Abstract: To lessen the examination time in an Ultrasound system in a vascular Exam routine, it is desirable to: automatically position in the best way Color Doppler ROI and/or Sample Gate; select the best Color Doppler/Beamline Steering angle; and set the Doppler Correction angle. An algorithm is provided that is able to process in real time the Doppler Signal to identify the Doppler Area where the most significant flow is present, and then it analyzes the ‘Shape’ of such Color Doppler Area identifying the Position and direction of the “main” Flow. The vascular Examination routine can therefore be made easier and faster.

Abstract: A method is provided for the optimization of the process decoding coded ultrasound signals that comprises: defining/selecting a coding function for ultrasound pulses transmitted to a body under examination by means of a predetermined probe; defining the coefficients of a filter decoding the received signal depending on the selected coding function; using said filter coefficients as the setting of the decoding filter corresponding to said predetermined probe for all the ultrasound systems provided in combination with said probe; and wherein the coefficients of the decoding filters are determined by the minimization, by a heuristic iterative process, of the difference between the characteristics of a receive signal, obtained in a real transmit/receive sequence and filtered with a decoding filter, and the characteristics of an ideal receive signal, that is a nominal one, by using as the coefficients of the decoding filter those obtained in the last iterative step.

Abstract: A method for quantifying the elasticity of a material by ultrasounds, comprising the generation of one excitation point, for generating a shear wave, a measurement of the shear wave at a plurality of lines of sight placed in a region of interest at different predetermined distances from the first excitation point, the calculation of the speed of the measured shear wave and the assessment, by calculation, of a mean stiffness value of the material in the region of interest on the basis of the measured speed of the shear wave. In the acquired image, a second excitation point is defined, in such a position that the region of interest is interposed between the first excitation point and the second excitation point.

Abstract: A patient support device includes a patient support surface having a size to accommodate at least a part of the patient body, the device including at least one receptacle for housing a coil, which at least one receptacle is arranged in an area of the patient supporting surface corresponding to the position of the anatomic region to be imaged, the patient support surface being covered at least partially by one or more cushions covering in combination the entire patient supporting surface or at least a part of it. At least one of the receptacles for coupling to a receiving coil being provided on at least each of one or more than one of the said cushions, the coil once coupled to a corresponding receptacle is connected to a control and processing unit of the MRI apparatus by means of a cable which is external to the said patient support device.

Abstract: An MRI control system with a user interface which is windows inspired by including toolbars at the upper side of the window, providing active labels related to specific examinations or classes of tasks, each label opening specific windows related to the task again provided with toolbars, active buttons and menus. According to a further aspect the control system is configured for providing a dynamic interaction between the records in a database relating to single cases of the same patient or of different patient, which allows to address the record of a database to which a visualized image or data report belongs by simply clicking on the image or report or by visualizing the said image or report.

Abstract: Ultrasound method for extracting information from signal components relating to spatial locations in a target region such as for example image reconstruction in the spatial and temporal frequency domain comprises the steps of: Transmitting an unfocussed acoustic wave in a target region; extracting information of the scatterers in the target region from signal components relating to spatial locations of the target region by applying a backpropagation algorithm to the radiofrequency signals generated by transformation of the reflected acoustic waves and which radiofrequency signals has been transformed in the frequency-wavenumber domain and transformed back to the time spatial domain after backpropagation processing, the system provides the further step of optimizing the extracted information by applying corrections to the radio frequency received signals in the frequency-wavenumber domain. The invention relates also to an ultrasound system for carrying out said method.

Abstract: An ultrasound probe comprising a housing, a transducer assembly operable to transmit ultrasonic energy towards a zone of the probe adapted to be acoustically coupled to an object or area of interest, a cooling system comprising a heat transfer device arranged to transfer heat generated by the transducer assembly to one or more regions or areas located outside such transducer assembly. The heat transfer device comprises graphene.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for ultrasound imaging of a biopsy needle or the like during an ultrasound imaging examination, including the steps of alternately performing one or more imaging scans with ultrasound transmit and receive parameters which are adapted for optimized imaging and visualization of the needle and one or more imaging scans with ultrasound transmit and receive parameters adapted for optimized imaging and visualization of the body, in which the needle is inserted, injecting contrast agents in the region to be examined before imaging, and setting ultrasound transmit and receive parameters adapted for optimized imaging and visualization of the body.

