Abstract: The present disclosure describes ultrasound systems configured to perform microbubble-based contrast imaging with enhanced sensitivity. The systems can enhance echo signals derived from microbubbles while suppressing echo signals derived from tissue by detecting phase shifts exhibited by microbubbles in resonance. To detect the phase shifts, and thereby distinguish between microbubble-based signals and tissue-based signals, the systems can transmit a series of ultrasound pulses into a target region in accordance with a predefined sequence. The sequence can include an initiation pulse configured to stimulate microbubbles into nonlinear oscillation, a detection pulse configured to detect the nonlinear oscillation, and a summation pulse formed by transmitting an initiation pulse and detection pulse with a small time delay therebetween.

Abstract: An ultrasound exposure safety processor is configured for spatially relating respective definitions of an imaging zone, and an extended dead-tissue zone that includes both a dead-tissue zone and a surrounding margin. Based on whether a push pulse focus is to be within the extended dead-tissue zone, the processor automatically decides a level of acoustic power with which the pulse is to be produced. If the pulse focus is to be within the extended dead-tissue zone, the pulse may be produced with a mechanical index (MI), a thermal index (TI), and/or a spatial-peak-temporal-average intensity (IspTA) that exceeds respectively 1.9, 6.0 and 720 milliwatts per square centimeter. The imaging zone may be definable interactively to dynamically trigger the deciding and the producing, with push pulse settings being dynamically derived automatically. A display of multiple push pulse sites allows user manipulation of spatial definition indicia to dynamically control displacement tracking.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes ultrasound systems and methods configured to determine stiffness levels of anisotropic tissue. Systems can include an ultrasound transducer configured to acquire echoes responsive to ultrasound pulses transmitted toward anisotropic tissue having an angular orientation with respect to a nominal axial direction of the transducer. Systems can also include a beamformer configured to control the transducer to transmit a push pulse along a steering angle for generating a shear wave in the anisotropic tissue. The steering angle can be based on the angular orientation of the tissue. The transducer can also be controlled to transmit tracking pulses. Systems can also include a processor configured to store tracking line echo data generated from echo signals received at the transducer. In response to the echo data, the processor can detect motion within the tissue caused by propagation of the shear wave and measure the velocity of the shear wave.

Abstract: The present disclosure includes ultrasound systems and methods for imaging anisotropic tissue with shear wave elastography at a variety of angles with respect to the tissue. An example ultrasound imaging system includes a probe coupled to a position tracking system for tracking a position of the probe with respect to a subject, and a processor in communication with the probe. The processor may receive position tracking data from the position tracking system. The processor may define at least one target plane in anisotropic tissue, determine a difference between a current position of the probe and the position of the target plane, and provide a visual indicator of the difference, wherein the processor dynamically updates the visual indicator responsive to a change in the position of the imaging plane with respect to the target plane.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method acquire a sequence of image data as a bolus of contrast agent washes into and out of the liver. The image data of contrast intensity is used to compute time-intensity curves of contrast flow for points in an ultrasound image. Time-dependent data is calculated from the data of the time-intensity curves which, in a described implementation, comprise first and second derivatives of the time-intensity curves. A color map is formed of the time-dependent data or the polarities of the data and displayed in a parametric image as a color overlay of a contrast image of the liver.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and a system for medical imaging and information display. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is proposed a method of medical imaging and information display, comprising: acquiring imaging data of each point of a plurality of points in an imaging plane or imaging volume of a subject in each mode of a plurality of different imaging modes of a medical imaging apparatus; deriving, for said each point, a value by applying the imaging data of the point in said each mode and the imaging data of at least one other point of said plurality of points adjacent to the point in said each mode to a predetermined model, wherein the predetermined model is selected in accordance with a clinical medical application related to the subject; constructing an image based on all the derived values; and displaying the constructed image to a user.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system acquires different kinds of pilot images showing different characteristics of a region of a body where shearwave measurements are performed. The pilot images are analyzed by a push pulse locator to adaptively generate push pulses at locations in the body which minimize or avoid shearwave travel through blood vessels, through regions of stiffness inhomogeneities in the body, or at times when shearwaves are adversely affected by tissue motion.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes ultrasound imaging systems and methods for ultrasonically inspecting biological tissue, such as liver and for automatically identifying and acquiring a view suitable for hepatic-renal echo-intensity ratio quantification, using one or more neural networks, which may be trained to perform image classification, segmentation, or a combination thereof to compute a confidence metric and to provide a recommendation for measurement ROIs placement on the image.

Abstract: An ultrasound imaging apparatus (16) is disclosed for providing two-dimensional ultrasound images of a patient. The ultrasound imaging apparatus comprises an input interface (18) for receiving three-dimensional ultrasound data of a volume of the patient from an ultrasound acquisition unit as a continuous data stream and a motion detection unit (22) for determining a motion of an object in the three-dimensional ultrasound data and a direction of the motion in the three-dimensional ultrasound data. An image processing unit (20) determines a spatial rotation angle (46) of an image plane (32, 34) within the volume on the basis of the determined direction of the motion and determines two-dimensional ultrasound image data on the basis of the three-dimensional ultrasound data in the image plane within the volume. The two-dimensional image data is provided via an output interface to a display unit (26).

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces contrast enhanced images which are processed differently during different stages of contrast agent wash-in. During an initial stage of contrast wash-in, imaging is done using pixels processed by maximum intensity detection, to better reflect the rapid change in contrast intensity. During a later stage of contrast wash-in, time averaged processing is used to diminish the effects of noise and motion on the pixel values. During an intermediate period of peak enhancement, a combination of both pixel values processed by both techniques is used. In another aspect, a wash-in period can be characterized by an appearance stage, a growth stage and a peak stage, in which contrast pixel data is adaptively processed in different ways during these periods.

