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US 7,374,538 B2Granted
Methods, systems, and computer program products for ultrasound measurements using receive mode parallel processing
AssigneeDuke University
InventorsKathryn R. Nightingale, Gregg E. Trahey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pushing pulse is delivered from an ultrasound transducer array having a plurality of elements to a target region within a medium to displace the target region to a displaced position. A tracking pulse is delivered from the ultrasound transducer array to the target region, and a plurality of tracking signals are received from locations in the target region, each tracking signal being responsive to the tracking pulse.
Claims84
An ultrasound method comprising:
- delivering a pushing pulse for between about 0.025 to about 10 milliseconds from an ultrasound transducer array having a plurality of elements to a target region within a medium to displace the target region to a displaced position;
- delivering a tracking pulse from the ultrasound transducer array to the target region;
- and
- receiving a plurality of tracking signals from locations in the target region, each tracking signal being responsive to the tracking pulse, and forming parallel beamformed signals from the plurality of tracking signals.
1 more element
An ultrasound method comprising the steps of:
- delivering a first tracking pulse from an ultrasound transducer array to a target region within a medium;
- receiving a first set of tracking signals from locations in the target region responsive to the tracking pulse in the target region at the ultrasound transducer array to detect an initial position for the target region;
- delivering a pushing pulse for between about 0.025 to about 10 milliseconds from the ultrasound transducer array to the target region to displace the target region to a displaced position;
- delivering a second tracking pulse from the ultrasound transducer array to the target region;
- receiving a second set of tracking signals from locations in the target region responsive to the second tracking pulse at the ultrasound transducer array to detect the displaced position of the target region forming parallel beamformed signals from the plurality of tracking signals;
- and
- repeating sequentially the delivering a first tracking pulse, receiving a first tracking signal, delivering a pushing pulse, delivering a second tracking pulse, and receiving a second tracking signal to provide a series of cycles, the pushing pulses being delivered to different target regions during the series of cycles providing a plurality of displaced positions.
4 more elements
A method for evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in a subject comprising:
- delivering an acoustic radiation force pulse to a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue;
- detecting a mechanical property of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue responsive to the acoustic radiation force pulse to provide at least first and second values associated with the mechanical property at at least two timing points during a cardiac cycle of the subject;
- comparing the first and second values and evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in the subject as a result of the value comparison.
A method for evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in a subject comprising:
- delivering an acoustic radiation force pulse to a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue;
- detecting a first value associated with the mechanical property of a vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue responsive to the acoustic radiation force pulse at a first spatial point within a first layer of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue;
- detecting a second value associated with the mechanical property at a second spatial point of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue within a second layer of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue;
- comparing the first and second values, and evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in the subject as a result of the value comparison.
1 more element
A computer program product for controlling ultrasound signals comprising:
- a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:
- computer readable program code configured to deliver a pushing pulse for between about 0.025 to about 10 milliseconds from an ultrasound transducer array having a plurality of elements to a target region within a medium to displace the target region to a displaced position;
- computer readable program code configured to deliver a tracking pulse from the ultrasound transducer array to the target region;
- and
- computer readable program code configured to receive a plurality of tracking signals from locations in the target region, each tracking signal being responsive to the tracking pulse, and to form parallel beamformed signals from the plurality of tracking signals.
2 more elements
A computer program product for evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in a subject comprising:
- a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising
- computer readable program code configured to detect a mechanical property of a vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue to provide at least first and second values associated with the mechanical property at at least two timing points during a cardiac cycle of the subject;
- and
- computer readable program code configured to compare the first and second values, and, computer readable program code configured to evaluate the blood vessel and or cardiac tissue as a result of the value comparison.
1 more element
A computer readable program product for evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in a subject comprising:
- a computer readable medium having computer readable program embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising
- computer readable program code configured to detect a first value associated with a mechanical property of a vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue at a first spatial point within a first layer of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue;
- computer readable program code configured to detect a second value associated with the mechanical property at a second spatial point of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue within a second layer of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue;
- and
- computer readable program code configured to compare the first and second values and, computer readable program code configured to evaluate the blood vessel and or cardiac tissue as a result of the value.
2 more elements
An ultrasound system comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer array controller configured to deliver a pushing pulse for between about 0.025 to about 10 milliseconds from an ultrasound transducer array having a plurality of elements to a target region within a medium to displace the target region to a displaced position, to deliver a tracking pulse from the ultrasound transducer array to the target region, and to receive a plurality of tracking signals from locations in the target region, each tracking signal being responsive to the tracking pulse, and to form parallel beamformed signals from the plurality of tracking signals.
A system for evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in a subject comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer array controller configured to deliver an acoustic radiation force pulse to the blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue and to detect a mechanical property of a vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue responsive to the acoustic radiation force pulse to provide at least first and second values associated with the mechanical property at at least two timing points during a cardiac cycle of the subject, and to compare the first and second values, and to evaluate a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue as a result of the comparison.
A system for evaluating a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue in a subject comprising:
- an ultrasound transducer array controller configured to deliver an acoustic radiation force pulse to the blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue and to detect a first value associated with a mechanical property of a vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue responsive to the acoustic radiation force pulse at a first spatial point within a first layer of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue, to detect a second value associated with the mechanical property at a second spatial point of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue within a second layer of the vessel wall and/or cardiac tissue, to compare the first and second values, and to evaluate a blood vessel and/or cardiac tissue as a result of the value comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.