Method of ultrasound imaging and diagnostic ultrasound system

A method of ultrasound imaging whereby an object including a moving constituent therein is scanned by an ultrasound beam signal in a contrast echo technique, based on a Doppler technique, in which an ultrasound contrast medium is injected in to the object to be placed in the moving constituent, the method comprising the steps of:

• driving an ultrasound probe to transmit the ultrasound beam signal to the object, the ultrasound probe receiving an ultrasound signal echoed from the object in response to the transmitted ultrasound beam signal;
• processing an echoed output of the ultrasound probe into a beam-formed echo signal;
• extracting from the echo signal a Doppler shift frequency of a nonlinear echo component resulting from the ultrasound beam signal reflected from the ultrasound contrast medium;
• and
• converting the extracted Doppler shift frequency f.sub.d into a velocity component v according to the following conversion expression:
• v=Vcos.theta.=Cf.sub.d /(2f.sub.set +f.sub.d)
• where C denotes a sound velocity, V denotes a moving velocity of the moving constituent in the object, v denotes a component of a moving velocity V in a direction of the ultrasound beam signal, .theta. denotes an angle of the ultrasound beam signal with respect to a moving direction of the moving constituent, f.sub.set denotes a set frequency used for velocity conversion, and f.sub.d denotes the Doppler shift frequency.

A diagnostic ultrasound system whereby an object including a moving constituent therein is scanned by an ultrasound beam signal in a contrast echo technique, based on a Doppler technique, in which an ultrasound contrast medium is injected into the object to be placed in the moving constituent, the system comprising:

• means for driving an ultrasound probe in order to transmit the ultrasound beam signal toward the object;
• means for acquiring an echo signal echoed from the ultrasound contrast medium on the basis of an ultrasound echo signal received by the ultrasound probe;
• means for evaluating information of a Doppler shift frequency concerning a nonlinear component of the echo signal on the basis of a reference signal of which frequency is set outside a frequency band of the ultrasound beam signal being transmitted;
• and
• means for visualizing the evaluated information of the Doppler shift frequency.

A method of ultrasound imaging whereby an object including a moving constituent therein is scanned by an ultrasound beam signal in a contrast echo technique, based on a Doppler technique, in which an ultrasound contrast medium is injected into the object to be placed in the moving constituent, the method comprising the steps of:

• driving an ultrasound probe in order to transmit the ultrasound beam signal toward the object;
• acquiring an echo signal echoed from the ultrasound contrast medium on the basis of an ultrasound echo signal received by the ultrasound probe;
• evaluating information of a Doppler shift frequency concerning a nonlinear component of the echo signal on the basis of a reference signal of which frequency is set outside a frequency band of the ultrasound beam signal being transmitted;
• and
• visualizing the evaluated information of the Doppler shift frequency.