Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

In an intraluminal ultrasound imaging system, ultrasound echoes representing vessel walls are distinguished from ultrasound echoes from blood by detecting and examining the phase of all received ultrasound echoes, extracting selected parameters from the phase information and utilizing the extracted parameters to suppress ultrasound echoes representing blood, thereby to enhance the lumen-to-vessel wall contrast. In a first embodiment, parameters are derived from a phase difference between echoes in approximately the same spatial location, including comparisons between neighboring image vectors of the same image frame or comparison between vectors on successive image frames. Selected parameters may be extracted based on statistics of the phase signal or the phase difference signal or from the slope of the phase difference or the phase signal, either between neighboring image vectors in the same image frame or between images of successive image frames. The extracted parameters are used as weights which are applied to the discrete image data to yield a final image. In a specific embodiment, weighted image information may modulate image information obtained by convention amplitude detection. As a final processing step, the mean signal amplitude in the region of blood flow is reduced as compared to an image detected using conventional amplitude detection means.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim