Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-29
2002-09-10
Lateef, Marvin M. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
C073S625000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06447452
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ultrasound systems and, in particular, a system and method for reducing parallel receive beamforming artifacts.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional B mode ultrasound imaging, the transmit pulse and the receive pulse are collinear. That is, each transmit pulse is received collinearly as a series of echoes, resulting in a scan line on a display.
However, the need to scan a field of view rapidly while maintaining adequate line density has led to the development of “multiple beam” techniques, wherein two or more independent receive beams are simultaneously formed to detect the echoes from a single transmit beam. However, with such a transmit beam, the resulting two-way beam pattern (i.e., the product of the transmit and the receive beam) is distorted and bent toward the axis of the transmit beam. The discrepancy results in errors in the scan conversion, resulting in a blocky appearance, termed “parallel beamforming artifact.”
As such, it is desirable to correct for the blocky appearance of images formed with parallel receive beams.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other problems in the prior art are overcome in large part by a system and method according to the present invention. According to one implementation of the invention, interpolation of amplitude data is used to correct for the blocky appearance of images formed with parallel receive beams. The interpolation coefficients are derived from the amplitude data itself.
According to another implementation of the invention, the transmit beam shape and the receive beam positions are adjusted such that the two-way beams are as uniformly distributed as possible. In one implementation, the transmit beam is modified to approximate a rectangular beam.
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Liu, Dong-Lai and Waag, Robert. “Propagation and Backproagation for Ultrasonic Wavefront Design.” Jan. 1997, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 1-13.*
Dong-Lai Liu, et al., “Propagation and Backpropagation for Ultrasonic Wavefront Design” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 44, No. 1, Jan. 1997.
Banjanin Zoran
Lazenby John C.
Liu D-L Donald
McDermott Bruce A.
Jain Ruby
Lateef Marvin M.
Siemens Medical Solutions USA , Inc.
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