Suppressing interference artifacts in ultrasound

1 . An ultrasound system comprising:

an ultrasound probe configured to transmit ultrasound at a patient anatomy and receive reflections of the ultrasound from the patient anatomy;

an ultrasound machine comprising a circuitry that is configured to generate received data including ultrasound data based on the reflections of the ultrasound and artifact data induced by an interferer that is external to the ultrasound system and the patient anatomy; and

a processor system comprising a processor implemented to:

separate the artifact data induced by the interferer from the ultrasound data including

instruct the ultrasound probe to cease the transmission of the ultrasound; and

reduce a system gain of the ultrasound machine while the transmission of the ultrasound is ceased to determine the artifact data;

determine, based on the artifact data, one or more artifact characteristics selected from the group consisting of an amplitude, a phase, a center frequency, and a bandwidth;

generate, based on the one or more artifact characteristics, filter coefficients; and

filter, based on the filter coefficients, the received data to suppress the artifact data and recover the ultrasound data.

2 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to enable at least one transducer element of the ultrasound probe for reception while the transmission is ceased to separate the artifact data from the ultrasound data.

3 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a control signal; and

repeat the instruction to cease the transmission of the ultrasound and the enable the at least one transducer element for the reception in response to the control signal.

4 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to use a single transducer element of the ultrasound probe at a time to transmit and receive the ultrasound to determine the artifact data.

5 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a summation of first data received from multiple transducer elements of the ultrasound probe to determine the artifact data.

6 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

beamform first data received from multiple transducer elements of the ultrasound probe to generate a beamformed signal; and

subtract the beamformed signal from second data received from a single transducer element of the ultrasound probe to determine the ultrasound data.

7 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to use a dedicated transducer element of the ultrasound probe to receive the artifact signal, wherein the dedicated transducer element is not configured to transmit the ultrasound to the patient anatomy.

8 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

instruct a user to detach the ultrasound probe from a patient having the patient anatomy;

cause the ultrasound probe to transmit additional ultrasound and receive additional reflections; and

apply a time-gating function to the additional reflections to separate the artifact data from the ultrasound data.

9 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound probe is further configured to transmit the ultrasound at a first frequency, and the processor is further configured to filter the received signal with a notch filter having a notch based on the first frequency to separate the artifact data from the ultrasound data.

10 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 9 , wherein the ultrasound probe is further configured to transmit the ultrasound at a second frequency, and the processor system is further configured to:

filter the received signal with an additional notch filter having an additional notch based on the second frequency; and

sum outputs of the notch filter and the additional notch filter to separate the artifact data from the ultrasound data.

11 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to repeat the separating the artifact data, the determining the one or more artifact characteristics, the generating the filter coefficients, and the filtering the received data for different lines of the ultrasound making up an ultrasound image frame.

12 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to repeat the separating the artifact data, the determining the one or more artifact characteristics, the generating the filter coefficients, and the filtering the received data for consecutive ultrasound image frames.

13 . The ultrasound system as described in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to generate the filter coefficients based on at least one of a window function that determines a window length of the filter and a sparse coefficient function that determines the filter coefficients that are set to zero.

14 . A machine-implemented method for an ultrasound system comprising an ultrasound probe, ultrasound machine, and a processor coupled to the ultrasound probe and the ultrasound machine, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the ultrasound probe, ultrasound at a patient anatomy;

receiving, by the ultrasound probe, reflections of the ultrasound from the patient anatomy;

generating, by a circuitry of the ultrasound machine, received data including ultrasound data based on the reflections of the ultrasound and artifact data induced by an interferer that is external to the ultrasound system and the patient anatomy;

separate, by the processor, the artifact data induced by the interferer from the ultrasound data including

instructing, by the processor, the ultrasound probe to cease the transmission of the ultrasound; and

reducing, by the processor, a system gain of the ultrasound machine while the transmission of the ultrasound is ceased;

determining, by the processor, one or more artifact characteristics selected from the group consisting of an amplitude, a phase, a center frequency, and a bandwidth based on the artifact data;

generating, by the processor, filter coefficients based on the one or more artifact characteristics; and

filtering, by the processor, the received data to suppress the artifact data and recover the ultrasound data based on the filter coefficients.

15 . The machine-implemented method as described in claim 14 , further comprising: using a single transducer element of the ultrasound probe at a time to transmit and receive the ultrasound determine the artifact data.

16 . The machine-implemented method as described in claim 14 , further comprising:

determining, by the processor, a summation of first data received from multiple transducer elements of the ultrasound probe to determine the artifact data.

17 . The machine-implemented method as described in claim 14 , further comprising:

beamforming, by the processor,

first data received from multiple transducer elements of the ultrasound probe to generate a beamformed signal; and

subtracting, by the processor, the beamformed signal from second data received from a single transducer element of the ultrasound probe to determine the ultrasound data.