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AssigneeEsaote S.p.A.
InventorsPaolo Pellegretti, Mauro Fabiano, Marco Merlanti
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A method for ultrasonic imaging, particularly of moving bodies, such as surgical utensils, tissues, flows, or the like, which includes the following steps:—Periodically emitting ultrasonic pulses along a predetermined view line and with a predetermined repetition rate through one or more transducers;—Receiving the echoes produced by the body and/or the tissues or flows and transforming them into echo signals;—Processing the echo signals for extracting information therefrom and for generating an image based on such information. According the invention, the following steps are additionally provided:—determining a real time vector difference between the echo signals of two pulses successively emitted at predetermined time intervals;—using said difference signal as an information signal for ultrasonic imaging.
A method for ultrasonic imaging, particularly of moving bodies, such as surgical utensils, tissues, flows, or the like, which includes the following steps:
A method as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that filtering is performed by using two thresholds, a minimum and a maximum threshold, on echo signals being determined, with the B-Mode method, as signal levels for stationary tissues and flow and/or for echogenic or hyperechogenic materials executing micromovements or displacements relatively to the probe.
A method as claimed in one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that a minimum threshold is also defined for the difference signal between two successive echoes, below which the signal is set to zero or attenuated, while the part of the signal within the minimum and maximum threshold is alternatively attenuated or set to zero, partially attenuated and retained to reconstruct the image in combination with the part of the signal above the maximum threshold or retained without attenuation for reconstructing the image alone or in combination with the part of the signal above the maximum threshold.
A method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that a minimum threshold is also defined for the difference signal between two successive echoes, below which the signal is retained to reconstruct the image, while the part of the signal within the minimum and maximum threshold is alternatively attenuated or set to zero, partially attenuated and retained to reconstruct the image in combination with the part of the signal below the minimum threshold or retained without attenuation for reconstructing the image alone or in combination with the part of the signal below the minimum threshold, while above the maximum threshold the signal is attenuated or set to zero.
A method as claimed in one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that it provides partial subtraction of the second echo signal from the first echo signal, by appropriate weighting, to attenuate without completely suppressing the contribution to the difference signal by stationary tissues, so that a combination of the flow image with an attenuated image of the tissues surrounding the flow may be obtained.
A method as claimed in one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that its use is provided in combination with the introduction of contrast agents in spontaneous flows.
An apparatus for implementing said method as claimed in one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that it includes:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.