General Electric Company

Other

Ge Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC

David John Muzilla

Michael J Washburn

Gary E MacLeod

Sean D Lucas

Anne Lindsay Hall

David D Becker

Richard Yung Chiao

Mir Said Seyed-Bolorforosh

Xiao-Liang Xu

Doralie Martinez

William Thomas Hatfield

Cynthia A Owen

Mir S Seyed-Bolorforosh

Theodore Lauer Rhyne

Todd Michael Tillman

Christopher J Gilling

Patricia A Schubert

Edward D Nonnweiler

Gregory R Bashford

Michael J Harsh

Edgar Joseph Alexander

An ultrasound color flow imaging system is programmed to optimize display images on a display monitor ( ) by automatically adjusting a threshold. B-mode data corresponding to valid color data is subjected to statistical analysis including mean and standard deviation (S ). The threshold is computed according to mean plus k (standard deviation), where k preferably is based on a linear regression equation.

Ultrasound b/color priority threshold calculation

An ultrasound imaging system generating color flow signals in response to ultrasound signals backscattered from a subject under study includes an apparatus for displaying images in response to the color flow signals. The apparatus includes a memory connected to store first memory values in response to the color flow signals; a logic unit connected to determine a dynamic range compression scheme based on an analysis of the first memory values and to generate second memory values based on the dynamic range compression scheme; a display connected to display a color flow image in response to the second memory values; and a network connectivity module coupled to the system to provide communication with a remote facility over a network, the remote facility providing remote services.

Ultrasound color flow display optimization by adjusting dynamic range including remote services over a network

An ultrasound survey frame (SF) is processed in order to determine the portions representing fluid flow. An assembly (,) again rescans only the portions of a subject represented by the portions of the survey frame in which fluid flow was found. Target frames (TF) then are created from the rescanning and are processed in order to provide a color flow image restricted to the portions of the survey frame in which fluid flow is indicated.

Ultrasound color flow adaptive scanning techniques

In performing flow imaging using coded excitation and wall filtering, a coded sequence of broadband pulses (centered at a fundamental frequency) is transmitted multiple times to a particular transmit focal position, each coded sequence constituting one firing. On receive, the receive signals acquired for each firing are supplied to a finite impulse response filter which both compresses and bandpass filters the receive pulses, e.g., to isolate a compressed pulse centered at the fundamental frequency. The compressed and isolated signals are then high pass filtered across firings using a wall filter. The wall-filtered signals are used to image blood flow and contrast agents.

Method and apparatus for flow imaging using coded excitation

An ultrasound color flow imaging system is programmed to optimize display images of power and velocity by automatically adjusting thresholds and data compression by using histograms and samplings of color flow data.

Ultrasound color flow display optimization

An ultrasound imaging system having an adaptive spatial filter the filter coefficients of which, for particular image parameter sample, are determined by counting the number of neighboring image parameter samples having zero or near-zero values. If the number of zero or near-zero values in a data window is greater than a predetermined threshold, the data in the window is passed, not filtered. This filter has two advantages over other spatial filters. First, image parameter data samples having only zero or near-zero neighboring values (i.e., isolated 'point noise') are not smeared. Second, boundaries such as the edge of color in a vessel (where the surrounding area is black, i.e., the color image parameter values are zero or near zero) are not smoothed as much as in conventional filters, preserving the sharpness of the edge.

Method and apparatus for adaptive filtering by counting acoustic sample

Ultrasound color flow display optimization by adjusting dynamic range

An ultrasound color flow imaging system is programmed to optimize display images of power and velocity by automatically adjusting thresholds by using histograms.

Ultrasound color flow display optimization by adjustment of threshold

A method and an apparatus for improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and/or resolution in color flow ultrasound imaging by using complementary-coded excitation of the transducer array. The SNR is improved by transmitting a pair of Golay-coded pulse sequences in alternating sequence at the same transmit focal position over multiple firings and then partly decoding the beamsummed data. The partly decoded data is then vector summed and high pass filtered. The summed and high-pass-filtered data is optionally decimated by a factor of two. The decimated or undecimated data is then input to the parameter estimator, which provides imaging signals representing the flow in a scan plane. Those imaging signals are then displayed as color information on a display monitor.

Method and apparatus for color flow imaging using Golay-coded excitation

An ultrasound color flow imaging system is programmed to optimize display images of power and velocity by automatically adjusting thresholds by using histograms and samplings of color flow data.

An ultrasound color flow imaging system is programmed to operate in an adaptive manner. The operational adjustments are made based on the system gain setting or the transmit packet size or both. Based on these operator inputs, the transmit burst length is adjusted for optimum operation. In addition, the transmit peak amplitude and the bandwidth of the receive filter are adjusted as a function of the burst length adjustment.

Method and apparatus for adaptive color flow optimization

Methods and apparatus for reducing the amount of computation required by nonlinear operations in medical ultrasound imaging by using lower-order polynomials to approximate the nonlinear functions. The method can be applied to envelope detection, phase detection, logarithmic compression and other nonlinear functions. Various pre-processing techniques (e.g., pre-reducing the data range and pre-dividing an entire range of the input into a number of subranges) can optionally be used prior to the polynomial approximation to achieve better accuracy, further reduce the polynomial order, and/or simplify the implementation.

Method and apparatus for polynomial approximation of nonlinear

An ultrasound color flow imaging system is programmed to optimize display images of power and velocity by automatically adjusting thresholds and a color map by using histograms of color flow data.

Ultrasound color flow display optimization by adjusting color maps

A color flow imaging technique uses coded excitation on transmit and pulse compression on receive. Coded excitation allows a long transmit pulse to be compressed on receive such that most energy is concentrated in a short interval. Multiple transmit firings of the same coded pulse sequence are focused at the same transmit focal position with the same transmit characteristics. The receive signals are compressed utilizing matched or mismatched filtering. These techniques can be used to maximize color flow sensitivity in deep-lying regions. Alternatively, for a given transmit acoustic burst length and dosage, the spatial resolution can be improved without compromising sensitivity.

Growing community of inventors

Mukwonago, WI, United States of America

David John Muzilla