Ultrasound imaging system with a neural network for image formation and tissue characterization

• Main Authors: Shamdasani, Vijay Thakur, Hope Simpson, David, Trahms, Robert Gustav, Canfield, Earl M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 21.06.2022
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; CALCULATING; COMPUTER SYSTEMS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS; COMPUTING; COUNTING; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; DIAGNOSIS; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; IDENTIFICATION; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SURGERY; TESTING; TRANSMISSION

An ultrasound imaging system according to the present disclosure may include or be operatively associated with an ultrasound transducer configured to acquire echo signals responsive to ultrasound pulses transmitted toward a medium. The system may include a channel memory configured to store the acquired echo signals, a neural network coupled to the channel memory and configured to receive one or more samples of the acquired echo signals, one or more samples of beamformed signals based on the acquired echo signals, or both, and to provide imaging data based on the one or more samples of the acquired echo signals, the one or more samples of beamformed signals, or both, and may further include a display processor configured to generate an ultrasound image using the imaging data provided by the neural network. The system may further include a user interface configured to display the ultrasound image produced by the display processor.