Ultrasound coupling medium detection

An apparatus for determining a status of ultrasound coupling medium for performing an ultrasound scan, the ultrasound scan for providing an ultrasound image including plural scanlines, the method including:

• an ultrasound device for capturing an image frame including plural scanlines, each scanline having an associated set of intensity values;
• a memory storing a set of computer program instructions;
• one or more processors programmed with the set of program instructions for execution to cause the one or more processors to:
• process a subset of the associated set of values for each scanline to determine a first summation for each scanline;
• process plural sets of corresponding intensity values from each of plural scanlines located within a range of a respective scanline to determine a set of difference values for each respective scanline;
• process each set of difference values to determine a second summation for each scanline;
• and
• generating a status for the ultrasound coupling medium according to a relationship between each of the first summations and each of the associated second summations.

An apparatus for determining a status of ultrasound coupling medium for performing an ultrasound scan, the ultrasound scan for providing an ultrasound image including plural scanlines, the method including:

• an ultrasound device for capturing an image frame including plural scanlines, each scanline having an associated set of intensity values;
• a memory storing a set of program instructions;
• one or more processors programmed with the set of program instructions for execution to cause the one or more processors to:
• process the image to compare, for each scanline, a summation of intensity values associated with a respective scanline over a selected first range of depths of the image with a summation of difference values associated with the respective scanline over a second range of depths, each of the difference values being a value determined from intensity values from plural scanlines located within a width range of the respective scanline at a particular depth within the second range;
• and
• generating a status indication for the ultrasound coupling medium according to the comparison.

A method of indicating, to a user, whether a coupling medium is present before or during capture of a desired ultrasound image, the method including:

• processing an ultrasound image to determine one or more attributes for plural scanlines of the ultrasound image;
• comparing the one or more attributes to a predetermined threshold;
• and
• providing an indication to a user according to a comparison of the one or more attributes with the threshold.