Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Thanasis Loupas

Charles Tremblay-Darveau

Paul Sheeran

William Tao Shi

Shiying Wang

James Robertson Jago

Hua Xie

Claudia Errico

Liang Zhang

Sheng-Wen Huang

Jeffry E Powers

Shriram Sethuraman

David Hope Simpson

Keith William Johnson

Changhong Hu

Robert Gustav Trahms

Sibo Li

Truong Huy Nguyen

Earl M Canfield, Ii

Shannon Renee Fox

Allison Arden Daniels

Systems and methods for multi-level vascular imaging for construction and display of vasculature from large to small vessels and micro-vessels using a combination of varying resolution contrast enhanced ultrasound flow imaging modalities are disclosed. While one or more resolution flow imaging modes may be employed for imaging large to small vessels of a vascular tree within a large region of interest, a high resolution mode, such as super resolution imaging, constructed for delineation of the microvascular morphology and directional microcirculation is provided within one or more small ROIs placed in selected locations within the larger ROI.

Systems and methods for vascular imaging

Systems and methods for time-varying two-dimensional (2D) color maps for visualizing images or sequences of images are disclosed. The 2D color map may include brightness values of a hue corresponding to different intensities that changes over time. In some 2D color maps, the hue used for the intensity scale may change over time while the brightness of a pixel may not. In some 2D color maps, both the hue and the brightness may change relative to intensity over time.

Systems and methods for color mappings of contrast images

User feedback on acquisition of ultrasound data may be provided to a user. The feedback may indicate a quality of the acquisition and/or the reliability of the measurements calculated from the ultrasound data, for example, the volume flow measurements calculated from Doppler data. Various quality factors such as a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), motion, Doppler angle, vessel size, vessel depth, and/or variance in velocity values may be determined to provide an indication of quality of the acquisition. The quality factors may be provided individually or in combination. In some examples, one or more quantitative values of the quality factors may be provided. In some examples, one or more qualitative indications of the quality of the acquisition may be provided.

Apparatuses, systems and methods for providing acquisition feedback

Systems and methods for preprocessing three dimensional (3D) data prior to generating inverted renders are disclosed herein. The preprocessing may include segmenting the 3D data to remove portions of the data associated with noise such that those portions do not appear in the generated render. The segmentation may include applying a mask to the 3D data. The mask may be generated by sorting data points in the 3D data set into a first set or a second set. In some examples, the 3D data may be filtered prior to generating the mask. In some examples, the mask may be adjusted based on feature recognition. The preprocessing may allow the visualization of hypoechoic regions of interest in a volume.

Methods and systems for segmentation and rendering of inverted data

A particular sequence of ultrasound transmissions and corresponding echo receptions enables the production of Amplitude Modulated (AM) and Amplitude Modulated Phase Inverted (AMPI) signals that are temporally balanced. Temporal balancing significantly reduces tissue artifacts caused by movement of tissue during acquisition of the ultrasound echoes. Additionally, in combining the selected echo signals to produce the AM5 and AMPI signals, and optionally a Phase Inverted (PI) signal, each of the echo signals is equally weighted to facilitate an amplitude balance that avoids different echoes affecting the produced AM, AMPI, and PI signals differently.

Temporally balanced multi-mode master imaging sequence for ultrasonic contrast imaging

In some examples, color Doppler data may be separated into luminance data and chrominance data. The luminance data may be modified without modifying the chrominance data. In some examples, the luminance data may be adjusted based, at least in part, on power Doppler data. The adjusted luminance data may be recombined with the chrominance data to provide augmented color Doppler data. In some examples, the power Doppler data may be enhanced by filtering, for example, by applying a Frangi vesselness filter, prior to being used to adjust the luminance data of the color Doppler data.

Systems and methods for vascular rendering

Aspects of the present disclosure provide ultrasound systems and devices that provide for reduction of reverberation artifacts in ultrasound images by automatically changing imaging settings such as PRI or transmit/receive configuration based on detected amounts of reverberation in ultrasound images. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor circuit in communication with an ultrasound probe. The processor circuit obtains a plurality of ultrasound images obtained using a plurality of different PRIs and/or pulse sequences, calculates an amount of reverberation artifacts in each of the plurality of ultrasound images, selects a pulse repetition interval and/or pulse sequence based on the amounts of reverberation artifacts in each of the plurality of ultrasound images, and controls the ultrasound transducer to obtain a reduced-reverberation ultrasound image using the selected pulse repetition interval or pulse sequence. The reduced-reverberation ultrasound image is then output to a display.

Reduction of reverberation artifacts in ultrasound images and associated devices, systems, and methods

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

An ultrasound imaging system for needle insertion guidance uses a curved array transducer to scan an image field with unsteered beams as a needle is inserted into the image field. Due to differences in the angle of incidence between the radially directed beams and the needle, echoes will return most strongly from only a section of the needle. This section is identified in an image, and the angle of incidence producing the strongest returns is identified. Beams with this optimal angle of incidence are then steered in parallel from the curved array transducer to produce the best needle image. The steep steering angles of some of the steered beams can give rise to side lobe clutter artifacts, which can be identified and removed from the image data using dual apodization processing of the image data.

Ultrasound imaging system providing needle insertion guidance

The present disclosure describes imaging systems configured to generate index information to indicate which image frames in a plurality of image frames include one or more target anatomical features, such as a head or femur of a fetus. The confidence levels of the presence of the target anatomical features are also determined. The system may be configured to determine if the target anatomical feature is present in an image frame by implementing at least one neural network. Merit levels based on the quality of the image frames may also be determined. Measurements of the one or more items of interest may be acquired. Visual representations () of the index information (), confidence levels, merit levels, and/or measurements may be provided via a user interface. A user interface may receive user inputs based on the visual representations to navigate to specific image frames () of the plurality of image frames.

Systems and methods for frame indexing and image review

An ultrasound system produces persisted images in response to both persistence coefficients and noise bias coefficients. The persistence coefficients control the degree of persistence, which reduces noise variance by persistence processing. The noise bias coefficients are produced in correspondence with the likelihood that an image pixel is noise, and operate to reduce the noise floor of the persisted images. A single user control enables a user to control both the noise variance and the noise level of images in tandem or, alternatively, dedicated controls can become available to adjust noise variance and noise level separately.

Growing community of inventors

Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Thanasis Loupas