Granted Patent B2

US 12,220,279 · App. 17/810,338 · Granted Feb 11, 2025

Inventors: Cheng He (Wuhan, CN); Oliver Heid (Erlangen, DE)

Assignee: WUHAN UNITED IMAGING HEALTHCARE CO., LTD.

A61B8/461A61B8/4444A61B8/5207A61B8/565A61B8/58

Abstract

Claims (91)

1. An ultrasonic imaging method for scanning a target object using an ultrasonic probe, implemented by at least one processor when the at least one processor executes computer readable program code stored in at least one computer readable medium, the method comprising:

obtaining a radius of a transducer of the ultrasonic probe, an array element width of the transducer, and a focus position of an ultrasonic wave to be emitted by the transducer toward the target object, the transducer including array elements configured for ultrasonic wave emission and image data collection;

determining whether there is an invalid array element among the array elements of the transducer corresponding to an emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width, and the focus position, the invalid array element being an array element that ultrasonic beams emitted by the array element are unable to reach the target object;

in response to an existence of the invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave, determining one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave among the array elements of the transducer based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width and the focus position corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave, each effective array element being an array element that ultrasonic beams emitted by the array element are able to reach the target object; or in response to an absence of the invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave, determining all array elements of the transducer as the one or more effective array elements;

exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave to emit the ultrasonic wave toward the target object;

obtaining ultrasonic image information collected by the transducer after the ultrasonic wave is emitted to the target object; and

generating a target ultrasonic image of the target object based on the ultrasonic image information.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether there is an invalid array element among the array elements of the transducer corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width, and the focus position includes:

determining a maximum value of an array element pointing angle corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the array element width;

determining a maximum pointing circle corresponding to the maximum value of the array element pointing angle based on the radius of the transducer and the maximum value of the array element pointing angle;

determining whether the focus position is within the maximum pointing circle;

in response to a determination that the focus position is within the maximum pointing circle, determining that there is no invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave; and

in response to a determination that the focus position is not within the maximum pointing circle, determining that there is an invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width and the focus position corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave includes:

determining a first deflection angle based on the radius of the transducer and the focus position, wherein the first deflection angle is an angle between a connecting line of a center of the transducer and the focus position and a central axis of the transducer;

determining a second deflection angle based on the maximum pointing circle, the radius of the transducer and the focus position, wherein the second deflection angle is an angle between the connecting line of the center of the transducer and the focus position and a tangent of the maximum pointing circle passing through the focus position;

determining a first slope of a first connecting line between the focus position and an initial left boundary effective array element based on a difference between the first deflection angle and the second deflection angle;

determining a second slope of a second connecting line between the focus position and an initial right boundary effective array element based on a sum of the first deflection angle and the second deflection angle; and

obtaining a left boundary effective array element and a right boundary effective array element based on the first slope, the second slope, the radius of the transducer and a boundary of all array elements, to determine the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the obtaining a left boundary effective array element and a right boundary effective array element based on the first slope, the second slope, the radius of the transducer and the boundary of all array elements includes:

determining a position of the initial left boundary effective array element and a position of the initial right boundary effective array element based on the first slope, the second slope and the radius of the transducer, wherein the position of the initial left boundary effective array element and the position of the initial right boundary effective array element meet an array element directivity restriction condition;

in response to a determination that the position of the initial left boundary effective array element and/or the position of the initial right boundary effective array element are within the boundary of all array elements, designating the initial left boundary effective array element and/or the initial right boundary effective array element as the left boundary effective array element and/or the right boundary effective array element, respectively; and

in response to a determination that the position of the initial left boundary effective array element and/or the position of the initial right boundary effective array element is not within the boundary of all array elements, designating one or more array elements at the boundary of all array elements as the left boundary effective array element and/or the right boundary effective array element.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave to emit the ultrasonic wave toward the target object includes:

determining an amplitude and/or a direction of an electrical signal that excites the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission based on a pulse of the ultrasonic wave according to one or more emitting instructions; and

using the electrical signal to excite the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission according to the one or more emitting instructions to emit the ultrasonic wave.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave includes:

