Method and apparatus for obtaining B-flow and B-mode data from multiline beams in an ultrasound imaging system
The present invention is a method of and system for imaging an object with an ultrasound transducer array that transmits ultrasound beams and detects echoes reflected from the object. A plurality of adjacent ultrasound beams are transmitted at the object, each of the beams being separated from an adjacent beam by a first predetermined distance. A plurality of groups of echoes are received from the object, with each of the groups of echoes corresponding to one of the plurality of the ultrasound beams. Each of these echoes are spaced from the corresponding ultrasound beam by a second predetermined distance which is less than the first predetermined distance. The transmitted ultrasound beams are arranged such that one of the received echoes corresponding to an ultrasound beam substantially overlaps with one of the received echoes corresponding to an adjacent ultrasound beam. At least a subset of the received echoes are then processed to obtain B-mode data from each of the processed echoes. In addition, the overlapping pairs of received echoes are processed to obtain B-flow data, typically by determining the difference between the overlapping received echoes. Doppler flow data, Doppler power data, and/or Doppler tissue motion data may also be processed from the received echoes.
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
A G G G G A
A61B G01S G01S G01S G01S A61B
inventional inventional additional inventional inventional inventional
Paul R. James R Xiang-Ning
Detmer Jago Li