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:
Feb. 14, 2006
Filed:
Apr. 08, 2002
George a Brock-fisher, Andover, MA (US);
David M Prater, Andover, MA (US);
George A Brock-Fisher, Andover, MA (US);
David M Prater, Andover, MA (US);
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
The method of the invention controls an ultrasound system to identify a boundary between a tissue region and a blood-filled region that lies within an ROI. The method initially administers a contrast agent to the region of interest and then transmits first and second ultrasound beams at a different power levels into the ROI. Signal returns from the first and second beams are processed to derive first and second digital values, respectively. It has been determined that, under certain circumstances, a phase change of echo returns occurs at the boundary between tissue and blood-containing contrast agent. Detection of the phase change enables precise identification of the boundary, based upon the time segment in which the phase change is detected. Accordingly, time segment values of the first and second stored digital values are then phase-compared to enable determination of a boundary location between the tissue region and the blood-filled region by detection of the phase change.