Three dimensional M-mode ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system

Claim 2

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system comprising: a transducer for receiving ultrasonic echo information from a region of the body; and a processor, responsive to said ultrasonic echo information, to produce a three dimensional display of said information, wherein two of the dimensions of said three dimensional display are spatial and the third dimension is temporal.

Claim 3

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for providing three dimensional M-mode images comprising: a scanhead for acquiring sequential planes of echo information from a planar region of the body; a processor for processing said echo information to produce a sequence of B-mode or Doppler images; and a three dimensional rendering processor which produces a three dimensional image of said images as a function of their temporal displacement.

Claim 4

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for providing three dimensional M-mode images comprising: a scanhead for acquiring sequential planes of echo information from a planar region of the body; a processor for processing said echo information to produce a sequence of B-mode or Doppler images; and a three dimensional rendering processor which produces a three dimensional image of said images as a function of their temporal displacement.

Claim 9

The method of claim 4, wherein said rendering step renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by maximum intensity projection.

Claim 10

The method of claim 4, wherein said rendering step utilizes surface rendering to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image.

Claim 11

The method of claim 6, wherein said rendering step processes said two dimensional ultrasonic images with an opacity-transparency function.

Claim 12

The method of claim 4, wherein said rendering step renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by mean intensity projection.

Claim 13

The method of claim 4, wherein said acquiring step acquired two dimensional ultrasonic image frames, and wherein, in said rendering step, said third dimension is temporal frame to frame spacing.

Claim 14

The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of: selecting a cut plane of said three dimensional ultrasonic image, which cut plane exhibits said third dimension as one of its dimensions; and displaying said selected cut plane as a two dimensional M-mode image.

Claim 15

The method of claim 10, wherein said cut plane comprises a plurality of spatially constant A-lines of said two dimensional images.

Claim 16

The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of tracing one or more tissue borders of said three dimensional ultrasonic image.

Claim 17

The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of making measurements based upon said tissue border tracings.

Claim 18

The method of claim 4, wherein said acquiring step comprises acquiring echoes at a harmonic of a fundamental transmit frequency.

Claim 19

The method of claim 4, wherein said acquiring step comprises acquiring two dimensional ultrasonic images in a predetermined phase relationship to a cardiac cycle.

Claim 20

The method of claim 15, wherein said acquiring step comprises acquiring two dimensional ultrasonic images in two or more predetermined phase relationships to a cardiac cycle.

Claim 23

The method of claim 17, wherein said processing step produces Doppler velocity, intensity, or variance image data.

Claim 24

The method of claim 17, wherein said processing step produces Doppler image data from large amplitude, low frequency Doppler echo signals.

Claim 25

The method of claim 19, wherein said processing step produces Doppler image data of tissue from large amplitude, low frequency Doppler echo signals.

Claim 26

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein: said scanhead is operated to repetitively acquire two dimensional ultrasonic images over time of substantially the same planar region of the body; said three dimensional rendering processor renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image from two dimensional ultrasonic image data, wherein two of said three dimensions are spatial dimensions depicted by said image data and the third dimension is the time of acquisition of said two dimensional image data; and an image display coupled to said three dimensional rendering processor for displaying said three dimensional ultrasonic image; and further comprising: a storage device, coupled to said echo information processor and said three dimensional rendering processor, for storing said sequence of images in relation to the time sequence of their acquisition.

Claim 27

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by maximum intensity projection.

Claim 28

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor utilizes surface rendering to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image.

Claim 29

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 23, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor processes said images with an opacity-transparency function.

Claim 30

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by mean intensity projection.

Claim 31

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 21, wherein said storage device stores said images as image frames, and wherein said third dimension is temporal frame to frame spacing.

Claim 32

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 21, further comprising: a cut plane selector which selects a cut plane of said three dimensional image, which cut plane exhibits said third dimension as one of its dimensions; and wherein said selected cut plane is displayed on said image display as a two dimensional M-mode image.

Claim 33

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 27, wherein said cut plane comprises a plurality of spatially constant A-lines of said two dimensional images.

Claim 34

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, further comprising an image tracer for tracing one or more tissue borders of said three dimensional image.

Claim 35

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 29, further comprising means for making measurements based upon said tissue border tracings.

Claim 36

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, further comprising a receiver, coupled to said scanhead, for acquiring echoes at a harmonic of a fundamental transmit frequency; and wherein said echo information processor produces harmonic ultrasonic image data.

Claim 37

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 2, further comprising a scanhead controller, coupled to said scanhead, for acquiring two dimensional ultrasonic image echo information in a predetermined phase relationship to a cardiac cycle.

Claim 38

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 32, wherein said scanhead controller controls said scanhead to acquire two dimensional ultrasonic image echo information in two or more predetermined phase relationships to a cardiac cycle.

Claim 39

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 32, wherein said scanhead controller includes an ECG sensor.

Claim 40

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which produces three dimensional Doppler M-mode images comprising: an ultrasonic scanhead which is operated to repetitively acquire Doppler echo signals over time of substantially the same planar region of the body; a Doppler processor coupled to receive said Doppler echo signals to produce Doppler image data; a storage device for storing said Doppler image data in relation to the time sequence of its acquisition; a three dimensional image processor which renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image from said Doppler image data, wherein two of said three dimensions are spatial dimensions of said planar region and the third dimension is the time of acquisition of said Doppler image data; and an image display for displaying said three dimensional ultrasonic image.

Claim 41

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which produces three dimensional Doppler M-mode images comprising: an ultrasonic scanhead which is operated to repetitively acquire Doppler echo signals over time of substantially the same planar region of the body; a Doppler processor coupled to receive said Doppler echo signals to produce Doppler image data; a storage device for storing said Doppler image data in relation to the time sequence of its acquisition; a three dimensional image processor which renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image from said Doppler image data, wherein two of said three dimensions are spatial dimensions of said planar region and the third dimension is the time of acquisition of said Doppler image data; and an image display for displaying said three dimensional ultrasonic image.

Claim 42

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 35, wherein said Doppler processor produces Doppler velocity, intensity, or variance image data.

Claim 43

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 35, wherein said Doppler processor produces Doppler image data from large amplitude, low frequency Doppler echo signals.

Claim 44

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 1, wherein said transducer is operated to repetitively acquire echo information for two dimensional ultrasonic image frames over time of substantially the same planar region of the body; and wherein said two spatial dimensions relate to the spatial dimensions of said ultrasonic image frames and said third dimension relates to the acquisition time of said ultrasonic image frames.

Claim 45

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 38, wherein said processor comprises a three dimensional rendering processor which renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by maximum intensity projection.

Claim 46

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 38, wherein said processor comprises a three dimensional rendering processor which utilizes surface rendering to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image.

Claim 47

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 40, wherein said three dimensional rendering processor processes said ultrasonic echo information with an opacity-transparency function.

Claim 48

The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system of claim 38, wherein said processor comprises a three dimensional rendering processor which renders a three dimensional ultrasonic image by mean intensity projection.