Method and system for selectively smoothing color flow images in an

Abstract

A method (280) and system (128) for selectively smoothing color flow images in a Doppler ultrasound system (100). A set of original digitized ultrasound signals is received for points (m, m-1, m-2) on a beamline (l-1), each point having associated with it a velocity signal (.phi..sub.j), a magnitude of autocorrelation signal (R.sub.i), and a power signal (P.sub.i). A point (X(1,1)) along a beamline is selected for processing. The set of digitized ultrasound signals is applied to a digital filter (152), and the digital filter computes a set of smoothed digitized ultrasound signals by computing an average velocity signal (.phi..sub.av), an average magnitude of autocorrelation signal (R.sub.av), and an average power signal (P.sub.av) of each point in the selected beamline and points in adjacent beamlines. For the selected point along the selected beamline, a selected velocity signal (.phi.(1,1)) is compared to a velocity threshold (V.sub.th), a selected magnitude of autocorrelation signal (R(1,1)) is compared to a magnitude of autocorrelation threshold (R.sub.th), and a selected power signal (P(1,1)) is compared to a power threshold (P.sub.th). Color flow information is computed from the smoothed digitized ultrasound signals when each of the selected velocity signal, the selected magnitude of autocorrelation signal, and the selected power signal is less than the velocity threshold, the magnitude of autocorrelation threshold, and the power threshold, respectively. The color flow information is computed from the set of original digitized ultrasound signals when any one of the selected velocity signal, the selected magnitude of autocorrelation signal, or the selected power signal is greater than or equal to the velocity threshold, the magnitude of autocorrelation threshold, or the power threshold, respectively. The color flow information is overlaid onto an ultrasound image.