Abstract: A method is provided to simultaneously acquire two ultrasound images. A first set of ultrasound pulses are transmitted at a first frame rate utilizing a first mode of operation. The echoes from the first set of ultrasound pulses are received. A second set of ultrasound pulses are transmitted at a second frame rate utilizing a second mode of operation. The first and second frame rates are different. The first set of ultrasound pulses defines an entire image, while the second set of ultrasound pulses defines a partial image. The echoes from the second set of ultrasound pulses are received, and the echoes from the first and second sets of ultrasound pulses are displayed as a single image.

Abstract: A method is provided to simultaneously acquire two ultrasound images. A first set of ultrasound pulses are transmitted at a first frame rate utilizing a first mode of operation. The echoes from the first set of ultrasound pulses are received. A second set of ultrasound pulses are transmitted at a second frame rate utilizing a second mode of operation. The first and second frame rates are different. The first set of ultrasound pulses defines an entire image, while the second set of ultrasound pulses defines a partial image. The echoes from the second set of ultrasound pulses are received, and the echoes from the first and second sets of ultrasound pulses are displayed as a single image.

Abstract: An ultrasound system and method for calculation and display of tissue deformation parameters, such as tissue Doppler and strain rate imaging, are disclosed. An ultrasound acquisition technique that allows a high frame rate in tissue velocity imaging or strain rate imaging is employed. With this acquisition technique the same ultrasound pulses are used for the tissue image and the Doppler based image. The number of beams used in Doppler subframes are increased to allow tissue visualization based only on Doppler subframes. A sliding window technique is used for processing.

Abstract: An ultrasound machine is disclosed that generates a color representation of moving structure, such as a cardiac wall tissue within a region of interest, and is displayed on a monitor. The color representation is generated by displaying at least one color characteristic related to a movement parameter of the structure, such as mean velocity or mean strain rate. The related feature of the movement parameter is mapped to the color characteristic by an apparatus comprising a front-end that generates received signals in response to backscattered ultrasound waves. A Doppler processor generates a set of parameter signals representing a spatial set of values of the movement parameter within the structure. A host processor embodies a tracking function and a peak-detection function to generate a set of tracked movement parameter profiles and a set of peak values of the movement parameter over a time period corresponding to anatomical locations within the region of interest.

Abstract: An ultrasound machine is disclosed that displays a color representation of moving structure, such as a cardiac wall tissue, within a region of interest on a monitor. The color representation is generated by displaying color hues corresponding to a movement parameter of the structure, such as velocity or strain rate in such a manner as to provide for quantitative visualization of movement parameter gradients. The movement parameter is mapped to the color hues by apparatus comprising a user interface that allows the user to input color band resolution and a local range of relative parameter values. A front-end generates received signals in response to ultrasound waves. A Doppler processor generates a set of parameter signals representing absolute values of the movement parameter within the structure. A set of color characteristic signals is generated by a display processor in response to the set of parameter signals and to a user-defined local range of relative parameter values.

Abstract: An ultrasound machine that generates a color representation of moving structure, such as cardiac wall tissue within a region of interest, and is displayed on a monitor. The color representation is generated by displaying at least one color characteristic related to a set of signal values of the structure, such as velocity or strain rate. The related feature of the set of signal values is mapped to the color characteristic by an apparatus comprising a front-end that generates received signals in response to backscattered ultrasound waves. A Doppler processor generates a set of signal values representing a spatial set of values of the moving structure. A host processor embodies a tracking function and a time integration function to generate tracked movement parameter profiles and displacement parameter values over a time period corresponding to sampled anatomical locations within the region of interest. The displacement parameter values are then mapped to color characteristic signals.

Abstract: An ultrasound machine that generates a pattern of indicia corresponding to tracked moving structure, such as a cardiac wall tissue that is displayed on a monitor. The pattern of indicia is generated by displaying a set of tagging symbols related to the tracked movement of the structure over a time period by an apparatus comprising a front-end that generates received signals in response to backscattered ultrasound waves. A Doppler processor generates a spatial set of signals values representing movement within the structure. A non-Doppler processor generates a set of parameter signals representing a spatial set of B-mode values within the structure. A host processor embodies a tracking function to generate a set of tracked movement parameter profiles and motion parameter profiles over a time period corresponding to anatomical locations associated with the set of tagging symbols.

Abstract: An ultrasound machine is disclosed that displays a color representation of moving structure, such as a cardiac wall tissue, within a region of interest on a monitor. The color representation is generated by displaying at least one color characteristic corresponding to a movement parameter of the structure, such as velocity or strain rate. The movement parameter is mapped to the color characteristic by apparatus comprising a front-end that generates received signals in response to ultrasound waves. A Doppler processor generates a set of parameter signals representing values of the movement parameter within the structure. A control processor adaptively generates a mapping function based on the distribution of the parameter signals to map the parameter signals to a set of color characteristic signals.

Abstract: An ultrasound system and method for calculation and display of tissue deformation parameters, such as tissue Doppler and strain rate imaging, are disclosed. An ultrasound acquisition technique that allows a high frame rate in tissue velocity imaging or strain rate imaging is employed. With this acquisition technique the same ultrasound pulses are used for the tissue image and the Doppler based image. The number of beams used in Doppler subframes are increased to allow tissue visualization based only on Doppler subframes. A sliding window technique is used for processing.

