Apparatuses, systems and methods for spectral pulse wave doppler ultrasound measurements
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsDavid Wesley Clark, Emilia Badescu, Odile Bonnefous, Kirthi Radhakrishnan
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Abstract
An ultrasound imaging system may automatically find and track a coronary artery in a 3D volume. The artery location may be considered fixed within each of the overlapping spans of time data used for spectral processing in some examples. Data from along the artery within the 3D volume may be coherently integrated, and average beam-to-flow angle may be compensated for automatically. Optionally, a live, 3D rendered graphic or color flow image of the 3D volume may be displayed while the spectrogram is displayed. Optionally, audio output reflecting the spectral data may be provided to a speaker.
Claims21
An ultrasound imaging system configured to provide a spectrogram of blood flow velocities from ultrasound data, the system comprising:
- a beamformer configured to perform multiline receive beamforming on ultrasound data;
- and
- at least one processor configured to:
- generate image data from the ultrasound data received from the beamformer;
- organize the image data into a plurality of overlapping time segments;
- perform an autocorrelation on individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments;
- detect a vessel in the ultrasound data of individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments based, at least in part, on the autocorrelation;
- fit a one-dimensional (1D) contour to the vessel;
- integrate the image data from at least a portion of the 1D contour for individual time samples of the individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments;
- extract a plurality of Doppler frequencies from the integrated image data of the individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments;
- calculate an angle between an ultrasound beam used to acquire the image data and the 1D contour;
- convert the plurality of Doppler frequencies to a plurality of velocities based, at least in part, on the angle;
- and
- plot the plurality of velocities for individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments on the spectrogram.
A computer implemented method for providing a spectrogram of blood flow velocities from ultrasound data, the method comprising:
- performing, with a beamformer, multi-line receive beamforming on ultrasound data;
- generating, with at least one processor, image data from the beamformed ultrasound data;
- organizing, with at least one processor, the image data received from the beamformer into a plurality of overlapping time segments;
- autocorrelating individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments;
- detecting a vessel in the image data of individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments based, at least in part, on the autocorrelating;
- fitting a one-dimensional (1D) contour to the vessel;
- integrating the Doppler image data from at least a portion of the 1D contour for individual time samples of the individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments;
- extracting a plurality of Doppler frequencies from the integrated image data of the individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments;
- calculating an angle between an ultrasound beam used to acquire the image data and the 1D contour;
- converting the plurality of Doppler frequencies to a plurality of velocities based, at least in part, on the angle;
- and
- plotting the plurality of velocities for individual ones of the plurality of overlapping time segments on a spectrogram.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.