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AssigneeKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
InventorsJeffry E. Powers, Michalakis Averkiou, Matthew Bruce, Danny M. Skyba, Robert R. Entrekin, John D. Fraser, Clifford R. Cooley, Brent Stephen Robinson, David N. Roundhill, Gary Allen Schwartz, Patrick René Pesque
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An ultrasonic imaging method and apparatus are described for imaging the coronary arteries of the heart. The vascular system is infused with an ultrasonic contrast agent. A volumetric region of the heart wall including a coronary artery is three dimensionally scanned. A projection image of the volumetric region is produced from the scanning, providing a two dimensional contrast image of the coronary artery with the appearance of an angiogram. Preferably the coronary artery signals are segmented from contrast signals emanating from the myocardium and the heart blood pool so that the coronary arteries are clearly highlighted and distinct in the ultrasonic angiogram.
A method for ultrasonically scanning a volumetric region by means of a scanhead including a two dimensional array of transducer elements coupled to an ultrasonic imaging system comprising:
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for three dimensional imaging comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.