Measuring and testing – Vibration – By mechanical waves
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-20
2001-11-20
Williams, Hezron (Department: 2856)
Measuring and testing
Vibration
By mechanical waves
C073S620000, C073S628000, C073S861250, C600S454000, C600S456000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318179
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to ultrasound and more particularly relates to determining quantitative movement, such as flow velocity, by using ultrasound.
Currently, most quantitative flow measurement done in ultrasound occurs along the scan axis, i.e., in the direction normal to the transducer face. If a method were devised that measured flow parallel to the transducer face, then the two could be combined to resolve the two-dimensional velocity vector in the scan plane. This concept would differ compared to existing lateral flow (i.e., movement parallel to the transducer face) measurement methods.
One method described by Newhouse and Reid (‘Invariance of Doppler bandwidth with flow axis displacement’, IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings, 1990, p1533), measures the variance of the Doppler signals returned from lateral flow. A technique developed by M Anderson (‘Multi-dimensional velocity estimation with ultrasound using spatial quadrature’, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 852-861) implements modified transducer apertures, creating ultrasound beams which produce modulated signals when scatters move laterally across the beam. Both these methods use no information from multiple ultrasound beam positions or scanning, and therefore differ from the techniques described in this specification. Another lateral flow method which measures direction and magnitude of local blood speckle pattern displacement using consecutive B-mode (i.e., gray scale) images was described by Trahey, Allison and Von Ramm (IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. BME-34, No. 12, pp. 965-967). This technique requires multiple images and measures speckle position changes, unlike the preferred embodiment described in this specification which needs no such temporal measurements and estimates speckle size.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The preferred embodiment is useful in an ultrasound system for imaging a subject under study including first matter and second matter, with first matter moving with respect to the second matter in a first direction. In such an environment, the preferred embodiment enables determination of the quantitative movement of the first matter with respect to the second matter by transmitting into the subject a beam of ultrasound waves having a predetermined size and defining a plurality of beam positions and a beam axis moved in one or more scan directions having one or more scan direction components parallel to the first direction. First reflected ultrasound waves are received from the first matter and second ultrasound waves are received from the second matter in response to the beam positions in the one or more scan directions. The transmitting and receiving preferably are accomplished with a transducer assembly. A first block of data is generated in response to the first reflected ultrasound waves representing at least one component of movement of the first matter with respect to the second matter along one of the scan directions. A second block of data is generated in response to the reflected second ultrasound waves representing a portion of the second matter. A first analysis of the first block of data is performed to obtain a first result; a second analysis of the second block of data is performed to obtain a second result; and a third analysis of the first result and the second result is performed to determine one or more movement characteristics of the first matter. The generating of the blocks of data and the performing of the analyses preferably is accomplished with a processor. The one or more movement characteristics are displayed, preferably with a display unit.
By using the foregoing techniques, movement can be detected by ultrasound with a degree of accuracy and convenience previously unavailable.
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Anderson, Multi-Dimensional Velocity Estimation with Ultrasound Using Spatial Quadrature, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 45, No. 3, May (1998), pp. 852-861.
Newhouse et al., Invariance of Doppler Bandwidth With Flow Axis Displacement, IEEE 1990 Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. 1533-1536.
Trahey et al., Angle Independent Ultrasonic Detection of Blood Flow, IEEE 1987 Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. BME-34, No. 12, Dec. 1987, pp. 965-967.
Bashford Gregory R.
Hamilton James D.
Mo Larry Y. L.
Dellapenna Michael A.
GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company LLC
McAndrews Held & Malloy Ltd.
Saint-Surin Jacques
Vogel Peter J.
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