Abstract: Magnetic field sensor, in particular for measuring magnetic noise fields caused by environmental magnetic noise in combination with MRI apparatus, the magnetic field sensor being further provided with field compensation coils assembly and with a compensation circuit driving the field compensation coils assembly to generate a magnetic field compensating the static magnetic field dissipating outside from the static magnetic field generator or from the gantry of the MRI apparatus at the position of the magnetic sensor. A method for operating the magnetic field sensor and a method and a system for compensation magnetic noise caused by environmental noise are also provided. An MRI apparatus is also disclosed comprising such a system and carrying out such a method for compensating magnetic noise fields.

Abstract: Performing retrospective dynamic transmit focusing beamforming for ultrasound signals by a) transmitting plural transmit beams, each transmit beam centered at a different position along array, having width or aperture encompassing plural laterally spaced line positions, each transmit beam width or aperture overlapping width or aperture of adjacent transmit beam or more laterally spaced transmit beams; b) receiving echo signals; c) processing echo signals to produce plural receive lines of echo signals at laterally spaced line positions within width or aperture of transmit beam; d) repeating steps b), (c) for additional transmit beams of plural transmitted transmit beams; e) equalizing phase shift variance among receive lines at common line position resulting from transmit beams of different transmit beam positions concurrently with steps c), d); f) combining echo signals of receive lines from different transmit beams spatially related to common line position to produce image data; g) produces an image using i

Abstract: Methods are provided for estimating motion between images associated with a common region of interest, the method comprising: providing frames including a reference frame and a target frame; determining a global motion vector based on a comparison of the reference and target frames; for a plurality of local blocks, determining local motion vectors between the reference and target frames based on the global motion vector to form globally adjusted local motion vectors; considering the globally adjusted local motion vectors as motion estimator. A corresponding system is also disclosed.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an ultrasound multi line dynamic receive focusing beam former that is part of an ultrasound system, where the beam former of the present invention resolves conceptually the, in the prior art dynamic receive focusing beam formers, by fundament, internally generated distortions, which (in the prior art), become internally generated by the beam former process itself. These distortions within prior art beam formers, typically compromises, to some degree, the ability of accurate detections after the dynamic receive focusing beamforming. The present invention advantage is an ultrasound system capable of very accurate focusing selectivity with a high dynamic range, and very low signal distortion, therefore capable of, for example, a clear detection of harmonics and super harmonics, due to the fundamentally absence of internal distortion-generation.

Abstract: A method for designing gradient coils includes the following steps: a) defining an imaging volume as an ellipsoid; b) defining an elliptic-cylindrical surface enclosing the said ellipsoid; c) defining the current density at each point of the surface by a series of basis functions and corresponding coefficients expressed in elliptic cylindrical coordinates; d) describing the magnetic field generated at a generic point by the above defined current density integrated all over the said entire elliptic-cylindrical surface; e) determining the values of the coefficients of the basis functions by solving the inverse function for describing the magnetic field; f) generating a discrete winding patter of a gradient coil by using a stream function method from the continuous current density and by using a series of scattered contours of the stream function as the design of the winding patters according to a set total number of windings.

