ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING SYSTEM WITH SPATIAL COMPOUNDING OF TRAPEZOIDAL SECTOR

摘要

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system produces spatially compounded trapezoidal sector images by combining component frames acquired from different look directions. A virtual apex scan format is used such that each scanline of a component frame emanates from a different point (El, En) on the face of an array transducer (12) and is steered at a different scanning angle. For different component frames the scanlines are steered at respectively different angles. In the illustrated example, the scanlines of each component frame are incremented by five degrees relative to the corresponding scanlines in a reference component frame. When the component frames are combined for spatial compounding, the maximum number of component frames are combined over virtually the entire image field.

主权项

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for producing spatially compounded images, including
an array transducer which is operated adapted to acquire component frames at a plurality of different look directions, and a compound image processor comprising: a transmitter adapted to control the array transducer to steer scanlines in a trapezoidal scan format for each of a plurality of component frames, wherein the transmitter is adapted to generate the plurality of different look directions by steering scanlines of each component frame are steered over a plurality of different scan angles and the scanlines of each component frame are steered at respectively different scan angles relative to respective scanlines of the other component frames, wherein the scanlines of each component frame of the plurality are incremented relative to other component frames at angles to the left or right of center of the array transducer; and a compound image memory for storing adapted to store component frames which have been acquired from different look directions, wherein the compound image processor is adapted to combine the acquired component frames to form a spatially compounded image.