Continuous display of cardiac blood flow information

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus for providing Doppler information concerning blood flow velocities within a body comprising:

• a transducer for acquiring Doppler signals from a site within the body;
• an ultrasonic Doppler signal processing system coupled to receive Doppler signals from said transducer including
• a fast Fourier transform processor for processing said Doppler signals to produce spectral line data for continuous display of a succession of spectral lines indicating blood flow velocities during Doppler signal acquisition;
• a threshold level calculator which produces a threshold level that is a function of operating characteristics of said system or of said system and said transducer;
• a detector responsive to said threshold level and said spectral line data which identifies a peak velocity value of a spectral line prior to the display of the spectral line;
• and
• a display which displays a sequence of said spectral lines and their identified peak velocity values substantially in real time.

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus for providing Doppler information concerning blood flow velocities within a body comprising:

• a transducer for acquiring Doppler signals from a site within the body;
• an ECG detector for detecting the R-wave signal of the heart and producing R-wave timing information;
• an ultrasonic Doppler signal processing system coupled to receive Doppler signals from said transducer and said R-wave timing information, including
• means for processing said Doppler signals to produce spectral line data for continuous display of a succession of spectral lines indicating blood flow velocities during Doppler signal acquisition;
• and
• means for utilizing said R-wave timing information and said spectral line data to determine a time interval of spectral line data from which a cardiovascular characteristic is to be determined.

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus for providing Doppler information concerning blood flow velocities within a body comprising:

• a transducer for acquiring Doppler signals from a site within the body;
• an ultrasonic Doppler signal processing system coupled to receive Doppler signals from said transducer and said R-wave timing information, including
• means for processing said Doppler signals to produce spectral line data;
• a video display responsive to said spectral line data for displaying a succession of spectral lines substantially in real time;
• means responsive to said spectral line data for producing one or more quantified measures of cardiovascular performance;
• and
• wherein said system further includes means for automatically visually designating the displayed spectral lines corresponding to said quantified measures.

In an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for diagnosing cardiovascular performance, a method for simultaneously displaying spectral Doppler data and quantified measures of cardiovascular performance comprising:

• receiving ultrasonic Doppler signals from the cardiovascular system of a person;
• processing said ultrasonic Doppler signals to produce a spectral Doppler display;
• processing said ultrasonic Doppler signals to produce quantified measures of cardiovascular performance for simultaneous display with said spectral Doppler display;
• and
• automatically visually designating a portion of said spectral Doppler display which corresponds to the ultrasonic Doppler signals from which said quantified measures were produced.