Abstract: A method for separately acquiring and outputting diagnostic nuclear magnetic resonance images based on water and fat derived signals, which method provides that the separation of the signal components corresponding to the intensity of the resulting pixels or voxels derived from the water of tissues in the body under examination from those signal components derived from the fat tissues in said body under examination of the step is performed by means of a machine learning algorithm, or with automatic learning and which algorithms are configured to classify the signal component as derived from water or fat tissues in the body under examination.

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: Transducer assembly transmits ultrasonic energy towards a zone acoustically coupled to an object or area of interest, and comprises a piezoelectric subassembly matching a curved support layer disposed behind said subassembly. Piezoelectric subassembly comprises piezoelectric elements and metal connections. Piezoelectric elements are disposed along a first azimuth direction to form parallel curved segments of piezoelectric elements extending in a second elevation direction, each being in contact with a corresponding metal connection extending in the elevation direction for transmitting/receiving electric signals to/from each piezoelectric segment.

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: A transducer assembly operable to transmit ultrasonic energy in a desired direction towards a zone adapted to be acoustically coupled to an object or area of interest is disclosed which has a transducer layer, a backing material disposed behind the transducer layer with respect to the desired direction, and a back-matching layer disposed between the transducer layer and the backing material to reflect towards the transducer layer part of the ultrasonic energy directed from the transducer layer to the backing material. The backing layer has an acoustic impedance higher than the acoustic impedance of the back-matching layer. The back-matching material has an impedance less than the impedance of the transducer layer and the transducer layer has a thickness greater than a ¼ of the wavelength of the ultrasound waves the assembly is configured to generate. A process for manufacturing a transducer assembly is also disclosed.

Abstract: A method and a system for generating medical reports based on medical images are provided. The method and system are characterized by carrying out an imaging examination on a target object; visualizing the image or the sequence of images acquired during the execution of the imaging examination; carrying out a report text generation step in parallel with the visualized image or sequence of images by using a speech recognition process; and saving the report text by associating univocally the report text to the visualized image or to the sequence of images.

Abstract: A method for two-dimensional sheare wave elastography imaging comprises: a) acquiring B-mode ultrasound images of a target region in a body; b) selecting a region of interest inside the B-mode image; c) transmitting a shear wave excitation pulse focalized on an excitation region; d) measuring displacements of tracking focal points at different depths positions along laterally staggered tracking lines within the region of interest; e) determining elasticity parameters of the regions between two of the tracking focal points at the same depth and on at least two adjacent tracking lines as a function of the displacements caused by the shear wave at the tracking focal points; f) modifying the appearance of pixel(s) of the B-mode image inside the regions relatively to the grey-scale B-mode image as a function of elasticity parameters determined for the regions; and g) displaying the pixel(s) having a modified appearance at the corresponding pixel of the B-mode image.

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: A method for tissue characterization by ultrasound wave attenuation measurements is provided that comprises: a) transmitting at least an ultrasound pulse in a target body; b) receiving ultrasound pulses reflected by the target body and transforming the reflected ultrasound pulses into RF reception signals; c) extracting an envelope of the received RF signals; d) carrying out a logarithmic compression of the extracted envelope and e) computing a propagation depth dependent attenuation coefficient of the tissues crossed by the ultrasound pulse in the target body as the slope of the line fitting the logarithmic compressed envelope data along the penetration depth of the ultrasound pulse in the target body. The disclosure relates also to an ultrasound system for carrying out the method.

Abstract: Method for shimming a magnetic field which is generated by a magnetic structure, and which permeates a volume of space uses the following steps: measuring the magnetic field in a region of a volume of space permeated by the said magnetic field; determining a parameter which is a measure of the homogeneity of the magnetic field; defining a distribution of correction elements including a predetermined number of magnetic dipoles each having a predetermined magnetic charge and a predetermined position relatively to the magnetic structure generating the magnetic field; calculating the charges of each of the dipoles and the position of each of the dipoles of a distribution which minimizes the parameter being a measure of the homogeneity of the magnetic field; using the distribution of dipoles as the shimming distribution of dipoles to be positioned on the magnetic structure.

