Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Philips Image Guided Therapy Corporation

Bfly Operations, Inc.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sheng-Wen Huang

Francois Guy Gerard Marie Vignon

Hua Xie

Ramon Quido Erkamp

Jean-Luc Francois-Marie Robert

Man Nguyen

Jun Seob Shin

Emil George Radulescu

Vijay Thakur Shamdasani

Shougang Wang

Shiying Wang

Shriram Sethuraman

Ajay Anand

Keith William Johnson

Liang Zhang

Juergen Weese

Karl E Thiele

Irina Waechter-Stehle

William Tao Shi

Christian Buerger

David Hope Simpson

Sabine Mollus

Seungsoo Kim

Jean-luc Robert

Shyam Bharat

Ivan Salgo

Faik Can Meral

Carolina Amador Carrascal

Nevada J Sanchez

Jochen Kruecker

Andrew Hancock

David Prater

Shiwei Zhou

Unmin Bae

Changhong Hu

Scott William Dianis

Oudom Somphone

Ameet Kumar Jain

Frederik Jan De Bruijn

James Robertson Jago

Balasundar Iyyavu Raju

Jingping Xu

Brian W Anthony

Harold Agnes Wilhelmus Schmeitz

Jean-Luc Robert

Darwin Philip Adams

Thanasis Loupas

Neil R Owen

Ladislav Jankovic

Yan Shi

Khalid Shahzad

Junbo Li

Douglas Maxwell

Hamid Soleimani

Truong Huy Nguyen

Heng Yang

Leung Kin Chiu

Lea Melki

Muhammad Usman Ghani

Xiaowen Hu

Jean-luc Francois Marie Robert

Tong Nicolas Yu

Jun Soeb Shin

Hua Xiwe

Systems and methods for reducing speckle while maintaining frame rate are disclosed. Multiple sub-images associated with different receive angles are acquired for a single transmit/receive event at an observation angle. The sub-images are compounded to generate a final image with reduced speckle. In some examples, multiple sub-images from multiple transmit/receive events are compounded to generate the final image. The observation angle and/or the receive angles may vary between transmit/receive events in some examples.

Methods and systems for speckle reduction in ultrasound images by compounding sub-images associated with different receive angles

An ultrasound system produces maps of acoustic attenuation coefficients from B mode image signals. A plurality of maps located in different parallel and elevationally separated planes (A, B, C, D, E) are produced, then compounded in the elevation direction. Confidence maps may also be produced for one or more attenuation coefficient maps, and the confidence map displayed or its measures used to determine weighting for the compounding process. The compounding of elevationally separate planes improves attenuation coefficient estimation in the presence of blood vessels affecting the estimates in one or more of the planes.

Ultrasonic imaging of acoustic attenuation coefficients with elevation compounding

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

Beamforming circuitry for an ultrasound device is disclosed, that may directly calculate the position in receive line space for an incoming ultrasound data sample given the time of flight (ToF) of that ultrasound data sample. In some embodiments, this may be done without initially buffering the ultrasound data sample received from the particular receive datapath multiplexed to the beamforming circuitry. The beamforming circuitry may then associate the ultrasound data sample with that position in receive line space, and in particular, with a memory address corresponding to that location. Thus, when the beamforming circuitry multiplexes between different receive datapaths, it may not need to buffer ultrasound data samples from different receive datapaths prior to saving the data to memory.

Methods and apparatuses for beamforming in ultrasound systems using unbuffered data samples

Systems, devices, and methods for performing ultrasound imaging are provided to advantageously determine the viscosity of an anatomy. According to one embodiment, a system for determining a viscosity of an anatomy includes an ultrasound transducer, a vibration source, and a processing system in communication with the ultrasound transducer and the vibration source. The processing system is configured to activate the vibration source to induce in the anatomy a first shear wave at a first frequency and a second shear wave at a second frequency, activate the ultrasound transducer to obtain ultrasound data representative of the anatomy that exhibits the first shear wave and the second shear wave, determine a first wave speed of the first shear wave and a second wave speed of the second shear wave, and determine the viscosity of the anatomy by comparing the first wave speed and the second wave speed.

Shear wave detection of anatomical viscosity and associated devices, systems, and methods

An ultrasound system produces maps of acoustic attenuation coefficients from pulse echo signals. Maps are produced using different attenuation coefficient or slope estimation methods, and a plurality of maps from different estimation methods are compounded to produce a final attenuation coefficient map. Confidence maps may also be produced for one or more attenuation coefficient maps, and the confidence map displayed or its measures used to determine weighting for the compounding process.

