Abstract:
An ultrasonic apparatus for scanning an image field of a subject extending in substantially opposite directions from the middle of said field to lateral extremes of said field with beams of ultrasound which are transmitted and received in a pattern in which the beams are spatially adjacent to each other over said image field. This apparatus has means for minimizing multipath artifacts, comprising means for sequentially transmitting and receiving ultrasonic beams in successive beam directions along which the consecutively transmitted and receive beams are substantially spatially separated, and in an alternate manner. This means may include means for sequentially transmitting and receiving beams in successive beam directions that are divergent from a first beam direction located at a first location in said image field alternately each side of the first beam direction; and/or means for sequentially transmitting and receiving beams in successive beam directions that are convergent from two opposite beam directions alternately towards the center of said image field.
Abstract:
A remotely upgradeable medical diagnostic ultrasound system is described which is upgradeable with a new transducer probe by means of air shipment of the upgrade hardware and remote transmission of upgrade data which controls operation of the probe. The ultrasound system includes a data communicator such as a network link or modem for receiving upgrade data from a remote location. A process for upgrading the system is provided whereby a communications link is established over a common carrier communications medium between the ultrasound system and a remote terminal, which transmits upgrade program data to the ultrasound system. The program data portion of an upgrade is provided via the communications link while the hardware portion of the upgrade is shipped by air freight to the user. In this way, an ultrasound upgrade can be provided to a user from a remote location in a matter of hours.
Abstract:
A medical diagnostic ultrasound system is described in which ultrasonic B mode tissue information and Doppler flow information is acquired from a volumetric region of the body and processed in an interleaved sequence to render a three dimensional image. The three dimensional rendering processes the B mode and Doppler flow information to give priority to tissue information, flow information, or a blend of the two.
Abstract:
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is described which produces ultrasonic breast images by acquiring ultrasonic data from a volumetric region of the breast, then volume rendering the data to produce a projection image from the data set. The diagnostic image reveals diagnostic information of the complete volume of breast tissue in a single ultrasonic image.
Abstract:
A method and apparatus are presented for tracing the border of tissue through temporally acquired scanlines comprising the steps of reducing noise in the scanlines, producing a map of tissue edges from the scanlines, denoting a tissue border to be traced, and using velocity information corresponding to tissue edges to trace the denoted border.
Abstract:
A three dimensional M-mode imaging system and techniques are described for acquiring and forming three dimensional ultrasonic M-mode images from ultrasonic data acquired over time from a stationary scanhead. The resultant images exhibit two spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension.
Abstract:
An array of ultrasonic transducer elements receives signals to form beams simultaneously from a plurality of beam directions. The echo signals received by each transducer element are sampled in response to two or more interleaved sampling signal sequences, each of which is timed to begin at the initial time of arrival of echo signals from a unique spatial line. Each sampling signal sequence thereby produces signal samples associated with a given line. The stream of interleaved signal samples from each transducer element are separated in correspondence with each sampling signal sequence, and signal samples from corresponding separated sequences from the transducer elements are summed to form coherent signals corresponding to spatially separate ultrasonic beams.
Abstract:
A remotely upgradeable medical diagnostic ultrasound system (100) is described which is upgradeable with a new transducer probe (10) by means of air shipment of the upgrade hardware and remote transmission of upgrade data which controls operation of the probe. The ultrasound system includes a data communicator such as a network link (64) or modem (62) for receiving upgrade data from a remote location. A process for upgrading the system is provided whereby a communications link is established over a common carrier communications medium (110,112) between the ultrasound system (100) and a remote terminal, which transmits upgrade program data to the ultrasound system (100). The program data portion of an upgrade is provided via the communications link while the hardware portion of the upgrade is shipped by air freight to the user. In this way, an ultrasound upgrade can be provided to a user from a remote location in a matter of hours.