Abstract: An ultrasound probe in combination with at least an operating unit such as a tracking sensor or receiver and/or a keypad and/or a surgical tool support, wherein the probe and the at least one operating unit are each one provided with one of two parts of a releasable joint, the said two parts of the joint being releasably engageable one with the other by magnetic force and by mechanical coupling.

Abstract: Controlling an image appearance in ultrasound system comprises: providing a set of image appearance feature control parameters, each of which relates to an image appearance feature according to a pre-defined relation between a value scale of the said image appearance feature control parameter and an image appearance related to a certain condition of the corresponding image appearance feature; generating a function between the value of each image feature control parameter and the value of the standard workflow setting parameters of a combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing the said image appearance feature; and varying automatically the value of the one or more of the standard workflow setting parameters of the combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing an image appearance feature as a function of a variation of the value of the corresponding image appearance feature control parameters for obtaining the requested image appearance feature variation.

Abstract: An ultrasound system with a multimedia information distribution system comprising: a video processor generating a sequence of video frames of at least the ultrasound diagnostic images of a sequence of ultrasound diagnostic images; a media editor for combining the ultrasound video frames with further audio/video data to generate multimedia data; a multimedia encoder encoding the multimedia data in the form of a multimedia file; a media streaming module receiving the said multimedia file and generating a real-time stream of the sequence of multimedia data encoded in the said multimedia file; a web server allowing access to the real-time stream of the multimedia data upon request by a remote client to access the said multimedia file. A corresponding computer implemented method is also disclosed.

Abstract: System and method for shear wave elasticity imaging perform a) acquiring B-mode ultrasound images of a target region; b) selecting a region of interest; c) transmitting a shear wave excitation pulse; d) measuring displacements of tracking focal points or depth ranges at different depths positions along each of laterally staggered tracking lines within the selected region of interest; e) determining a curve representing displacement of tissue as a function of time at different spatial locations within the region of interest; f) determining for spatial locations candidate time(s) of arrival of the shear wave at the spatial location as a function of the curve; g) finding linear functional relation between the time of arrival and the spatial coordinate in the lateral direction using Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm; and h) determining the inverse of velocity of the shear wave in a spatial location as the angular coefficient of the linear function.

Abstract: A method is provided for generating ultrasound transmission waves comprising: a) providing an array of electroacoustic transducer elements each one being connected to an electric excitation signal generator by a dedicated feeding channel; b) feeding at least a part of the electroacoustic transducer elements with a pulsed electric signal having a predetermined frequency, a predetermined amplitude, a predetermined length or duration and a predetermined phase or a predefined delay with respect to the pulsed electric signals fed to the adjacent transducer elements, the said pulsed electric excitation signals comprising a sequence of pulses; c) modulating each or at least part of the pulsed electric signals by feeding to the transducer elements only a predetermined portion of the pulses of the said pulsed electric signals. Modulating is carried out by cutting the duration of each pulse of the pulsed electric excitation signal according to a predetermined time period.

Abstract: Shimming a magnetic field includes measuring the magnetic field and sampling it in a plurality of locations; defining a grid for positioning correction elements; calculating the position and magnitude parameters of one or more correction elements to obtain predetermined target values of the field characteristics, wherein an algorithm has been trained by a database of known cases in which each record links a certain initial magnetic field of a magnetic structure to the pattern of correction elements on a positioning grid for these correction elements in the magnet structure, thereby delivering as an output a pattern of correction elements on the positioning grid, which contributions to the magnetic field of the magnet structure generate a magnetic field which at least best approximates or meets the predetermined target values of the field characteristics.

Abstract: A method for separately acquiring and outputting diagnostic nuclear magnetic resonance images based on water and fat derived signals, which method provides that the separation of the signal components corresponding to the intensity of the resulting pixels or voxels derived from the water of tissues in the body under examination from those signal components derived from the fat tissues in said body under examination of the step is performed by means of a machine learning algorithm, or with automatic learning and which algorithms are configured to classify the signal component as derived from water or fat tissues in the body under examination.

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: 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: 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.