Systems and methods for enhanced imaging of objects within an image

1. A method for operating an ultrasound machine to produce an ultrasound image including an image of an interventional instrument, comprising:

establishing a first ultrasound imaging signature having one or more imaging parameters including a transmit waveform, ratio of transmit to receive beamformed lines, imaging steering angle, receive line density, number of focal zones, quadrature bypass filter type and coefficients, compression curve and speckle reduction parameters selected to produce a high quality image of tissue within a volume to be imaged;

establishing a second ultrasound imaging signature having one or more imaging parameters including a transmit waveform, ratio of transmit to receive beamformed lines, imaging steering angle, receive line density, number of focal zones, quadrature bypass filter type and coefficients, compression curve and speckle reduction parameters selected to produce a high quality image of an instrument within the volume to be imaged;

generating a first frame using the image data resulting from application of the first ultrasound imaging signature; and

generating a second frame using the image data resulting from application of the second ultrasound imaging signature;

detecting pixels in the second frame that correspond to the interventional instrument;

automatically determining a mask of pixels that correspond to the location of the interventional instrument;

blending pixels from the first frame and the second frame in a region that is inside the mask and using pixels from the first frame in a region that is outside the mask to form a blended final ultrasound image; and

producing a graphic indication on the blended final ultrasound image that indicates the boundaries of a coverage area in the blended final ultrasound image where one or more of the imaging parameters of the second ultrasound imaging signature is selected to produce a high quality image of the interventional instrument.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interventional instrument is selected from the group consisting of a needle, a catheter, a stent, and a percutaneous tool.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging steering angle of the first ultrasound imaging signature is selected to provide imaging of the tissue at a desired quality and the imaging steering angle of the second ultrasound imaging signature is selected to provide imaging of the interventional instrument at a desired quality.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the imaging steering angle of the second ultrasound imaging signature is more acute than the imaging steering angle of the first ultrasound imaging signature.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the imaging steering angle of the first ultrasound imaging signature comprises a steering angle magnitude under plus or minus 20 degrees and wherein the imaging steering angle of the second ultrasound imaging signature comprises a steering angle magnitude greater than plus or minus 20 degrees.

6. An imaging system comprising:

an ultrasound imaging system configured to produce:

a first frame from one or more subframes that are acquired with a first imaging signature having one or more imaging parameters including a transmit waveform, ratio of transmit to receive beamformed lines, imaging steering angle, receive line density, number of focal zones, quadrature bypass filter type and coefficients, compression curve and speckle reduction parameters selected to produce an image of tissue within a volume to be imaged; and

a second frame from one or more subframes that are acquired with a second imaging signature having one or more imaging parameters including a transmit waveform, ratio of transmit to receive beamformed lines, imaging steering angle, receive line density, number of focal zones, quadrature bypass filter type and coefficients, compression curve and speckle reduction parameters selected to produce image of an interventional instrument within the volume to be imaged; and

a processor in the ultrasound system that is configured to—

detect pixels in the second frame that correspond to the interventional instrument;

determine a mask of pixel coordinates that correspond to the location of the interventional instrument, wherein the mask is defined by a region in the second frame that includes the detected pixels corresponding to the interventional instrument and a number of pixels immediately surrounding the detected pixels; and

combine a first set of pixels from the first frame and a second set of pixels from the second frame in an area corresponding to the mask and using pixels from the first frame in an area outside the mask to form a blended final ultrasound image comprising the tissue and the interventional instrument; and

producing a graphic on the blended final ultrasound image that indicates the boundaries of a coverage area in the blended final ultrasound image where one of more of the imaging parameters of the second ultrasound imaging signature is selected to produce the image of the interventional instrument.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the interventional instrument is selected from the group consisting of a needle, a catheter, a stent, and a percutaneous tool.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the imaging signal steering angle of at least one of the first and second imaging signature is determined during operation of the system.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the imaging steering angle of the second imaging signature is more acute than the imaging steering angle of the first imaging signature.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the imaging steering angle of the first imaging signature comprises a steering angle magnitude under plus or minus 20 degrees and wherein the imaging steering angle of the second imaging signature comprises a steering angle magnitude greater than plus or minus 20 degrees.