Ultrasonic detection of contrast agents
AssigneeAdvanced Technology Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsKeith W. Johnson, Jeffry E. Powers
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasonic diagnostic system is provided which detects the presence of coated microbubble contrast agents in the body of a patient by transmitting ultrasonic energy which causes the destruction of the coated microbubbles and detects the microbubble destruction through phase insensitive detection and differentiation of echoes received from two consecutive ultrasonic transmissions. The destruction of a microbubble can also be used as a point source of acoustic energy for aberration correction, whereby the timing of the beamformer is adjusted from an analysis of beamformer signals resulting from a detected microbubble destruction event.
Claims18
A method for detecting the presence of a coated microbubble contrast agent in the body of a patient through ultrasonic interrogation comprising the steps of:
- transmitting ultrasonic pulses into the body of a patient at an energy level sufficient to cause the destruction of coated microbubbles in the body;
- receiving the signals returned following each pulse transmission;
- detecting the signals received through phase insensitive detection;
- differentiating the detected signals received following two pulse transmissions on a spatial basis;
- and
- identifying signal differentiations which exceed a predetermined threshold as resulting from microbubble destruction events.
An ultrasonic diagnostic system for detecting the presence of a coated microbubble contrast agent in the body of a patient through ultrasonic interrogation comprising:
- an ultrasonic transducer which transmits ultrasonic pulses into the body of a patient at an energy level sufficient to cause the destruction of coated microbubbles in the body, and which receives the acoustic signals returned following each pulse transmission and converts them to electrical echo signals;
- a phase insensitive detector for detecting said echo signals;
- a differentiator which differentiates on a spatial basis the detected echo signals resulting from two pulse transmissions;
- and
- means for identifying differentiated echo signals which exceed a threshold as resulting from microbubble destruction events.
An ultrasonic diagnostic system which utilizes a coated microbubble contrast agent for aberration correction comprising:
- an ultrasonic transducer array which transmits ultrasonic pulses into the body of a patient at an energy level sufficient to cause the destruction of coated microbubbles in the body, and which receives the acoustic signals returned following each pulse transmission and converts them to electrical echo signals;
- a beamformer, coupled to said ultrasonic transducer array, for controlling the timing of pulse transmission by said transducer array and the timing of delays applied to said electrical echo signals;
- and
- a detector, coupled to said beamformer and responsive to said electrical echo signals, for detecting microbubble destruction events;
- and
- a beamformer timing check subsystem, coupled to said beamformer, for checking the timing of said beamformer in response to the detection of a microbubble destruction event.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.