PERSONALIZED SCAN SEQUENCING FOR REAL-TIME VOLUMETRIC ULTRASOUND IMAGING

摘要

An imaging apparatus (100) includes at least one imaging probe and an occlusion avoidance processor and is configured for:using the at least one probe to form different imaging apertures;via multiple apertures, detecting imaging blockage; and deciding by the processor, based on a result of the detecting, upon one or more apertures to utilize for image acquisition. In a scouting mode, ultrasound patches (204) may be arranged in a checkerboard pattern to form odd apertures and even apertures that are interspersed for coherence estimation used in assessing blockage. A volumetric occlusion layer may be made by beam-wise projecting coherence values into a 2D map so that openings in the layer correspond to non-blockage in the map, or a connected segment thereof. An independent group (152, 156-158) of acquistion apertures can be pre-tested against the layer to find an optimal one or more acquisition apertures,and a scanning sequence,personalized to the anatomy (120) scouted. The layer can be incrementally updated over the course of a natural cycle of the body, for cyclical acquisition in accordance.