The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 24, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 22, 1999
Peter Lysyansky, Haifa, IL;
Ilan Lifshitz, Zichron Yaqcov, IL;
Nahi Halmann, Haifa, IL;
Alex Sokulin, Haifa, IL;
G.E. Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC, Waukesha, WI (US);
Abstract
A system and method for accumulating ultrasound information from a region of interest during a storage period are disclosed. The accumulated ultrasound information is then processed during a post-storage operation to provide a number of various and selectable analysis and display modes. Ultrasound echo signal data comprising, for example, a complete set of raw RF signal samples (or the quadrature signals I & Q) are accumulated in a cinescan memory during a storage period for multiple range positions along one or more scan lines covering a region of interest. Line interleaving and multi-line acquisition techniques may be employed in data accumulation. The accumulated echo signal data is processed during a post-storage operation to provide a number of various and selectable analysis and display modes. During the post-storage playback operation, any known signal processing and data manipulation techniques, which have conventionally been carried out in real-time during a scanning session, may be employed. The various known parameters of signal processing and data manipulation may be selectably modified during post-storage playback to optimize the displayed output. For example, in an off-line playback mode, the system operator may select any scan line and Doppler gate location and width within the region of interest for spectral Doppler analysis or for color M-mode analysis. The system operator may also manually set and reset one or more beam/vessel angles during the off-line playback mode to provide quantitative velocity color mapping. Other parameters such as spectrum scale, Doppler dynamic range, Doppler gain, baseline and color mapping may also be modified during off-line playback. Other known signal processing operations such as noise suppression, filtering, low intensity rejection and/or fixed target canceling may be performed, and the parameters thereof adjusted, during the post-storage operation.