Method for faster ultrasound imaging

描述（由申请人提供）：超声成像是一种低成本、安全、可移动的成像方式，这部分解释了其在临床放射学中的广泛应用。尽管二维解剖超声成像看起来非常快，生成图像的速度与眼睛所能看到的一样快，但对于更精细的扫描，帧速率可能会严重降低。在肝脏病变的切除和/或消融过程中，实时观察肿瘤与三维血管系统的关系是非常可取的，这增加了切除/消融所有肿瘤组织的几率，同时保留了重要的血管。但是获取大量的3D信息通常会将帧率降低到图像引导无法接受的水平。我们提出了一种空间和时间编码方案的组合，能够将超声图像的采集速率提高几倍，从而可以在高帧率下获得精细的超声图像。使用多个叠加光束在多个方向上同时探测感兴趣的解剖结构，与每次在单个方向上探测物体的传统采集相比，将成像时间减少了几倍。基于从所有重叠波束接收到的原始信号，使用我们提出的时空算法可以在重建阶段恢复来自单个波束的信号。模拟和实验声幻象的初步结果表明，成像速度提高了32倍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ultrasound imaging is a low-cost, safe and mobile imaging modality, which explains in part its widespread use in clinical Radiology. Although 2D anatomical ultrasound imaging appears very fast, generating images as fast as the eye can see them, frame rates can be severely degraded for more elaborate scans. During the resection and/or ablation of liver lesions, visualizing the tumor(s) in relation to the 3D vasculature in real- time would be highly desirable, increasing the odds of removing/ablating all tumor tissues while sparing important vessels. But the acquisition of large amounts of 3D information would normally degrade frame rates to levels unacceptable for image guidance. We propose a combination of spatial and temporal encoding schemes capable of accelerating by several-fold the acquisition rate of ultrasound images, allowing elaborate ultrasound images to be obtained at high frame rates. The anatomy of interest is probed in multiple directions at a time using multiple superposed beams, reducing imaging time by several-fold compared to conventional acquisitions where the object is probed in a single direction at a time. Based on the raw signal received from all overlapped beams, signals from individual beams can be recovered at the reconstruction stage using our proposed spatial and temporal algorithms. Preliminary results from simulated and experimental acoustic phantoms were obtained where imaging speed was increased by up to 32-fold. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Ultrasound imaging is a particularly widespread medical imaging modality, due in part to its safety and low cost. Because it is fast, generating images as fast as the human eye can see them, ultrasound imaging is often used to guide procedures, such as liver resections and tumor ablations. More elaborate ultrasound images, where tumor(s) could be seen in 3D in conjunction to the vascular bed, would be helpful toward safely removing all lesions and preserving important vessels but would lead to unacceptably low frame rates. The present project proposes an approach to speed-up by several-fold the image acquisition process in ultrasound imaging, enabling 3D and vascular information to be obtained with high frame rates. Preliminary results were obtained where imaging speed was increased by up to 32-fold.