US 6,318,179 B1Granted

Ultrasound based quantitative motion measurement using speckle size estimation

AssigneeGE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC

InventorsJames D. Hamilton, Larry Y. L. Mo, Gregory R. Bashford

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Abstract

An ultrasound system determines the relative movement in a first direction (F1) of first matter, such as blood flow, and second matter, such as an artery wall, in a subject under study (S). A beam (B1) of ultrasound waves defining a plurality of beam positions (BP1 and BP2) and beam axes (A1and A2) are moved in scan directions having components parallel to direction F1. First and second blocks of data representing the first and second matter, respectively, are generated. A processor (20) performs an estimation of speckle size on first data to obtain a first result, and performs analysis of the second block of data to obtain a second result. The two results are analyzed to obtain a measure of the relative movement of the first and second matter.

Claims30

Dependent claims

In an ultrasound system for imaging a subject under study including first matter moving in a first direction relative to second matter, apparatus for determining the quantitative movement of the first matter with respect to the second matter comprising:

a transducer assembly operable to transmit into the subject a beam of ultrasound waves having a predetermined size and shape and defining a plurality of beam positions and a beam axis moved at a predetermined rate in one or more scan directions having one or more scan direction components parallel to said first direction, said transducer assembly receiving first reflected ultrasound waves from said first matter and second reflected ultrasound waves from said second matter in response to said beam positions in said one or more scan directions;
a processor responsive to the first reflected ultrasound waves to generate a first block of data representing at least one component of movement of said first matter with respect to said second matter along one of said scan directions, responsive to said reflected second ultrasound waves to generate a second block of data representing a characteristic of a portion of said second matter, to perform a first analysis of said first block of data to obtain a first result, to perform a second analysis of said second block of data to obtain a second result, to perform a third analysis of said first result and said second result to determine one or more movement characteristics of said first matter;
and
a display for displaying said one or more movement characteristics of said first matter.

1 more element

In an ultrasound system for imaging a subject under study including first matter moving in a first direction with respect to the second matter, a method of determining the quantitative movement of the first matter with respect to the second matter comprising:

transmitting into the subject a beam of ultrasound waves having a predetermined size and defining a plurality of beam positions and a beam axis moved in one or more scan directions having one or more scan direction components parallel to said first direction;
receiving first reflected ultrasound waves from said first matter and second reflected ultrasound waves from said second matter in response to said beam positions in said one or more scan directions;
generating a first block of data representing at least one component of movement of said first matter with respect to said second matter along one of said scan directions in response to said first reflected ultrasound waves;
generating a second block of data representing a characteristic of a portion of said second matter in response to said second reflected ultrasound waves;
performing a first analysis of said first block of data to obtain a first result;
performing a second analysis of said second block of data to obtain a second result;
performing a third analysis of said first result and said second result to determine one or more movement characteristics of said first matter;
and
displaying said one or more movement characteristics of said first matter.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.