storing an emitting instruction, a gaining instruction, a receiving instruction, and an idle instruction relating to the ultrasonic wave into a ring buffer, wherein the emitting instruction at least includes the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave;

obtaining the emitting instruction of the ultrasonic wave from the ring buffer;

exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave to emit the ultrasonic wave according to the emitting instruction.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining at least one medium propagation time corresponding to at least one depth value of the target object based on the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave and the at least one depth value, wherein the at least one medium propagation time includes at least one emission time and at least one ultrasonic echo time, and the at least one depth value is a distance between at least one position point inside the target object and the transducer in a longitudinal axis direction; and

determining at least one gain value corresponding to the at least one depth value based on an attenuation index of ultrasonic propagation, a noise value and the at least one medium propagation time.

8. The method of claim 7 , the obtaining ultrasonic image information further comprising:

obtaining the gaining instruction, the receiving instruction, and the idle instruction relating to the ultrasonic wave from the ring buffer;

obtaining at least one initial echo signal corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave collected by one or more reception array elements of the transducer specified in the receiving instruction;

performing an analog gain operation on the at least one initial echo signal corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the gaining instruction to obtain at least one enhanced echo signal; and

processing the at least one enhanced echo signal based on the idle instruction to obtain the ultrasonic image information corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave.

9. The method of claim 8 , the generating a target ultrasonic image of the target object further comprising:

composing the ultrasonic image information to obtain an initial ultrasonic image;

performing a digital gain operation on the initial ultrasonic image based on the at least one gain value; and

processing the initial ultrasonic image after gaining to obtain the target ultrasonic image, wherein the processing the initial ultrasonic image after gaining includes at least one of spatial filtering, image rendering, image compression or scanning conversion.

10. The method of claim 2 , wherein the ultrasonic probe is a convex array ultrasonic probe, the array element pointing angle including angles corresponding to the array elements, an angle corresponding to an array element being an angle between a first connection line and a second connection line, the first connection line connecting a center of the transducer and the array element, the second connection line connecting the focus position and the array element.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the center of the transducer is the center of the maximum pointing circle, and the radius of the maximum pointing circle is a product of a sine value of the maximum value of the array element pointing angle and the radius of the transducer.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining whether the focus position is within the maximum pointing circle comprises:

determining a distance from the focus position to the center of the maximum pointing circle;

determining whether the distance is smaller than or equal to the radius of the maximum point circle;

in response to determining that the distance is smaller than or equal to the radius of the maximum point circle, determining that the focus position is within the maximum pointing circle.

13. An ultrasonic imaging system, comprising:

at least one computer readable medium including computer readable program code;

at least one processor configured to communicate with the at least one computer readable medium, wherein when executing the computer readable program code, the at least one processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

obtaining a radius of a transducer of the ultrasonic probe, an array element width of the transducer, and a focus position of an ultrasonic wave to be emitted by the transducer toward the target object, the transducer including array elements configured for ultrasonic wave emission and image data collection;

determining whether there is an invalid array element among the array elements of the transducer corresponding to an emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width, and the focus position, the invalid array element being an array element that ultrasonic beams emitted by the array element are unable to reach the target object;

in response to an existence of the invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave, determining one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave among the array elements of the transducer based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width and the focus position corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave, each effective array element being an array element that ultrasonic beams emitted by the array element are able to reach the target object; or in response to an absence of the invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave, determining all array elements of the transducer as the one or more effective array elements;

exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave to emit the ultrasonic wave toward the target object;

obtaining ultrasonic image information collected by the transducer after the ultrasonic wave is emitted to the target object; and

generating a target ultrasonic image of the target object based on the ultrasonic image information.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the determining whether there is an invalid array element among the array elements of the transducer corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width, and the focus position includes:

determining a maximum value of an array element pointing angle corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the array element width;

determining a maximum pointing circle corresponding to the maximum value of the array element pointing angle based on the radius of the transducer and the maximum value of the array element pointing angle;

determining whether the focus position is within the maximum pointing circle;

in response to a determination that the focus position is within the maximum pointing circle, determining that there is no invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave; and

in response to a determination that the focus position is not within the maximum pointing circle, determining that there is an invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the determining one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width and the focus position corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave includes:

