Duke University

Willie J Long

Gregg E Trahey

Nicholas Bottenus

Peter J Hollender

Vaibhav Kakkad

David Bradway

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

An ultrasound system that includes a transducer configured to acquire ensemble channel/echo data and a filter bank configured to receive the echo data from the transducer, wherein the echo data is passed through a plurality of clutter filters within the filter bank to realize a plurality of echo data outputs. A processor calculates a spatial coherence value from each of the plurality of echo data outputs, compares the spatial coherence values of each filter, and selects the filter that yields a best spatial coherence for subsequent velocity estimation used to generate an output image for clinical use, where the best spatial coherence value is a highest and best spatial coherence value among the set of spatial coherence values.

Spatial coherence feedback for adaptive clutter filtering

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.

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Durham, NC, United States of America

Willie J Long