Abstract: An ECG gated ultrasonic imaging compounding system and method for synthesizing a cineloop of a compound ultrasonic image such as a cardiac cycle is presented. In real-time operation, a series of image frames may be recorded at a frame rate over a cardiac cycle and stored in a cineloop memory. A second series of image frames are recorded over a second cardiac cycle. The image frames of the second cardiac cycle are frame-by-frame aligned in time and space with the corresponding image frames from the cineloop memory. The aligned frames are then combined to form a series of synthesized image frames which then replace the original image frames in the cineloop memory. Subsequent series of image frames are also combined with the synthesized image frames in the cineloop memory to form new synthesized image frames which then replace the old synthesized image frames in the image array, and so forth. The series of image frames may be triggered to begin at a cardiac event such as the R-event.

Abstract: A method for providing searching and alerting capabilities in traffic content at access points in data networks is disclosed. Typical access points for Internet, intranet and wireless traffic are described. Traffic flow through an Internet Service Provider is used as a preferred embodiment to exemplify the data traffic used as the input source in the invention. The invention teaches how proper privacy and content filters can be applied to the traffic source. The filtered data stream from the traffic flow can be used to improve the quality of existing searching and alerting services. The invention also teaches how a cache can be developed optimized for holding fresh searchable information captured in the traffic flow. It is further disclosed how the said cache can be converted to a searchable index and either separately or in cooperation with external search indexes be used as a basis for improved search services.

Abstract: An ultrasound system and method for calculation and display of tissue deformation parameters are disclosed. An ultrasound acquisition technique that allows a high frame rate in tissue velocity imaging or stain rate imaging is employed. The tissue deformation parameter strain is determined by an accumulation of stain rate estimates for consecutive frames over an interval. The interval may be a triggered interval generated by, for example, an R-wave in an ECG trace. The strain calculation may be improved by moving the sample volume from which the stain rate is accumulated from frame-to-frame according to the relative displacement of the tissue within the original sample volume. The relative displacement of the tissue is defined by the instantaneous tissue velocity of the sample volume. An estimation of strain rate based upon a spatial derivative of tissue velocity is improved by adaptively varying the spatial offset, dr. The spatial offset, dr, can be maximized to cover the entire tissue segment (e.g.

Abstract: A system and method for acquiring ultrasound information at an acquisition rate and displaying at least a portion of the acquired ultrasound information at a display rate that is slower than the acquisition rate is disclosed. Ultrasound information may be continuously acquired and stored at a frame-rate that is greater than the perception rate of the human eye. At least a portion of the acquired ultrasound information is displayed at a frame-rate that allows human perception. Acquisition and display are synchronized from time-to-time upon satisfaction of a synchronization condition. The synchronization condition may be related to a predetermined time interval or a triggering event generated by or through triggering generated by, for example, a physiological event detected in, for example, an ECG trace.

Abstract: An ultrasound system and method for calculation and display of strain velocity in real time is disclosed. Strain velocity may be determined from tissue velocity. Tissue velocity determined by measuring the pulse-to-pulse Doppler shift at range positions along an ultrasound beam and calculating tissue velocity based on the Doppler shift. The strain velocity is then calculated as a gradient of tissue velocity. Alternatively, linear regression methods may be used to calculate strain velocity from tissue velocity. Alternatively, strain velocity may be determined directly from the difference in Doppler shift between range positions. The result of the strain velocity determination may be displayed in a number of manners such as M-mode, color-coded video images or time-variation curves, and may be displayed in combination, or as a mixture, with a B-mode image. A reliability index may be calculated and used to modify the display of strain velocity information.

Abstract: A method for generating quasi-realtime feedback for the purpose of guiding surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic procedures by means of ultrasound imaging, wherein the location of a surgical tool, therapeutic radiation field or a diagnostic energy field is related to the coordinate system of an intraoperative 2D and/or 3D ultrasound imaging system and, optionally, to pre-operative MR/CT/X-ray data, thus allowing synchronized relations between data acquisition, tool movement and image visualizations.

Abstract: A method for generating anatomical M-Mode displays for ultrasonic investigation of living biological structures during movement of the structure, for example a heart function, employing an ultrasonic transducer (21) comprises the acquisition of a time series of 2D or 3D ultrasonic images (22), arranging said time series so as to constitute data sets, providing at least one virtual M-Mode line (23) co-registered with said data sets, subjecting said data sets to computer processing on the basis of said at least one virtual M-Mode line, whereby interpolation along said at least one virtual M-Mode line is effected, and displaying the resulting computed anatomical M-Mode display (24) on a display unit.

Abstract: A method for real-time analysis and measurement of temporal tissue variations and ultrasonic signals which provides quality improvement of tissue images and qualitative and quantitative characterization of the size/shape of the imaged objects is described. A given number of image frames are stored and made available for digital data analysis. For each spatial coordinate, the temporal signal evolution or a derived temporal signal evolution is extracted. These evolutions are analyzed digitally and the resulting image can be displayed on a display unit as an improved 2D tissue image and/or an indicator image for a particular tissue or fluid category in the imaged scene. The resulting image can be further processed with a spatial filter investigating a plurality of neighboring scan lines and a plurality of neighboring ranges at each image coordinate and finally thresholded in order to obtain a binary indicator of the imaged objects that are detected in the combined time and space characterization.

Abstract: A method for generating anatomical M-Mode displays for ultrasonic investigation of living biological structures during movement of the structure, for example a heart function, employing an ultrasonic transducer (21) comprises the acquisition of a time series of 2D or 3D ultrasonic images (22), arranging said time series so as to constitute data sets, providing at least one virtual M-Mode line (23) co-registered with said data sets, subjecting said data sets to computer processing on the basis of said at least one virtual M-Mode line, whereby interpolation along said at least one virtual M-Mode line is effected, and displaying the resulting computed anatomical M-Mode display (24) on a display unit.