image, and output the combined ultrasound image to a display.

Grating lobes reduction for ultrasound images and associated devices, systems, and methods

An intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging system includes an IVUS imaging device positionable within a blood vessel. The IVUS imaging device includes a circumferential array of acoustic elements. The system includes a processor circuit. The processor circuit controls the circumferential array to emit ultrasound pulses. The ultrasound pulses include a first pulse emitted by a first subset of the circumferential array and a second pulse emitted by a second subset of the circumferential array. The second pulse occurs immediately after the first pulse. The first subset and the second subset are circumferentially spaced from one another around the circumferential array. The second subset is outside of a line of sight of first ultrasound echoes associated with the first ultrasound pulse. The processor circuit generates an IVUS image based on the ultrasound pulses and outputs the IVUS image to a display.

Systems, devices, and methods for reducing reverberation signals in intravascular ultrasound imaging

Systems, devices, and methods for ultrasonic imaging by sparse sampling are provided. In one embodiment, an ultrasound imaging system comprises an array of ultrasound transducer elements, electronic circuitry in communication with the array of ultrasound transducer elements and configured to select a first receive aperture of the array comprising a plurality of contiguous ultrasound transducer elements and at least one non-contiguous ultrasound transducer element, and a beamformer in communication with the electronic circuitry. Each ultrasound transducer element of the first receive aperture is configured to receive reflected ultrasound echoes and generate an electrical signal representative of imaging data. The beamformer is configured to receive the electrical signals generated by the first receive aperture and apply different weight to the electrical signals generated by the contiguous ultrasound transducer elements and the electrical signal generated by the at least one non-contiguous ultrasound transducer element.

Ultrasonic imaging by sparse sampling and associated devices, systems, and methods

An ultrasound system according to some embodiments may include an ultrasound transducer configured to transmit ultrasound pulses toward tissue and generate echo signals responsive to the ultrasound pulses, a channel memory configured to store the echo signals, a beamformer configured to generated beamformed signals responsive to the echo signals, a neural network configured to receive one or more samples of the echo signals or the beamformed signals and produce a first type of ultrasound imaging data, and a processor configured to generate a second type of ultrasound imaging data, wherein the one or more processors may be further configured to generate an ultrasound image based on the first type of ultrasound imaging data and the second type of ultrasound imaging data and to cause a display communicatively coupled therewith to display the ultrasound image.

Ultrasound imaging system with a neural network for deriving imaging data and tissue information

An ultrasound imaging system transmits two beams in succession in the same beam direction, the waveform of the second beam being a phase inverted form of the first waveform, and each waveform containing first and second major frequency components. Echoes are received from along the beam direction in response to each beam transmission, and are processed by additively and subtractively combining the two echo sequences on a common depth basis. The echo components resulting from this processing extend from high frequencies for good near field resolution to low frequencies for good depth penetration, and include fundamental, harmonic, and sum or difference frequency components. The linear and nonlinear echo signal components may be frequency compounded for speckle reduction.

Ultrasound imaging system for high resolution wideband harmonic imaging

A system for visualization and quantification of ultrasound imaging data according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include a display unit, and a processor communicatively coupled to the display unit and to an ultrasound imaging apparatus for generating an image from ultrasound data representative of a bodily structure and fluid flowing within the bodily structure. The processor may be configured to estimate axial and lateral velocity components of the fluid flowing within the bodily structure, determine a plurality of flow directions within the image based on the axial and lateral velocity components, differentially encode the flow directions based on flow direction angle to generate a flow direction map, and cause the display unit to concurrently display the image including the bodily structure overlaid with the flow direction map.

Systems and methods for automatic detection and visualization of turbulent blood flow using vector flow data

Ultrasound imaging systems and methods for generated clutter-reduced images are provided. For example, an ultrasound imaging system can include an array of acoustic elements in communication with a processor. The processor is configured to activate the array to perform a scan sequence to obtain a plurality of signals, identify off-axis signals from the plurality of signals by comparing the right subaperture and the left subaperture, and create a clutter-reduced image based on the comparison. Because off-axis signals are more likely to create image clutter, reducing the influence of off-axis signals on the image can therefore improve the quality of the image. Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems, methods, and devices for generating ultrasound images that have reduced or minimized clutter, even for images obtained using arrays that do not satisfy the Nyquist criterion.

