Ultrasound imaging system

In an ultrasound system based on Doppler processing, a method for imaging a region of interest comprising of:

• providing a handheld probe and an associated processing system for capturing images of an area of interest;
• and
• providing a data processing system coupled to the associated processing system having a microprocessor with at least one parallel processing element and a memory coupled to the microprocessor having stored therein a sequence of instructions to execute Doppler processing wherein the instructions comprise:
• demodulating the data to obtain in-phase and quadrature sample data;
• filtering the data to remove low frequency signals;
• averaging a plurality of frames of data;
• converting phase shift data to an index;
• converting the phase shift data from scan to raster coordinates;
• and
• displaying a plurality of images.

A method of imaging a region of interest with ultrasound energy comprising of:

• providing a portable ultrasound imaging system including a transducer array within a handheld probe, an interface unit connected to the handheld probe with a first cable interface, the interface unit having a beamforming device and being connected to a data processing system with a second cable interface;
• providing output signals from the interface unit to the handheld probe to actuate the transducer array;
• delivering ultrasound energy to the region of interest;
• collecting ultrasound energy returning to the transducer array from the region of interest;
• transmitting data from the handheld probe to the interface unit with the first cable interface;
• performing a beamforming operation with the beamforming device in the interface unit;
• and
• transmitting data from the interface unit to the data processing system with the second cable interface such that the data processing system receives a beamformed electronic representation of the region of interest;
• the data processing system having at least one parallel processing element integrated therein to execute a sequence of instructions for processing and displaying Doppler images, a particular sequence of instruction comprising calculating a phase shift of an auto-correlation function to generate a monotonic function for all values of the phase shift corresponding to a range of Doppler velocities wherein the instructions comprise demodulating the data to obtain in-phase and quadrature sample data, filtering the data to remove low frequency signals, averaging a plurality of frames of data, converting phase shift data to an index, converting the phase shift data from scan to raster coordinates and displaying a plurality of images.

An ultrasound imaging apparatus comprising:

• at least one processing module;
• and
• memory operable coupled to the at least one processing module, wherein the memory stores operational instructions that cause the at least one processing module to:
• map serial data to vector representation;
• calculate an auto-correlation function of the data;
• calculate a phase shift of the auto-correlation function to generate a monotonic function for all values of the phase shift corresponding to a range of Doppler velocities;
• demodulate the data to obtain in-phase and quadrature data;
• filter the data to remove low frequency signals;
• average a plurality of frames of data;
• convert the phase shift to an index;
• and
• display a plurality of images.

A portable ultrasound system for imaging a region of interest comprising:

• an ultrasound probe system including a transducer array and a beamforming device;
• and
• a data processing system connected to the ultrasound probe system with a standard high-speed transmission link such that the data processing system receives a beamformed representation of the region of interest;
• the data processing system having a microprocessor coupled to at least one parallel processing element for Doppler processing computations wherein a memory stores a sequence of instructions for demodulating the data to obtain in-phase and quadrature sample data, filtering the data to remove low frequency signals, averaging a plurality of frames of data, converting phase shift data to an index, converting the phase shift data from scan to raster coordinates, and displaying a plurality of images.