Spectral Doppler Imaging with Interruption Avoidance
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorsKing Yuen Wong, Chi Hyung Seo, Paul D. Freiburger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In spectral Doppler imaging, a high PRF is used independent of the velocity scale. The adjustment is then of the velocity scale. By optimizing the velocity scale independent of the high PRF in an on-going or automated basis, user activation may be avoided and/or interruption to reconfigure for an altered PRF may be avoided. The acquired data may be stored, allowing for past data to be processed again when a new velocity scale or other setting is selected. The resulting spectral Doppler image may continue to display spectra over time without a gap or without premature loss of spectra due to reconfiguring.
Claims20
A method for spectral Doppler imaging, the method comprising:
- transmitting, from a transducer, ultrasound energy to a Doppler gate location at a set or higher pulse repetition frequency allowable by roundtrip travel of the ultrasound energy between the transducer and the Doppler gate location;
- storing responses to the transmitting over time;
- calculating a first velocity scale from at least one of the responses to the transmitting, the first velocity scale less than or equal to the pulse repetition frequency;
- estimating from the responses, first spectra over time for the Doppler gate location, the estimating using the first velocity scale;
- displaying a first image of the first spectra with the first velocity scale, the first image representing a first range of times;
- later calculating a second velocity scale from at least another one of the responses to the transmitting, the second velocity scale different from the first velocity scale;
- estimating from the responses, second spectra over time for the Doppler gate location, the estimating of the second spectra using the second velocity scale;
- and
- displaying second image of the second spectra with the second velocity scale, the second spectra including spectra from times within the first range of times also represented in the first image.
In a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for spectral Doppler imaging, the storage medium comprising instructions for:
- storing beamformed samples acquired at a first rate;
- determining different display scales over time, the different display scales avoiding aliasing based on the beamformed samples, the display scales less than the first rate;
- and
- generating a spectral Doppler strip using the different displace scales without altering the first rate.
A system for spectral Doppler imaging, the system comprising:
- a transmit beamformer operable to transmit acoustic energy to a Doppler gate in an ongoing manner;
- a receive beamformer operable to sample acoustic echoes from the Doppler gate and in response to the acoustic energy;
- a spectral Doppler processor configured to estimate spectra from the samples of the acoustic echoes for the Doppler gate, the spectra estimated from the samples using different settings of parameters at different times while representing overlapping times;
- and
- a display configured to display the spectra.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.