Medical diagnostic imaging with hardware generated region of interest border

In a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions executable by a processor, the instructions comprising:

• acquiring ultrasound data for later generation of an image;
• determining a region of interest to be shown on the image prior to display of the image, the region of interest having a border with a width, providing a border area;
• mapping color or grey scale values to a plurality of pixels, the mapping being a function of flow, tissue or flow and tissue information from the ultrasound data and providing the data for the image, the mapping comprising assigning the color or grey values for use by a display device from the ultrasound data prior to displaying the image, the plurality of pixels including pixels within and outside of the region of interest;
• and
• where at least one pixel corresponds to the border of the region of interest, allocating a border value to the at least one pixel substantially at the same time as allocating the color or grey scale value, allocating comprising incorporating the border value into the ultrasound data or the color or grey scale values for the image;
• displaying the image as a function of the color or grey scale values and the incorporated border values, the border having the width visually separating the pixels outside of the region of interest from pixels within the border of the region of interest, the pixels within the border and the pixels outside of the region of interest representing the ultrasound data.

An ultrasound system for providing a border for a region of interest, the system comprising:

• a transducer operable to acquire ultrasound data;
• a processor configured to assign display values as a function of the ultrasound data and as a function of a border of a region of interest, the border in the display values incorporating a border color for the border, the border having a width in a border area separating a first portion from a second portion with the display values incorporating the border color, the assignment being in preparation for display of an image representing the ultrasound data, first and second portions associated with different types of ultrasound imaging;
• and
• a display configured to display an image having the border of the region of interest without a graphic overlay, the image including the border having the width that is visible and separates the first portion from the second portion, the first and second portions both representing the ultrasound data but from the different types of ultrasound imaging.