General Electric Company

Michael J Harsh

Anne Lindsay Hall

Michael J Washburn

Lewis Jones Thomas, Iii

William Thomas Hatfield

David John Muzilla

Mir Said Seyed-Bolorforosh

Todd Michael Tillman

David D Becker

A method and an apparatus for three-dimensional imaging of ultrasound data by constructing projections of data from a volume of interest. An ultrasound scanner collects B-mode or color flow images in a cine memory, i.e., for a multiplicity of slices. A multi-row transducer array having a uniform elevation beamwidth is used to provide reduced slice thickness. The data from a respective region of interest for each of a multiplicity of stored slices is sent to a master controller, such data forming a volume of interest. The master controller performs an algorithm that projects the data in the volume of interest onto a plurality of rotated image planes using a ray-casting technique. The data for each projection is stored in a separate frame in the cine memory. These reconstructed frames are then displayed selectively by the system operator. Segmentation of three-dimensional projection images is enhanced by decreasing the thickness and increasing the resolution (i.e., decreasing the point spread function) of the two-dimensional slices from which the projections are derived. The slice thickness is decreased by increasing the elevational focus of the beam. The two-dimensional resolution is increased by opening the aperture, i.e., decreasing the f-number, and by increasing the band-width.

Method and apparatus for enhancing segmentation in three-dimensional

A color flow processor has a fuzzy logic processor for determining when an adaptive wall filter can be turned off in response to the condition wherein flow signal will be treated as wall signal. The fuzzy logic processor uses details of wall velocity and power, as well as variance, to determine whether the measured echo signal component to be filtered truly represents the wall velocity only. The general rule applied by the fuzzy logic processor would be that if the wall velocity is LOW and the wall variance is LOW and the wall power is HIGH, than the adaptive filter is turned ON, where LOW and HIGH are fuzzy values. Use can be made of information from previous states, either temporally or spatially, allowing the system to adapt itself to each study or over time.

Method for controlling adaptive color flow processing using fuzzy logic

A phased array sector scanning ultrasonic imaging system includes a transducer array with 2N separate transducer elements and a transmitter and receiver with N separate channels. The complete 2N element aperture is realized at each beam angle with two firings of the transmitter and the receipt of echo signals from two different sets of N transducer elements. The echo signals from the two firings are coherently summed to form a single receive beam. Two different patterns are provided for selecting which transducer elements to energize and receive from during each of the two firings.

Phased array sector scanner with multiplexed acoustic transducer elements

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Waukesha, WI, United States of America

Michael J Harsh