Ultrasonic imaging of acoustic attenuation coefficients with confidence estimation

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

The present disclosure describes ultrasound systems configured to enhance flow imaging and analysis by adaptively adjusting one or more imaging parameters in response to acquired flow measurements. Example systems can include an ultrasound transducer and one or more processors. Using the system components, mean flow velocity magnitude and acceleration can be determined within a target region during an acquisition phase, which may include a cardiac cycle. One or more adjusted flow imaging parameters, such as adjusted ensemble length, temporal smoothing filter length and/or step size, can be determined based on the acquired flow measurements to increase the signal quality of newly acquired ultrasound echo signals. The adjusted flow imaging parameters can then be applied by the ultrasound transducer during a second acquisition phase.

Adaptive ultrasound flow imaging

Ultrasound image devices, systems, and methods are provided. An ultrasound imaging system, comprising an array of acoustic elements configured to transmit ultrasound energy into an anatomy and to receive ultrasound echoes associated with the anatomy; and a processor circuit in communication with the array of acoustic elements and configured to receive, from the array, ultrasound channel data corresponding to the received ultrasound echoes; normalize the ultrasound channel data by applying a first scaling function to the ultrasound channel data; generate beamformed data by applying a predictive network to the normalized ultrasound channel data; de-normalize the beamformed data by applying a second scaling function to the beamformed data; generate an image of the anatomy from the beamformed data; and output, to a display in communication with the processor circuit, the image of the anatomy.

Ultrasound imaging with deep learning-based beamforming and associated devices, systems, and methods

A system for performing ablation includes an ablation device () configured to ablate tissue in accordance with control parameters and configured to make measurements during the ablation process. An imaging system () is configured to measure an elastographic related parameter to monitor ablation progress. A parameter estimation and monitoring module () is configured to receive the measurements from the ablation device and/or the elastographic related parameter to provide feedback to adaptively adjust imaging parameters of the imaging device at different times during an ablation process.

System and method for adaptive ablation and therapy based on elastography monitoring

A location device is provided for determining the location of an acoustic sensor. A location process makes use of a plurality of transmit beams (wherein a beam is defined as a transmission from all transducers of an ultrasound array), with a frequency analysis to identify if there is a signal reflected from the acoustic sensor. A location is obtained from the plurality of frequency analyses.

Location device and system for locating an ultrasound acoustic sensor

Systems and methods for improving spectral-shift methods for calculating acoustic attenuation coefficients are disclosed. Systems, methods, and apparatuses for transmitting ultrasound pulse sequences for improved signal-to-noise outside the main passband of ultrasound transducers are disclosed. Systems, methods, and apparatuses for using the echoes from the transmitted pulse sequences to calculate the attenuation coefficient are disclosed.

Ultrasound systems and methods for measuring acoustic attenuation coefficients

The invention provides a method for controlling the generation of a compound ultrasonic image. The method includes obtaining a first ultrasound image and applying adaptive beamforming to the first ultrasound image, thereby generating a second ultrasound image. A weighting is determined based on the first and second ultrasound images, wherein the weighting comprises at least one weighting component. The compound ultrasound image is then generated based on the first and second ultrasound images and the weighting component.

Methods and systems for controlling the generation of a compound ultrasound image

A system for visualization and quantification of ultrasound imaging data 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 generate vector field data corresponding to the fluid flow, wherein the vector field data comprises axial and lateral velocity components of the fluid, extract spatiotemporal information from the vector field data at one or more user-selected points within the image, and cause the display unit to concurrently display the spatiotemporal information at the one or more user-selected points with the image including a graphical representation of the vector field data overlaid on the image, wherein the spatiotemporal information includes at least one of a magnitude and an angle of the fluid flow.

System and method for concurrent visualization and quantification of blood flow using ultrasound

Systems and methods for ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) are described. According to examples, an ultrasound SWE system includes an ultrasound probe (), an actuation assembly () coupled to the probe and configured to apply an external force against a subject for generating a shear wave within a target region, a controller () coupled to the actuation assembly to control the actuation assembly to apply the force responsive to a trigger signal, and ultrasound scanner () configured to generate the trigger signal, and further configured to generate an elastography image based at least in part on echo signals received from the target region.

System and method for ultrasound shear wave elastography using external mechanical vibrations

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Ossining, NY, United States of America

Sheng-Wen Huang