General Electric Company

Ge Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC

Other

Steven Charles Miller

Anne Lindsay Hall

Larry Y Mo

David Thomas Dubberstein

Bruno Hans Haider

Richard Yung Chiao

Kjell Kristoffersen

William Thomas Hatfield

Larry Y L Mo

Heidi Daoxian Zhang

Gregory A Lillegard

Xiaohui Hao

Michael Richard Moritz

Gilbert M Lima

Robert F Lawrence

Daniel Milon

Michelle Ganiere Angle

Feng Lin

Kenneth Wayne Rigby

Christopher Robert Hazard

Boris Yamrom

Paul Lawrence Mullen

Fang Frank Dong

Theodore Lauer Rhyne

Satchi Panda

Todd Michael Tillman

John E Mahony

Gary E MacLeod

Prakash Parayll Mathew

Brian Peter Geiser

Christopher J Gilling

Dean W Brouwer

Vaishali Vilas Kamat

Yadong Li

Snehal Chandrakant Shah

James D Hamilton

Michael J Horwath

Christopher Todd Ostram

Kok-Hwee Ng

Syed O Ishrak

An ultrasound probe and an ultrasound imaging system include a 2D transducer array including a plurality of transducer elements organized to form a transmit aperture and a receive aperture, where the transmit aperture and the receive aperture do not overlap with each other. The probe and system include a plurality of distribution nodes and a plurality of sets of transmit switches. Each set of transmit switches includes a plurality of transmit switches and each set of transmit switches is associated with a different one of the plurality of transducer elements in the transmit aperture. Each set of transmit switches is configured to selectively connect the associated transducer element to any one of the plurality of distribution nodes when in a continuous-wave Doppler mode.

Ultrasound probe and ultrasound imaging system

An ultrasound probe and an ultrasound imaging system include a plurality of transducer elements arranged in an array. The plurality of transducer elements are organized to form a transmit aperture and a receive aperture. The ultrasound probe and ultrasound imaging system include a plurality of summing nodes. The ultrasound probe and ultrasound imaging system include a set of receive switches associated with each of the transducer elements in the receive aperture. Each set of receive switches is configured to selectively connect the associated transducer element to any one of the plurality of summing nodes.

An ultrasound breast imaging assembly includes first and second compression plates angled with respect to one another, a breast compression area defined between the first and second compression plates, at least one pivot assembly, and an ultrasound probe. The pivot assembly allows relative motion between the first and second compression plates. The ultrasound probe, which is configured to translate over one of the first and second compression plates, includes an active matrix array (AMA) positioned on one of the first and second compression plates.

Ultrasound imaging system with pivoting breast compression plates

Certain embodiments of the present technology provide systems and methods for focusing a two dimensional phased array to perform four dimensional ultrasonic imaging. For example, certain embodiments of the present technology provide an ultrasonic imaging system comprising: a transducer configured to emit ultrasonic beams and detect reflected ultrasonic beams; a transmitter configured to transmit a first ultrasonic beam using a first focusing function and transmit a second ultrasonic beam that has a quadrature relationship to the first ultrasonic beam using a second focusing function; a receiver configured to acquire a first acoustic line based on a reflected first ultrasonic beam using a first focusing function and acquire a second acoustic line based on a reflected second ultrasonic beam using a second focusing function; and a beamformer configured to combine acoustic lines acquired by a receiver to create a beam pattern.

Focusing of a two-dimensional array to perform four-dimensional imaging

A system and method of ultrasound imaging includes a beamformer including a plurality of channels, a two-dimensional transducer array including a plurality of elements, and a plurality of signal pathways linking the plurality of elements to the plurality of channels. The system and method also include a plurality of switches positioned along the plurality of signal pathways. The plurality of switches being configured to actively connect a subset of the plurality of elements to the plurality of channels in order to form a receive aperture. The plurality of switches are further configured to control an aspect ratio of the receive aperture by changing which of the plurality of elements are actively connected to the plurality of channels.

System and method for ultrasound imaging with a configurable receive aperture

A beamformer for an ultrasound system and a method for developing a beamformer are provided. The beamformer includes an RF interface configured to be connected to receiver boards that are connected to a probe. The method includes providing receiver boards, wherein each of the receiver boards is capable of conveying a common number of channels per board and has substantially similar circuit components and layouts. The method also includes selecting a number of channels per probe to be conveyed in parallel between a probe and the receiver boards, wherein the channels per probe is an integer multiple of the channels per board. The method further includes determining a combination of the receiver boards to use in the beamformer based on the number of channels per probe, wherein the receiver boards are capable of being used in at least first and second different combinations that support first and second different numbers of channels per probe.

