Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
2003-01-07
2004-06-15
Imam, Ali (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06749569
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method for ultrasound imaging of tissues located in a tissue image region, that includes the steps of:
a) Projecting at least an ultrasound beam into the tissues image region;
b) Receiving ultrasound reflections of the at least one projected ultrasound beam from the tissue image region and transducing the reflection into corresponding electrical echo signals;
c) Processing the echo signals according to at least two different modes;
d) One of the processing modes being an imaging mode furnishing a panoramic image of the region under examination;
e) The other at least further processing mode being a different processing mode for imaging particular tissues or tissue structures or physiological flows.
Different modes of evaluating the ultrasound beams reflections for reconstructing useful diagnostic images of internal tissues are known and used in the ecographic imaging devices.
Each different mode has been developed for achieving useful diagnostic images of the internal tissues. Particularly recent imaging modes lead to images which evidence the pathology searched but only for the specific tissue without combining this visual information with a general view or panoramic view of the region where the particular tissue is located or embedded. This gives rise to difficulties in driving the apparatus in a correct way, since the user normally brings the ultrasound probe manually in position at the body to be examined. In absence of a general view of the region under examination the user has no way to orientates itself in order to find the correct position of the probe for taking an image of the tissue to be imaged.
This situation gets worse if one considers that most of the alternative imaging modes such as Doppler or power Doppler modes and all the so called Harmonic Imaging modes leads to a signal only with a certain delay and in some cases also only when the specific tissue is correctly pointed by the scanning beams emitted by the probe.
Furthermore, the actual imaging modes are all separately exploited. So many advantages residing in the mutual integration of the information which may be extracted by the different modes from the reflected signals are lost.
From the point of view of the treatment of digital images a combination of the information of two or more images of the same object may be a simple way to solve the problem. However in the case of diagnostic images the problem lays in the fact that not each kind of combination may lead to the construction of an image having improved information content for diagnostic examinations.
A further problem which renders the use of combined imaging techniques less interesting consists in the fact that in order to allow simple and effective examinations and to obviate to the actual difficulties of the user in correctly handling and moving the probe, a real time output of the images is aimed. This requires very high acquisition and/or computing rates and thus expensive hardware configurations. In order to limit the expense normally a compromise is chosen which depending on the imaging mode may lead to a so called quasi real time output of the images, i.e. to image information extraction and image reconstruction times which are relatively short in order to resemble roughly to a real time function.
As it might be understood from the above there are two technical problems which solutions contrast one against the other in the sense that a solution of one of the said problems means a worsening of the conditions for solving the other problem.
The present invention aims to solve the aforementioned problems by providing a method for ultrasound imaging of tissues which allows to produce better or more complete images of tissues from the point of view of the intelligible information brought to evidence therewith and having better visual appearance.
A further object of the present invention is to provide for particular embodiments of the aforementioned method which may be useful for extracting special information from the images acquired.
The inventions solves the above mentioned problems with a method for ultrasound imaging as described above which comprises in combination the following steps:
h) Displaying the images obtained by processing with the at least two modes in an interleaved or combined, particularly superimposed manner on the same screen;
i) The B-mode image being displayed with a black and white or gray- scale image;
j) The image of the at least one further processing mode being displayed in a colored manner by choosing a color adapted to the optimum physiological capability of human eyes to discriminate the information displayed by the color level scale.
In a preferred embodiment method the color chosen is within the green to yellow wavelengths interval.
Using this kind of combination the information according to the different imaging modes gives the possibility of viewing at the same time or in a same image a particular object which may be successfully or better revealed by a special or particular imaging mode and region in which this object is embedded.
In moving the probe during scanning the user may have the possibility to know at every moment where he is directing the probe within the body under examination and may rapidly correct the probe position and/or orientation if this two parameters have not been correctly chosen. This reduces the examination duration particularly when the examination requires invasive techniques such as Harmonic Imaging with injection in the region to be imaged of a contrast medium. Indeed this medium will rest in the region to be imaged and in the particular object to be examined only for a predetermined and limited period of time.
The said B-mode image may be reconstructed from reflected beams at the fundamental frequency of the projected beams or at a subharmonic or harmonic frequency of the projected beams (Harmonic B-mode Imaging).
The second processing mode may be any kind of signal processing actual or future and for example it may be a mode using physical effects on the reflected echo signals such as frequency shifts or changes in the frequency spectra of the reflected echo signals as for example the so called Pulse Inversion imaging mode.
According to the so called Pulse Inversion mode two successive beams are projected into the region under examination for each scanning line the second beam being inverted with respect to the first beam. The two reflected beams due to the two projected beams are then summed together. Other kind of combination of differentiation of the reflected beams due to two or more successive projected beams along the same scan line may be used and are known in the art.
An alternative second processing mode is a so called Harmonic Imaging mode, being the echo signals received at a different frequency of the fundamental frequency of the projected ultrasound beam and/or being extracted from the echo signals the part of said echo signals within a certain frequency spectrum or having a certain frequency different from the fundamental frequency of the ultrasound beam projected. Particularly reflected echo signals having an harmonic or subharmonic frequency, commonly a frequency corresponding to the second harmonic of the fundamental frequency of the projected ultrasound beam are used.
Alternatively also the so called Doppler o Power Doppler modes may be used as the second processing or imaging mode.
As it might appear from the above, the mentioned processing or imaging modes are not limited to the use as a second imaging mode, the images reconstructed therewith are used to be combined with the images resulting from the first processing or Imaging mode. Indeed it is possible to use also as a first processing or imaging mode one of the above imaging modes indicated for the second processing or imaging mode.
It is also clear that a further development of the present invention may consist in processing or reconstructing images from the received reflected beams according to three or more different processing or imaging modes of the
Esaote S.p.A.
Imam Ali
Woodard Emhardt Moriarty McNett & Henry LLP
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