Cross-ray ultrasound tomography (CRUST) methods and systems
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsLihong Wang, Shuai Na
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Among the various aspects described herein is the provision of systems and methods of cross-ray ultrasound tomography. In some embodiments, a cross-ray ultrasound tomography system utilizes an ultrasonic emitter configured to emit one or more ultrasonic waves and an ultrasonic detector array configured to generate one or more radio frequency signals in response to detecting ultrasonic waves. The ultrasonic emitter and the ultrasonic detector array are configured such that the one or more ultrasonic waves are emitted by the ultrasonic emitter at an angle to a focal plane of the ultrasonic detector array.
Claims20
A cross-ray ultrasound tomography system, comprising:
- an ultrasonic emitter configured to emit one or more ultrasonic waves;
- an ultrasonic detector array configured to generate one or more radio frequency signals in response to detecting ultrasonic waves, wherein the ultrasonic emitter and the ultrasonic detector array are configured such that the ultrasonic emitter is outside of a focal plane of the ultrasonic detector array and such that the one or more ultrasonic waves are emitted by the ultrasonic emitter at an angle to the focal plane of the ultrasonic detector array, wherein the focal plane of the ultrasonic detector array is configured at a plane at elements of the ultrasonic detector array;
- and
- a computing device configured to:
- calculate a scattering coefficient at each of a plurality of spatial coordinates, wherein the scattering coefficient at each spatial coordinate is calculated using digitized acoustic data based on the one or more radio frequency signals generated by the ultrasonic detector array;
- and
- construct one or more tomographic images from the scattering coefficients calculated at the plurality of spatial coordinates.
A cross-ray ultrasound tomography method, comprising:
- causing one or more ultrasonic waves to be emitted by an ultrasonic emitter in a direction at an angle to a focal plane of an ultrasonic detector array, wherein the ultrasonic emitter is outside of the focal plane of the ultrasonic detector array, wherein the focal plane of the ultrasonic detector array is configured at a plane at elements of the ultrasonic detector array;
- digitizing one or more radio frequency signals generated by the ultrasonic detector array to generate digitized acoustic data;
- and
- forming one or more tomographic images by calculating a scattering coefficient at each of a plurality of spatial coordinates using the digitized acoustic data.
A method for quantifying flow velocity, the method comprising:
- identifying a point source location associated with an ultrasonic emitter and a plurality of locations for a plurality of ultrasonic detectors, wherein the ultrasonic emitter and the plurality of ultrasonic detectors are configured such that the ultrasonic emitter is outside of a focal plane of the plurality of ultrasonic detectors and such that ultrasonic waves are emitted in a direction at an angle to a direction from which ultrasonic waves are detected, wherein the focal plane of the plurality of ultrasonic detectors is configured at a plane at elements of the plurality of ultrasonic detectors;
- causing ultrasonic signals to be emitted by the ultrasonic emitter;
- digitizing one or more radio frequency signals generated by the plurality of ultrasonic detectors;
- constructing a plurality of frames of tomographic images based on the digitized one or more radio frequency signals;
- clutter filtering the plurality of frames of tomographic images;
- calculating amplitude and temporal frequency at each of a plurality of pixels of each frame in the clutter-filtered plurality of frames of tomographic images;
- calculating a Doppler frequency shift at each of the plurality of pixels based on the amplitude and temporal frequency calculated at each pixel in the clutter-filtered plurality of frames of tomographic images;
- and
- calculating a flow velocity vector at each of the plurality of pixels based on the Doppler frequency shift calculated at each of the plurality of pixels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.