Medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging methods for extended field of view
AssigneeAcuson Corporation
InventorsJohn A. Hossack, Linyong Pang, Thilaka S. Sumanaweera, John W. Allison, Kutay F. Ustuner, Charles E. Bradley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system aligns substantially co-planar two-dimensional images to form an extended field of view using improved compounding methods. Compounding with a finite impulse response is used for more versatile compositing. The compounding is adaptive, such as through adapting the image regions, weighting, or type of compounding as a function of correlation, location within the image, estimated motion or combinations thereof. A user warning is provided as a function of the correlation between images.
Claims52
A medical diagnostic ultrasound method for forming an extended field of view of a target, the method comprising the acts of:
- (a) selecting first and second medical ultrasonic images, the first and second images partially overlapping;
- (b) compounding the first image with the second image in an overlapping region;
- and
- (c) emphasizing side portions of the first and second images in (b).
A medical diagnostic ultrasound method for forming an extended field of view of a target, the method comprising the acts of:
- (a) selecting first and second medical ultrasonic images, the first and second images partially overlapping and characterized by different receive frequencies;
- (b) compounding the first image with the second image in an overlapping region;
- and
- (c) generating an extended field of view image responsive to (b).
A medical diagnostic ultrasound method for forming an extended field of view of a target, the method comprising the acts of:
- (a) selecting first and second medical ultrasonic images, the first and second images partially overlapping;
- (b) filtering the first and second images;
- (c) generating an extended field of view image from the filtered first and second images;
- and
- (d) estimating motion from the unfiltered first and second images.
A medical diagnostic ultrasound method for forming an extended field of view of a target, the method comprising the acts of:
- (a) selecting first and second medical ultrasonic images, the first and second images partially overlapping;
- (b) adaptively compounding the first image with the second image in an overlapping region, wherein the compounding comprises:
- (b1) estimating motion between the first and second images;
- and
- (b2) spatially aligning the first image with the second image as a function of the estimated motion, the spatial alignment being at least one of rotation and translation;
- and
- (c) generating an extended field of view image responsive to (b).
A medical diagnostic ultrasound method for extended field of view data collection, the method comprising the acts of:
- (a) selecting first and second medical ultrasonic images, the first and second images partially overlapping;
- (b) determining a correlation between the first and second images;
- and
- (c) presenting to a user an alarm indicative of poor correlation in response to the correlation.
A medical diagnostic ultrasound method for forming an extended field of view of a target, the method comprising the acts of:
- (a) selecting first and second subsets of respective first and second images, the first and second subsets partially overlapping and the first and second images comprising coplanar medical ultrasonic images;
- (b) compounding the first subset with the second subset in an overlapping region;
- and
- (c) generating an extended field of view image responsive to (b).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.