Duke University

Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc.

Nicholas Bottenus

Gregg E Trahey

Peter J Hollender

Willie J Long

Kutay F Ustuner

David Bradway

Vaibhav Kakkad

James Long

An ultrasound system is disclosed. Embodiments in accordance with the present invention include a transducer configured to acquire pulse-echo data at each transmit frequency bandwidth of interest. In addition, a bandpass filter is configured to receive a signal of the pulse-echo data, wherein the signal is bandpass-filtered over a plurality of frequencies. Further, a processor is configured to calculate a spatial coherence of the bandpass-filtered signal. The spatial coherence of the signal is calculated in a spatial domain or a frequency domain. The spatial coherence is used to predict target conspicuity. The processor selects a preferred frequency based on and, preferably, to realize, the target conspicuity.

Adaptive selection of ultrasound frequency

A method for ultrasound imaging a target region including: (a) transmitting a tracking beam from at least a subset of the elements of the array to the region, each of the subset of the elements emitting a signal of the tracking beam with a respective transmission time shift; (b) receiving echo signals at at least some of the subset of the elements of the array, each echo signal being responsive to the tracking beam; (c) applying the time shift to at least some of the subset of the respective elements to the echo signals received at corresponding elements; (d) modifying the time shift and repeating (a)-(c) to provide an ultrasound dataset representing a recovered source element domain; (e) focusing and beamforming the dataset to map time signals of the dataset and combine channel signals to provide spatial pixel data; and (f) forming an ultrasound image from the spatial pixel data.

Systems and methods for intra-beam compounding for ultrasound imaging

Methods of triggering an imaging acquisition of a target region in an ultrasound transducer include: acquiring a first type of ultrasound data with the ultrasound transducer using a first type of ultrasound acquisition; analyzing the first type of ultrasound data to identify an acquisition time and/or position having characteristics that increase an estimated amount of image quality metrics in the target region for a second type of ultrasound acquisition; and generating a signal to initiate acquiring a second type of ultrasound data by the ultrasound transducer at the identified acquisition time and/or position using a second type of ultrasound acquisition in response to the identified acquisition time and/or position identified from the first type of ultrasound data.

Methods, systems and computer program products for triggering ultrasound data acquisition

Methods for determining a mechanical parameter for a sample having a target region include generating a tissue displacement in the target region; transmitting tracking pulses in the target region; receiving corresponding echo signals for the tracking pulses in the target region at a plurality of positions; analyzing the echo signals at one or more multi-resolution pairs of the positions and/or acquisition times; and determining at least one mechanical parameter of the target region based on the echo signals at the one or more multi-resolution pairs of positions and/or acquisition times.

Methods, systems and computer program products for multi-resolution imaging and analysis

Acoustic reciprocity between transmit and receive is used for coherence ultrasound imaging. Rather than finding coherence across the receive channels, coherence is found across transmit channels. Broad transmit beams are used for different transmit elements or apertures to create beamformed frames of data. The coherence between these transmit channel frames of beamformed data is calculated and used for imaging.

Growing community of inventors

Durham, NC, United States of America

Nicholas Bottenus