determining a first deflection angle based on the radius of the transducer and the focus position, wherein the first deflection angle is an angle between a connecting line of a center of the transducer and the focus position and a central axis of the transducer;

determining a second deflection angle based on the maximum pointing circle, the radius of the transducer and the focus position, wherein the second deflection angle is an angle between the connecting line of the center of the transducer and the focus position and a tangent of the maximum pointing circle passing through the focus position;

determining a first slope of a first connecting line between the focus position and an initial left boundary effective array element based on a difference between the first deflection angle and the second deflection angle;

determining a second slope of a second connecting line between the focus position and an initial right boundary effective array element based on a sum of the first deflection angle and the second deflection angle; and

obtaining a left boundary effective array element and a right boundary effective array element based on the first slope, the second slope, the radius of the transducer and a boundary of all array elements, to determine the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the obtaining a left boundary effective array element and a right boundary effective array element based on the first slope, the second slope, the radius of the transducer and the boundary of all array elements includes:

determining a position of the initial left boundary effective array element and a position of the initial right boundary effective array element based on the first slope, the second slope and the radius of the transducer, wherein the position of the initial left boundary effective array element and the position of the initial right boundary effective array element meet an array element directivity restriction condition;

in response to a determination that the position of the initial left boundary effective array element and/or the position of the initial right boundary effective array element are within the boundary of all array elements, designating the initial left boundary effective array element and/or the initial right boundary effective array element as the left boundary effective array element and/or the right boundary effective array element, respectively; and

in response to a determination that the position of the initial left boundary effective array element and/or the position of the initial right boundary effective array element is not within the boundary of all array elements, designating one or more array elements at the boundary of all array elements as the left boundary effective array element and/or the right boundary effective array element.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave to emit the ultrasonic wave toward the target object includes:

determining an amplitude and/or a direction of an electrical signal that excites the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission based on a pulse of the ultrasonic wave according to one or more emitting instructions; and

using the electrical signal to excite the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission according to the one or more emitting instructions to emit the ultrasonic wave.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein the exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave includes:

storing an emitting instruction, a gaining instruction, a receiving instruction, and an idle instruction relating to the ultrasonic wave into a ring buffer, wherein the emitting instruction at least includes the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave;

obtaining the emitting instruction of the ultrasonic wave from the ring buffer;

exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave to emit the ultrasonic wave according to the emitting instruction.

19. The system of claim 18 , the operations further comprising:

determining at least one medium propagation time corresponding to at least one depth value of the target object based on the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave and the at least one depth value, wherein the at least one medium propagation time includes at least one emission time and at least one ultrasonic echo time, and the at least one depth value is a distance between at least one position point inside the target object and the transducer in a longitudinal axis direction; and

determining at least one gain value corresponding to the at least one depth value based on an attenuation index of ultrasonic propagation, a noise value and the at least one medium propagation time.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising computer readable program code, wherein when executed by at least one processor, the computer readable program code directs the at least one processor to effectuate a method, the method comprising:

obtaining a radius of a transducer of the ultrasonic probe, an array element width of the transducer, and a focus position of an ultrasonic wave to be emitted by the transducer toward the target object, the transducer including array elements configured for ultrasonic wave emission and image data collection;

determining whether there is an invalid array element among the array elements of the transducer corresponding to an emission of the ultrasonic wave based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width, and the focus position, the invalid array element being an array element that ultrasonic beams emitted by the array element are unable to reach the target object;

in response to an existence of the invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave, determining one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave among the array elements of the transducer based on the radius of the transducer, the array element width and the focus position corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave, each effective array element being an array element that ultrasonic beams emitted by the array element are able to reach the target object; or

in response to an absence of the invalid array element in the emission of the ultrasonic wave, determining all array elements of the transducer as the one or more effective array elements;

exciting the one or more effective array elements corresponding to the emission of the ultrasonic wave to emit the ultrasonic wave toward the target object;

obtaining ultrasonic image information collected by the transducer after the ultrasonic wave is emitted to the target object; and

generating a target ultrasonic image of the target object based on the ultrasonic image information.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (3)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (100)