Steered linear color doppler imaging

Claim 2

A dual mode ultrasound imaging system having an array of acoustic transducer elements and comprising B-mode imaging means to produce an electronically scanned acoustic image of an organism under examination, said B-mode image substantially representing the intensity of echos returned from said organism and comprising multiple B-mode scan lines; Doppler imaging means to produce an electronically scanned Doppler acoustic image of said organism, said Doppler image representing estimates of velocity or variance of moving scatterers derived from Doppler-shifted echos from said moving scatterers in said organism from multiple independent sample volumes along the direction of multiple Doppler scan lines forming the Doppler image with said Doppler scan lines directed at a preselected angle with respect to said B-mode scan lines; display means for displaying the B-mode image as a two-­dimensional image on a color display with echo intensities encoded using a first mapping function of the red, green and blue components and for simultaneously displaying the Doppler image of estimates of velocity or variance of moving scatterers as a two-dimensional image using a second and distinct mapping of the red, green and blue components that is spatially coordinated with and superimposed upon said B-­mode image.

Claim 3

The dual mode ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 wherein the transducer array is a linear array of acoustic elements and the B-mode image is comprised of parallel scan lines directed at a first angle to a line perpendicular to the transducer face, and the Doppler image is comprised of parallel scan lines directed at a second angle to said perpendicular line.

Claim 4

The dual mode ultrasound imaging system of claims 1 or 2 wherein both the B-mode and Doppler images have frame rates faster than one new frame every 5 seconds.

Claim 5

The dual mode ultrasound imaging system of any one of the preceding claims wherein the B-mode echo intensities are mapped into a substantially gray-scale image and the Doppler image estimates of velocity or variance are mapped into a substantially color-­encoded image.

Claim 6

A dual mode ultrasound imaging system including a linear array of acoustic transducer elements; transmit means connected to each transducer element to generate and transmit a B-mode acoustic imaging beam in one direction into an organism under examination; receive means connected to each transducer element to receive acoustic imaging echos returned from said organism, to process said echos into an electrical signal and to combine signals from multiple transducer elements of the array into a summed and intensity-detected B-mode image signal representing an image of tissue interfaces and scatterers in said organism; frame memory means for storing the detected B-mode image signals for each image line with origins for said image lines translated along the linear array; transmit means connected to each transducer element to generate and transmit an acoustic Doppler beam multiple times into said organism at a preselected angle with respect to said acoustic imaging beam; receive means connected to each transducer element to receive the acoustic Doppler-shifted echos from moving scatterers in said organism from multiple independent sample volumes along the direction of said Doppler beam and to process them into digital Doppler information signals; means for extracting from the digital Doppler information signals at least one estimate of the velocity or variance of the moving scatterers in each sample volume; frame memory means for storing the estimates of velocity or variance information from multiple parallel Doppler lines with their origins translated along the array of transducer elements; and means for displaying the B-mode image line signals as a two-dimensional image with echo intensity encoded as a gray-­scale and for simultaneously displaying the estimates of velocity or variance information as a two-dimensional color-­encoded image that is spatially coordinated with and superimposed upon said gray-scale image.

Claim 7

A dual mode ultrasound imaging system including a linear array of acoustic transducer elements; transmit means connected to each transducer element to generate and transmit a B-mode acoustic imaging beam in one direction into an organism under examination; receive means connected to each transducer element to receive acoustic imaging echos returned from said organism, to process said echos into an electrical signal and to combine signals from multiple transducer elements of the array into a summed and intensity-detected B-mode image signal representing an image of tissue interfaces and scatterers in said organism; frame memory means for storing the detected B-mode image signals for each image line with origins for said image lines translated along the linear array; transmit means connected to each transducer element to generate and transmit an acoustic Doppler beam multiple times into said organism at a preselected angle with respect to said acoustic imaging beam; receive means connected to each transducer element to receive the acoustic Doppler-shifted echos from moving scatterers in said organism from multiple independent sample volumes along the direction of said Doppler beam and to process them into digital Doppler information signals; means for extracting from the digital Doppler information signals at least one estimate of the velocity or variance of the moving scatterers in each sample volume; frame memory means for storing the estimates of velocity or variance information from multiple parallel Doppler lines with their origins translated along the array of transducer elements; and means for displaying the B-mode image line signals as a two-dimensional image with echo intensity encoded as a gray-­scale and for simultaneously displaying the estimates of velocity or variance information as a two-dimensional color-­encoded image that is spatially coordinated with and superimposed upon said gray-scale image.

Claim 8

The dual mode ultrasound imaging system of any one of the preceding claims wherein the multiple lines of Doppler information are acquired in interleaved fashion with each line propagated and received with a period T between acquisition with N independent lines of Doppler-shifted information collected within each period T.

Claim 9

The dual mode ultrasound imaging system of claim 6 wherein the Doppler scan lines are directed at the same angle as are the B-mode scan lines.

Claim 10

The dual mode ultrasound imaging system of any one of the preceding claims wherein the activated transducer elements are less than all that are in the array.

Claim 11

A two-dimensional Doppler ultrasound imaging system wherein multiple lines of Doppler information are acquired in interleaved fashion with each line propagated and received with a period T between acquisition with N independent lines of Doppler-shifted information collected within each period T.

Claim 12

A two-dimensional Doppler ultrasound imaging system wherein multiple lines of Doppler information are acquired in interleaved fashion with each line propagated and received with a period T between acquisition with N independent lines of Doppler-shifted information collected within each period T.