System and method for strain image display

An ultrasonic imaging system comprising:

• an ultrasound transducer;
• control means for controlling transmission and reception of ultrasound by the transducer and thereby for controlling repeated scanning of a region of interest (ROI) of a body with ultrasound generated by the transducer and for acquiring a first and a second set of intensity values, each intensity value representing an imaging property of a respective portion of the ROI;
• a processing system including:
• means for generating a gray-scale representation of the first set of intensity values;
• elasticity estimation means for calculating an elasticity data set of elasticity values as a function of differences between corresponding intensity values in the first and second sets of intensity values;
• remapping means of generating a color representation of the elasticity data set by color-coding the elasticity values;
• and
• overlay generation means for generating a single, overlaid display of the gray-scale representation and the color representation;
• and
• display means for displaying the single, overlaid display.

An ultrasonic imaging method comprising the following steps:

• repeatedly scanning a region of interest (ROI) of a body with an ultrasound transducer and acquiring first and second data sets of echo values, each echo value representing an imaging property of a respective portion of the ROI;
• calculating an elasticity data set of elasticity values as a function of differences between corresponding echo values in the first and second data sets;
• generating a display of the elasticity data set;
• adaptively persisting the generated display;
• repeating the step of calculating the elasticity data set for a plurality scans of the ROI and, for each scan, generating a corresponding one of the elasticity data sets;
• and
• for at least a current one of the elasticity data sets, calculating a quality factor;
• in which:
• the step of adaptively persisting the display includes generating a persisted elasticity frame as a persistence function that has, as arguments, the current elasticity data set, the quality factor, and at least one earlier generated elasticity data set;
• and
• the step of generating the display comprises displaying a representation of the persisted elasticity frame.

An ultrasonic imaging system comprising:

• an ultrasound transducer;
• control means for controlling transmission and reception of ultrasound by the transducer and thereby for controlling repeated scanning of a region of interest (ROI) of a body with ultrasound generated by the transducer, and for acquiring a first and a second set of intensity values, each intensity value representing an imaging property of a respective portion of the ROI;
• a processing system including:
• elasticity estimation means for calculating an elasticity data set of elasticity values as a function of differences between corresponding intensity values in the first and second sets of intensity values;
• persistence means:
• for adaptively persisting the generated display;
• for calculating a quality factor for at least a current one of the elasticity data sets;
• and
• for generating a persisted elasticity frame as a persistence function that has, as arguments, the current elasticity data set, the quality factor, and at least one earlier generated elasticity data set;
• display means for displaying a representation of the persisted elasticity frame.

An ultrasonic imaging method comprising:

• repeatedly scanning a region of interest (ROI) of a body with an ultrasound transducer and thereby acquiring a plurality of intensity data sets of intensity values, each intensity value representing an imaging property of a respective portion of the ROI;
• for each of at least one pair of the intensity data sets, calculating a corresponding displacement data set having displacement elements, each displacement element quantifying displacement of a respective ROI portion over a time interval between the respective pair of intensity data sets;
• for each displacement data set, calculating a display data set as a function of the displacement elements in the respective displacement data set;
• selecting one of the display data sets for display;
• and
• displaying both the selected display data set and a graphical representation of a quality value that indicates an estimated measure of quality of the selected display data set.

An ultrasonic imaging system comprising:

• an ultrasound transducer;
• control means for controlling transmission and reception of ultrasound by the transducer and thereby for controlling repeated scanning of a region of interest (ROI) of a body with ultrasound generated by the transducer, and for acquiring a first and a second set of intensity values, each intensity value representing an imaging property of a respective portion of the ROI;
• a processing system including:
• displacement estimation means for calculating, for each of at least one pair of the intensity data sets, a corresponding displacement data set having displacement elements, each displacement element quantifying displacement of a respective ROI portion over a time interval between the respective pair of intensity data sets, and, for each displacement data set, for calculating a display data set as a function of the displacement elements in the respective displacement data set;
• guide generation means for generating a graphical representation of a quality value, the quality value indicating an estimated measure of quality of the elasticity data set;
• and
• display means for displaying both a selected display data set and the graphical representation of the corresponding quality value.