Abstract: An ultrasound imaging system for analyzing tissue stiffness by shear wave measurement comprises a matrix array probe which acquires shear wave velocity data from three planes of a volumetric region of interest. The velocity data is used to color-code pixels in the planes in accordance with their estimated tissue stiffness. The planes are displayed in their relative spatial orientation in an isometric or perspective display. The positions and orientations of the planes can be changed from the system user interface, enabling a clinician to view selected planes of stiffness information which intersect the region of interest.

Abstract: The present invention proposes an ultrasound imaging system and method for measuring a property of a region of interest in a subject by using shear wave, wherein an ultrasound probe is configured to sequentially transmit, to each of a plurality of focal spots (320, 322, 324) in the region of interest, a push pulse (310, 312, 314) for generating a shear wave (330, 332, 334), each of the plurality of focal spots having a mutually different depth value (z1, z2, z3), and to receive ultrasound echo signals adjacent (350, 352, 354) to each of the plurality of focal spots; a shear wave detector is configured to derive, for each of the plurality of focal spots, a first parameter indicating a property of the generated shear wave, based on the received ultrasound echo signals; and a property estimator is configured to estimate a second parameter indicating the property of the region of interest as a function of the derived first parameters.

Abstract: Ultrasound motion-estimation includes issuing multiple ultrasound pulses, spaced apart from each other in a propagation direction of a shear wave, to track axial motion caused by the wave. The wave has been induced by an axially-directed push. Based on the motion, autocorrelation is used to estimate an axial displacement. The estimate is used as a starting point (234) in a time-domain based motion tracking algorithm for modifying the estimate so as to yield a modified displacement. The modification can constitute an improvement upon the estimate. The issuing may correspondingly occur from a number of acoustic windows, multiple ultrasound imaging probes imaging respectively via the windows. The autocorrelation, and algorithm, operate specifically on the imaging acquired via the pulses used in tracking the motion caused by the wave that was induced by the push, the push being a single push.

Abstract: A location device is provided for determining the location of an acoustic sensor. A location process makes use of a plurality of transmit beams (wherein a beam is defined as a transmission from all transducers of an ultrasound array), with a frequency analysis to identify if there is a signal reflected from the acoustic sensor. A location is obtained from the plurality of frequency analyses.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method acquire a sequence of image data as a bolus of contrast agent washes into and out of the liver. The image data of contrast intensity is used to compute time-intensity curves of contrast flow in the hepatic artery, the portal vein, and at one or more regions of interest in the liver. The time-intensity curve of contrast flow in the hepatic artery is scaled to the time-intensity curve of contrast flow in a region of interest to produce time-intensity curve data representing the flow of blood at the region of interest due to arterial flow. The time-intensity curve data representing the flow of blood at the region of interest due to arterial flow is subtracted from the time-intensity curve of contrast flow in the region of interest to produce time-intensity curve data representing the flow of blood at the region of interest due to venous flow.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatuses for confidence mapping of shear wave measurements are disclosed. Confidence maps of shear wave image measurements may be generated from one or more confidence factors. Masking of graphical overlays of tissue stiffness values, based at least in part on the confidence map is disclosed. The confidence map and/or masked graphical overlays of tissue stiffness values may be superimposed on ultrasound images and provided on a display.

Abstract: An ultrasound system according to some embodiments may include an ultrasound transducer configured to transmit ultrasound pulses toward tissue and generate echo signals responsive to the ultrasound pulses, a channel memory configured to store the echo signals, a beamformer configured to generated beamformed signals responsive to the echo signals, a neural network configured to receive one or more samples of the echo signals or the beamformed signals and produce a first type of ultrasound imaging data, and a processor configured to generate a second type of ultrasound imaging data, wherein the one or more processors may be further configured to generate an ultrasound image based on the first type of ultrasound imaging data and the second type of ultrasound imaging data and to cause a display communicatively coupled therewith to display the ultrasound image.

Abstract: An ultrasound imaging system according to the present disclosure may include or be operatively associated with an ultrasound transducer configured to acquire echo signals responsive to ultrasound pulses transmitted toward a medium. The system may include a channel memory configured to store the acquired echo signals, a neural network coupled to the channel memory and configured to receive one or more samples of the acquired echo signals, one or more samples of beamformed signals based on the acquired echo signals, or both, and to provide imaging data based on the one or more samples of the acquired echo signals, the one or more samples of beamformed signals, or both, and may further include a display processor configured to generate an ultrasound image using the imaging data provided by the neural network. The system may further include a user interface configured to display the ultrasound image produced by the display processor.

Abstract: Ultrasound systems and methods provide a workflow to automatically identify a fetal heartbeat. A region of interest (ROI) is identified in an ultrasound image and an ROI icon is positioned around or over a fetal pole and/or fetal heart. The ultrasound system produces spatially different M-mode lines associated with the ROI icon. The ultrasound system can identify a fetal heartbeat and estimate the fetal heart rate from echo signals received from echo signals associated with at least one of the spatially different M-mode lines. The echo signals for the M-mode lines can also be ranked according to the likely presence of a fetal heartbeat in the echo data.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces an image of shear wave velocities by transmitting push pulses to generate shear waves. A plurality of tracking lines are transmitted and echoes received by a focusing beamformer adjacent to the location of the push pulses. The tracking lines are sampled in a time-interleaved manner. The echo data acquired along each tracking line is processed to determine the time of peak tissue displacement caused by the shear waves at points along the tracking line, and the times of peaks at adjacent tracking lines compared to compute a local shear wave velocity. The resultant map of shear wave velocity values is color-coded and displayed over an anatomical image of the region of interest.