Ultrasound location of anatomical landmarks

In an ultrasound machine for generating an image responsive to moving cardiac structure within a subject, a method for locating anatomical landmarks of said moving cardiac structure comprising:

• transmitting ultrasound waves into said moving cardiac structure and generating received signals in response to ultrasound waves backscattered from said moving cardiac structure over a time period;
• generating a set of analytic parameter values representing movement along a segment of said moving cardiac structure over said time period in response to said received signals by converting a set of estimated values in a motion parameter profile;
• and
• extracting position information of said anatomical landmarks from said set of analytic parameter values by analyzing elements of said set of analytic parameter values.

In an ultrasound machine for generating an image responsive to moving cardiac structure within a subject, a method for locating anatomical landmarks of said moving cardiac structure comprising:

• generating a timing event source to generate a cardiac timing event signal that represents a cardiac waveform of the subject;
• inputting the timing event signal into the ultrasound machine;
• transmitting ultrasound waves into said moving cardiac structure and generating received signals in response to ultrasound waves backscattered from said moving cardiac structure over a time period;
• designating anatomical points within the moving cardiac structure;
• converting a set of estimated tissue velocity values into a motion parameter profile;
• creating a tracked velocity parameter profile for at least one of the anatomical points through said converting;
• estimating changes in spatial locations of the anatomical points;
• extracting velocity estimates based on changes in the spatial locations of the anatomical points;
• producing a tracked velocity parameter profile for the at least one of the anatomical points in the image as a function of time for a complete cardiac cycle;
• storing the tracked velocity parameter profile as a sampled array of tissue velocity values;
• automatically labeling discrete anatomical points corresponding to anatomical landmarks in the image with indicia;
• and
• continuously updating and displaying positions of the indicia to follow movements of the anatomical points.