Abstract: A device and method for guiding surgical tools by ultrasonic imaging having means for acquiring a time sequence of 3D ultrasonic images of a target area, means for determining and tracking the position and orientation of a surgical tool and means for defining the direction of a characteristic axis of the tool corresponding to the detected position and orientation of the tool. The device further having means for determining the position of a working end of the tool along the characteristic axis, means for determining the relative position in space of each 3D image and the direction of the characteristic axis corresponding to each 3D image, and means for generating a 2D image defined by an image plane that intersects the corresponding 3D image of said time sequence.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided that perform baseband beamforming of ultrasound signals. The methods and systems obtain receive signals from transducers of an ultrasound probe and demodulate the receive signals to obtain complex receive signals having in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components. The methods and systems apply time delay and phase correction to the complex receive signals to form delayed complex receive signals before summing the delayed complex receive signals to produce a coherent receive signal. The phase correction includes applying coarse and fine corrections where the coarse correction is calculated as a multiple of a sampling time and the fine correction is calculated as a fraction of the sampling time. The methods and systems apply the coarse and fine corrections contemporaneously by multiplying the complex receive signal by a complex carrier delayed by a multiple of the sampling time and delayed by the fraction of the sampling time.

Abstract: An MRI control system with a user interface which is windows inspired by including toolbars at the upper side of the window, providing active labels related to specific examinations or classes of tasks, each label opening specific windows related to the task again provided with toolbars, active buttons and menus. According to a further aspect the control system is configured for providing a dynamic interaction between the records in a database relating to single cases of the same patient or of different patient, which allows to address the record of a database to which a visualized image or data report belongs by simply clicking on the image or report or by visualizing the said image or report.

Abstract: Provided is a method and arrangement for registering first image data of a first stream with second image data of a second stream. The image data include image information about at least one organ, wherein a shape and/or position of the organ is cyclically changing: Each of the streams include a series of images of the at least one organ at a plurality of different discrete stages of the cyclic change so that each image corresponds to one of the discrete stages. A phase variable defines the stage of the cyclic change and a phase value of the phase variable is assigned to each image within each stream, thereby defining the discrete stage represented by the image. A registration is determined for a pair of images selected by choosing or interpolating images from the first stream and second stream to which a same phase value is assigned.

Abstract: Method for controlling image appearance features in MRI systems, image appearance feature control user interface operating according to the method and MRI system including the user interface. There is provided an automatic scan planning module including a memory in which a look up table or a database of examination kind specific settings of the MRI system is stored univocally associating a specific kind of examination with a factory pre-defined experimentally and empirically determined optimum combination of settings of the MRI system, the automatic scan planning module controlling a user interface displaying a list of alternative specific kinds of examinations and providing a selection organ for the user, for selecting one of the specific kinds of examinations. Upon input of the selection of the kind of examination, the automatic scan planning module configures the MRI system automatically with the image acquisition settings corresponding to the selected specific kind of examination.

Abstract: A method of fusing ultrasound images with pre-acquired images includes acquiring a first 3D ultrasound image in real-time; identifying at least one known reference pattern or object within a pre-acquired 3D image and the 3D ultrasound image; registering the real-time 3D ultrasound image with the pre-acquired 3D image by using the reference pattern or object; fusing the 3D ultrasound images of a sequence of real-time 3D ultrasound images; with the pre-acquired 3D image using data of the co-registration; and displaying fusion tomographic images, each including the corresponding real-time ultrasound image and the pre-acquired image. The registration between real-time 3D ultrasound images and the pre-acquired 3D image is performed continuously in the background by continuing to acquire the real-time 3D ultrasound images and to register them with the pre-acquired 3D images using the reference pattern or patterns or the object or objects.

Abstract: A shimming method for correcting inhomogeneity of a static magnetic field generated by a magnet of a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging machine includes: measuring the magnetic field at a plurality of points over a reference surface; generating a polynomial that solves Laplace's equation with boundary conditions given on the reference surface, the polynomial representing the magnetic field on the reference surface and having a plurality of harmonic terms, each associated with a coefficient; determining the coefficients from the field sampling values; defining a grid for positioning a plurality of correction elements and relating it to the field structure; and calculating the position and magnitude parameters of the correction elements, such that the correction elements affect the coefficients of the magnetic field to obtain the desired field characteristics, wherein the reference surface is a superquadric surface, such that the magnetic field is corrected in a volume delimited by the superquadric surface.