Method and apparatus for creating ultrasound images using a reduced number of transmit beam lines

摘要

An ultrasound system creates ultrasound images at faster frame rate by eliminating ultrasonic transmissions along every beam line. Preferably, ultrasound images are created by alternately transmitting ultrasonic signals on the even and odd transmit beam lines. Parallel beam forming is used where transmissions along a single transmit beam line create echo signals on a pair of receive beam lines. To eliminate the artifact caused by the round-trip beam line sensitivities, echo signals created in response to transmissions along the even transmit beam lines are averaged with echo signals created in response to transmissions on the odd transmit beam lines. The averaged echo signals are used to create an ultrasound image without artifacts.