Systems and methods for acoustic radiation force imaging with enhanced performance

摘要

Methods and systems for ultrasound imaging are presented. The method includes configuring a plurality of apertures in a transducer array of an ultrasound imaging device, where the apertures include one or more transducer elements. Further, one or more reference pulses are delivered to a plurality of target regions to detect corresponding initial positions. Additionally, a pushing pulse is delivered to at least two of the plurality of target regions through at least two of the plurality of apertures. The plurality of apertures is focused at specific target regions in the plurality of target regions using a compound delay profile. Subsequently, one or more tracking pulses are delivered to the plurality of target regions for detecting corresponding displacements of at least the specific target regions. Further, ultrasound imaging methods that deliver a plurality of short pushing pulse segments and/or tracking pulses to corresponding target regions in an interleaving manner are described.

主权项

1. An ultrasound imaging method, comprising:
configuring an overall transmit aperture comprising a plurality of apertures in a transducer array of an ultrasound imaging device, wherein the plurality of apertures comprises one or more transducer elements in the transducer array; delivering one or more reference pulses to a plurality of target regions to detect initial positions of the plurality of target regions, wherein the plurality of target regions corresponds to two or more regions of a target object having different depth values, different lateral locations, or a combination thereof; determining a compound delay profile that distributes acoustic power corresponding to a single pushing pulse in an acoustic radiation force impulse imaging sequence to at least two distinct regions in the plurality of target regions to achieve multiple foci operation in a single transmit event using a compound focus;
wherein the compound focus comprises at least two of the plurality of apertures corresponding to distinct portions of the overall transmit aperture;wherein the at least two distinct regions have different depths, different spatial locations, or a combination thereof; andwherein the compound delay profile distributes the acoustic power to the two distinct regions so as to achieve a plurality of desired peaks in axial pressure along the plurality of target regions to displace a larger region in the target object and improve uniformity of beam intensity and displacement of the plurality of target regions as compared to a displacement and a beam intensity achieved using a single focus; delivering the pushing pulse to the two distinct regions in the plurality of target regions using the compound delay profile; and delivering one or more tracking pulses to the plurality of target regions for detecting corresponding displacements of at least the two distinct regions in the plurality of target regions.