Abstract: A BcD mode ultrasound imaging system including a Doppler processor which is configured to receive a Doppler signal having components that are corrupted by residue from color mode interleaving. The Doppler processor is configured to analyze the residue effect and compensate for the residue by filtering the received Doppler signal.

Abstract: An ultrasonic transducer acquires a series of ultrasound tomograms as it continuously rotates through a range of angles. When positioned in a left ventricular long axis view, serial sectional slices are acquired within 6 seconds from which a 3D image is reconstructed. The boundary of the left ventricle is identified in this 3D image using a reference database produced by a learning process that captures expert knowledge of left ventricle cavity shapes.

Abstract: A medical diagnostic ultrasound system is described in which ultrasonic B mode tissue information and Doppler flow information is acquired from a volumetric region of the body and processed in an interleaved sequence to render a three dimensional image. The three dimensional rendering processes the B mode and Doppler flow information to give priority to tissue information, flow information, or a blend of the two.

Abstract: A fuzzy logic tissue/flow determination system receives echo amplitude, color amplitude, and velocity signals from an ultrasound imaging system. These values are applied to a set of fuzzy rules which quantify the amount by which the signal values vary from preset thresholds. The outputs of the fuzzy rules provide an indication of the plausibility that the echo signals represent a tissue or flow condition. The outputs from all the fuzzy rules are combined and de-fuzzified to produce a combined plausibility of the signals representing either a tissue or flow condition. The tissue/flow decision is made based on which plausibility is larger.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are presented for tracing the border of tissue through temporally acquired scanlines comprising the steps of reducing noise in the scanlines, producing a map of tissue edges from the scanlines, denoting a tissue border to be traced, and using velocity information corresponding to tissue edges to trace the denoted border.

Abstract: An ultrasound beam is repeatedly transmitted and received to and from an object, so that an echo signal is repeatedly obtained. A velocity of each of a plurality of portions on the ultrasound beam is calculated based on the echo signal. A position of at least one specific portion of the plurality of portions is tracked in as it changes with the passage of time based on the velocity to obtain a path where the specific portion moves. Conventionally the change of brightness of the M-mode image was tracked to obtain the path. According to the present invention, since the path is obtained based on the velocity having high resolution, the accuracy of track can be improved.

Abstract: A user defines a line of study by two or more icons placed on a two-dimensional motion image. A velocity profile or the estimated spectra at each point along the line of study are displayed as a function of position along the line of study. The velocity and variance parameters displayed are computed in reference to velocity direction angles selected by the user. The information displayed is obtained from scan converted information to facilitate the process. One or more spectral strips may be displayed in addition at one or more range gate positions.

Abstract: An ultrasound imaging system for displaying edge-enhanced topographic flow power data surrounded by B-mode anatomical data without masking out any significant edge-enhanced topographic flow power data and without displaying any significant flow power background noise. An improved high-pass topographic filter is used to enhance the edges of the flow in the displayed image in both the horizontal (lateral) and vertical (range) directions. The two-dimensional topographic filter is a digital filter with three taps in each dimension and is incorporated in the acoustic line memory. Also, the raw flow power data is compressed down to 7 bits in such a way that the transfer function is shifted away from zero input power. In this way, the system gain can be set to effectively zero out most of the background noise. After the flow power data passes through the high-pass topographic filter, it is mapped to values between -128 and +127 (8 bits) with zero in the middle.