Color doppler imaging with line artifact reduction
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorLiang Zhai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Color Doppler imaging with line artifact reduction is provided in multi-beam scanning. Doppler estimates representing the same spatial location but calculated from spatially distinctive transmit beam groups are combined through weighted linear interpolation. Methods of calculating the linear interpolation weights are provided based on geometric relationships and optimization functions. Complete overlapping and superposition among receive beams in the interpolation region are not required. Partial interpolation among the receive beams, where only the estimates of the outer receive scan lines may overlap and be interpolated while estimates for scan lines closer to the transmit scan line are not interpolated, allowing for more rapid frame rate.
Claims21
A system comprising:
- a transmit beamformer configured to transmit a first sequence of transmit beams along a first scan line in a patient and to transmit a second sequence of transmit beams along a third scan line in the patient;
- a receive beamformer configured to receive multiple first receive beams along each of multiple second scan lines in response to the first sequence of the transmit beams and to receive multiple second receive beams along each of multiple fourth scan lines in response to the second sequence of the transmit beams, at least some of the second lines and fourth scan lines in an overlapping region;
- a Doppler processor configured to estimate first Doppler values from the first receive beams for each of the second scan lines and to estimate second Doppler values from the second receive beams for each of the fourth scan lines;
- an interpolator configured to interpolate first Doppler values with second Doppler values as a function of first and second weights, respectively, and to determine both the first weight and the second weight by solving first and second functions, the first function including a first sum of the first weight multiplied by a first distance or angle of one of the second scan lines from the first scan line and the second weight multiplied by a second distance or angle of one of the fourth scan lines from the third scan line to zero and the second function including a second sum of the first and second weights to one;
- and
- a display to display a Doppler image as a function of the interpolated first and second Doppler values.
A system comprising:
- a Doppler processor configured to acquire velocity estimates from different sequences of multiple simultaneous receive beam scanning for different ensembles of receive scan lines where the receive scan lines of the different sequences are in an overlapping region of a patient;
- a processor configured to solve first and second functions to determine weights, the first function including a first sum of the weights for a first of the different sequences multiplied by distances or angles of the receive scan lines from respective transmit beams for the first of the different sequences equal to zero and the second function including a second sum of the weights equal to one and configured to combine the velocity estimates from the different sequences together for the overlapping region, where the combination is a function of the weights and is performed for less than all of the receive scan lines;
- and
- a display to display a color flow image from the combined velocity estimates and velocity estimates without combination.
An ultrasound system for artifact reduction in imaging from velocity estimates from different sequences of multiple simultaneous receive beam scanning for different ensembles of receive scan lines where the receive scan lines of the different sequences are in an overlapping region of a patient, the ultrasound system comprising:
- a processor configured to solve first and second functions to determine weights, the first function including a first sum of the weights for a first of the different sequences multiplied by distances or angles of the receive scan lines from respective transmit beams for the first of the different sequences equal to zero and the second function including a second sum of the weights equal to one and configured to combine the velocity estimates from the different sequences together for the overlapping region, where the combination is a function of the weights and is performed for less than all of the receive scan lines;
- wherein the imaging comprises a color flow image from the combined velocity estimates and velocity estimates without combination.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.