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US 10,945,701 B2Granted
Segment-based flash suppression in ultrasound color flow
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorsKing Yuen Wong, Chi Hyung Seo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Flash suppression is provided in motion imaging. Separate regions of motion in a same frame or image are tested for flash independently. The size, shape, spatial variance, and/or location of a given region are used to categorize a level or likelihood of flash artifact for that region. Based on the level or likelihood, the motion information is altered to reduce flash.
Claims17
A method for flash suppression in color flow, the method comprising:
- acquiring with ultrasound, using an ultrasound transducer of a diagnostic ultrasound system, color flow ultrasound data representing a patient, at least some of the color flow ultrasound data including a flash artifact due to organ motion, transducer motion, or patient motion in the acquiring;
- segmenting, by a processor of the diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, the color flow ultrasound data into one or more contiguous regions of flow, each of the one or more contiguous regions being unconnected to others of the one or more contiguous regions;
- calculating, by the processor of the diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, a size characteristic of each of the one or more contiguous regions;
- calculating, by the processor of the diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, a shape characteristic of each of the one or more contiguous regions;
- categorizing, by the processor of the diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, each of the one or more contiguous regions as flash artifact or not flash artifact by the size characteristic and the shape characteristic of the one or more contiguous region, where categorizing comprises assigning a likelihood for each of the respective contiguous regions including the flash artifact from a combination of a probability from the size characteristic and a probability from the shape characteristic for the respective contiguous region;
- suppressing, by the processor of the diagnostic ultrasound imaging system, any of the flash artifact in the color flow ultrasound data of each of the one or more contiguous regions based on the categorization for the respective contiguous region, the flash artifact resulting from the acquiring of the color flow ultrasound data with the ultrasound by the diagnostic ultrasound system;
- and
- generating on a display an ultrasound color flow image with the color flow ultrasound data resulting from the suppressing, the ultrasound color flow image representing blood flow within the patient with the flash artifact suppressed from the suppressing.
5 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for flash artifact suppression in Doppler imaging, the storage medium comprising instructions for:
- scanning, by a transducer and beamformer of an ultrasound system, a plurality of locations with ultrasound;
- estimating, by a flow estimator of the ultrasound system, Doppler values for the locations, the Doppler values including the flash artifact due to organ, transducer, or patient motion in the scanning with ultrasound;
- segmenting a group of spatially connected ones of the locations of the Doppler values;
- calculating, by a processor of the ultrasound system, a size of the group of the spatially connected ones of the locations with the Doppler values as segmented;
- calculating, by the processor of the ultrasound system, a shape of the group of the spatially connected ones of the locations with the Doppler values as segmented;
- identifying, by a processor of the ultrasound system, the flash artifact being in the Doppler values of the group, the identifying being a categorization of the spatially connected locations as the group, the categorization of the group being a combination of a probability of flash from the calculated size and a probability of flash from the calculated shape of the group of spatially connected ones of the locations with Doppler values;
- altering, by a processor of the ultrasound system, the Doppler values for the group of spatially connected ones of the locations in response to the identifying of the flash artifact, the altering reducing but not zeroing at least one of the Doppler values;
- and
- generating, on a display of the ultrasound system, a Doppler image with the Doppler values, including altered Doppler values resulting from the altering.
6 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for flash artifact suppression in Doppler imaging, the storage medium comprising instructions for:
- scanning, by a transducer and beamformer of an ultrasound system, a plurality of locations with ultrasound;
- estimating, by a flow estimator of the ultrasound system, Doppler values for the locations, the Doppler values including the flash artifact due to organ, transducer, or patient motion in the scanning with ultrasound;
- calculating, by a processor of the ultrasound system, a size of a group of spatially connected ones of the locations with Doppler values;
- calculating, by the processor of the ultrasound system, a shape of the group of spatially connected ones of the locations with Doppler values;
- identifying, by a processor of the ultrasound system, the flash artifact being in the Doppler values of the group, the identifying being a categorization as a function of the calculated size and the calculated shape of the group of spatially connected ones of the locations with Doppler values;
- altering, by a processor of the ultrasound system, the Doppler values for the group of spatially connected ones of the locations in response to the identifying of the flash artifact, the altering reducing but not zeroing at least one of the Doppler values;
- and
- generating, on a display of the ultrasound system, a Doppler image with the Doppler values, including altered Doppler values resulting from the altering;
- wherein identifying and altering are repeated for another group of spatially connected ones of the locations with Doppler values, the other group being spatially disconnected with the one group, the altering for the one group being by a different amount than the altering for the other group, and wherein generating comprises generating the Doppler image with the altered Doppler values for the one group and altered Doppler values for the other group.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.