Ultrasound beamformer with scalable receiver boards

A method of performing a scanning sequence for an ultrasound scan includes establishing a number of ultrasound beams to be transmitted during an ultrasound scan, establishing a pulse repetition interval to be used for performing the ultrasound scan, and establishing a number of firings of each of the ultrasound beams to be performed during the ultrasound scan. The method further includes performing a scanning sequence based on a processing of one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of the number of ultrasound beams, the pulse repetition interval, and the number of firings of the ultrasound beams, wherein the processing of the one or more parameters is configured to provide a continuous interleaving in the transmitted beams thereby avoiding a generation of beam interleaving discontinuities and a formation of artifacts in a resulting image.

Apparatus, system, and method for providing a continuous scanning sequence for ultrasound imaging

Ultrasound breast screening device

A method for correcting a time delay between at least two signals in ultrasound systems is provided. The ultrasound system comprises a beamformer processor comprising a summer coupled to the transducer array and configured for performing a complex operation on a first plurality of receive signals to generate a beamsum signal; wherein each of the receive signals comprise a corresponding beamforming delay and a complex filter coupled to the summer and configured to transform the beamsum signal to an analytical signal. The beamformer processor further comprises a plurality of correlator processors coupled to at least one respective transducer element and the complex filter, each correlator processor configured to calculate a correlation sum for at least one receive signal and at least one time delay estimator adapted to receive the correlation sum of at least one receive signal and configured to estimate the corresponding time delay using the correlation sum.

Time delay estimation method and system for use in ultrasound imaging

A method for operating a medical imaging system is provided. The method includes receiving an image data set of a region of interest in a first dimensional representation, reducing the dimensionality of the image data set to a second dimensional representation, selecting a feature of interest in the second dimensional representation, and generating an image of the selected feature in the first dimensional representation.

Method and apparatus for controlling ultrasound system display

A medical imaging system is provided that includes a plurality of circuit boards configured to be tested using boundary scan test vectors. A controller of the medical imaging system is configured to test the plurality of circuit boards. The controller is further configured to access test profiles to perform boundary scan tests on the plurality of circuit boards based on the test profiles.

Method and apparatus for testing an ultrasound system

A system and method for controlling a medical device is provided such as a medical imaging device. The preferred embodiment of the present invention receives a verbal command for assigning a function of a medical imaging device from an operator. An additional verbal command from the operator assigns an input device to control the function of the selected medical imaging device. A system control and speech recognition processor then assigns the function specified by the verbal command to the input device selected by the additional verbal command. After the function of the medical device is assigned to the input device, the operator may control the selected function of the medical device with the selected input device. The system and method provides for the unobtrusive and hands-free control of discreet and continuous functions of a medical imaging device.

Remote control of a medical device using speech recognition and foot controls

A method of medical ultrasonic imaging is provided. The method includes transmitting a plurality of ultrasonic waves into a volume such that each successive wave is transmitted into the volume at a steering angle different than each preceding transmitted wave, receiving a plurality of ultrasonic echoes for each of the plurality of transmitted ultrasonic waves, each received echo is indicative of a density interface within the volume, each set of received echoes that corresponds to a single transmitted wave defines a steering frame, combining steering frames into a compound image, and identifying distal shadows in each steering frame.

Methods and systems for angular-dependent backscatter spatial compounding

A method of medical ultrasound imaging is provided. The method includes transmitting ultrasound waves into a volume at a first rate, receiving ultrasound echoes for each of the ultrasound waves, each echo is indicative of a density interface within the volume, each set of received echoes that corresponds to a single transmitted wave defines a steering frame, detecting motion of the array transducer, and combining a plurality of steering frames into a compound image based on the detected array transducer motion.

Methods and systems for motion adaptive spatial compounding

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus providing tissue harmonic imaging using an ultrasound machine. Coded pulses and the phase inverted version of the said coded pulses with time bandwidth greater than 1 are transmitted into the tissue. Backscattered echoes are received and filtered before or after coherent summation. Decoding/compressing of the received echoes of the coded pulses is implemented naturally through the propagation of the specially designed ultrawide band (&#x3e;80%) waveforms inside tissue and pulse inversion. Costly decoding/compression filter are not necessary.

Method and apparatus for tissue harmonic imaging with natural (tissue) decoded coded excitation

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Waukesha, WI, United States of America

Steven Charles Miller