Clutter reduction for ultrasound images and associated devices, systems, and methods

The present disclosure describes imaging systems configured to generate index information to indicate which image frames in a plurality of image frames include one or more target anatomical features, such as a head or femur of a fetus. The confidence levels of the presence of the target anatomical features are also determined. The system may be configured to determine if the target anatomical feature is present in an image frame by implementing at least one neural network. Merit levels based on the quality of the image frames may also be determined. Measurements of the one or more items of interest may be acquired. Visual representations () of the index information (), confidence levels, merit levels, and/or measurements may be provided via a user interface. A user interface may receive user inputs based on the visual representations to navigate to specific image frames () of the plurality of image frames.

Systems and methods for frame indexing and image review

Improved ultrasound imaging devices and methods of using the devices are provided. An intraluminal imaging device is configured process imaging data obtained using a single imaging sequence in different processing paths to generate B-mode and flow images. For example, an ultrasound imaging system includes an ultrasound imaging device comprising an array of acoustic elements and a processor in communication with the array. The processor activates the array of acoustic elements to acquire ultrasound data using a sequence of transmit-receive pairs, generates a B-mode image using the acquired ultrasound data, forms a plurality of sub-apertures comprising a portion of the transmit-receive pairs, groups the sub-apertures into temporally-spaced ensembles, determines a flow estimate based on a comparison of at least one of sub-apertures within an ensemble, ensembles within an aperture, or different apertures, and outputs a graphical representation of the B-mode image and the flow estimate to a display.

Devices, systems, and methods for multimodal ultrasound imaging

Ultrasound imaging system, devices, and methods for minimizing grating lobe artefacts in an ultrasound image are provided. For example, an ultrasound imaging system can include an array of acoustic elements and a processor in communication with the array. The processor controls the array to activate a plurality of apertures and subapertures in a scan sequence, generate an image comprising a plurality of pixels, identify at least one subaperture of the plurality of subapertures corresponding to a reduced signal value for one or more pixels of the image, and generate a grating-lobe-minimized image based on the identified subapertures. The grating-lobe-minimized image can be output to a display or combined with the original ultrasound image to include image features lost or reduced in the grating-lobe-minimized image. The grating-lobe-minimized image advantageously reduces image artefacts and clutter to simplify ultrasound image analysis and diagnosis procedures.

Grating lobe artefact minimization for ultrasound images and associated devices, systems, and methods

A method of power Doppler imaging may include receiving a plurality of temporally sequential frames of wall-filtered power Doppler signals, wherein the plurality of temporally sequential frames includes at least one previously adjusted output frame. The method may further include adjusting at least one of the plurality of temporally sequential frames to produce an adjusted output frame and generating a power Doppler image based, at least in part, on the adjusted output frame. The adjusting may involve filtering the plurality of temporally sequential frames to suppress the high spatial frequency and high temporal frequency content to produce the adjusted output frame.

Power doppler imaging system and method with improved clutter suppression

Aspects of the invention include ultrasound systems that suppress grating lobe artifacts arising due to high frequency operation of an array transducer probe which is operated at a frequency higher than its pitch limitation.

Ultrasonic imaging with multi-scale processing for grating lobe suppression

Systems, methods, and devices that perform flow scan sequences are provided. In one embodiment, an ultrasound imaging system includes an intraluminal catheter or guidewire, an annular array of acoustic elements positioned around a circumference of the catheter or guidewire, and a processor in communication with the annular array. The processor is configured to activate a first subaperture of the annular array at a first time, thereafter, activate a second interleaving subaperture, and activate the first subaperture again at a different, second time such that the scan sequence moves around the circumference of the catheter or guidewire. Temporal differences between the received ultrasound signals obtained by the first subaperture at the first and second times are determined to detect motion around the annular array. By interleaving subaperture firings, the total number of firings to form an image frame can be reduced.

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Bothell, WA, United States of America

David Hope Simpson