Ultrasonic tissue imaging method and apparatus with doppler velocity and acceleration processing

A method of forming a composite B-mode and color Doppler acoustic image of moving tissue by transmitting acoustic pressure waves and receiving returned echoes on acoustic lines scanned by a transducer, said method comprising the steps of

• deriving a B-mode image from echoes received along a first set of image scan lines,
• acquiring and processing color Doppler information at large amplitude and low frequencies from said moving tissue at multiple volumes along scan lines that are the same as or propagated independently from the B-mode scan lines and
• displaying said color Doppler information as a two-dimensional color coded image of moving tissue that is spatially coordinated with and superimposed upon said B-mode image.

An ultrasound tissue imaging system having an acoustic transducer and comprising

• B-mode imaging means to produce with said transducer an electronically scanned B-mode image of tissue under examination, said B-mode image substantially representing the intensity of echoes returned from said tissue along multiple B-mode scan lines;
• imaging means that accepts and processes large amplitude, low frequency signals to produce with said transducer an electronically scanned Doppler image of said moving tissue, the image representing estimates of velocity derived from echoes reflected from said moving tissue at multiple sample volumes along multiple scan lines;
• color display means for displaying the B-mode image as a two-dimensional image with echo intensities encoded using a first mapping function and for augmenting the B-mode image by simultaneously displaying said estimates of velocity as a two-dimensional Doppler image using a second and distinct mapping function that is spatially coordinated with and superimposed upon said B-mode image.

A method of forming a color Doppler acoustic image of moving tissue by transmitting acoustic pressure waves and receiving returned echoes on acoustic lines scanned by a transducer, said method comprising the steps of

• acquiring and processing color Doppler information at large amplitude and low frequencies from said moving tissue at multiple volumes along a plurality of scan lines and
• displaying said color Doppler information as a two-dimensional color coded image of said moving tissue.