Determining material stiffness using multiple aperture ultrasound
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MAUI ImagingMAUI Imaging develops ultrasound-based medical imaging solutions designed to overcome the limitations of traditional ultrasound, particularly in visualizing anatomy beyond bone, air, and metal barriers. Founded in 2006, the company has pioneered Computed Echo Tomography (CET) to enable diagnostic imaging in settings where conventional CT or MRI are impractical. With over 160 patents granted and FDA clearance for its K3900 system, MAUI Imaging targets applications in trauma medicine, critical care, neurosurgery, and interventional radiology, aiming to enhance timely diagnostics and interventions in both civilian and military environments.
MAUI Imaging develops ultrasound-based medical imaging solutions designed to overcome the limitations of traditional ultrasound, particularly in visualizing anatomy beyond bone, air, and metal barriers. Founded in 2006, the company has pioneered Computed Echo Tomography (CET) to enable diagnostic imaging in settings where conventional CT or MRI are impractical. With over 160 patents granted and FDA clearance for its K3900 system, MAUI Imaging targets applications in trauma medicine, critical care, neurosurgery, and interventional radiology, aiming to enhance timely diagnostics and interventions in both civilian and military environments.
Publication Number
US-12343210-B2
Publication Date
2025-07-01
Expiration Date
Abstract
Changes in tissue stiffness have long been associated with disease. Systems and methods for determining the stiffness of tissues using ultrasonography may include a device for inducing a propagating shear wave in tissue and tracking the speed of propagation, which is directly related to tissue stiffness and density. The speed of a propagating shear wave may be detected by imaging a tissue at a high frame rate and detecting the propagating wave as a perturbance in successive image frames relative to a baseline image of the tissue in an undisturbed state. In some embodiments, sufficiently high frame rates may be achieved by using a ping-based ultrasound imaging technique in which unfocused omni-directional pings are transmitted (in an imaging plane or in a hemisphere) into a region of interest. Receiving echoes of the omnidirectional pings with multiple receive apertures allows for substantially improved lateral resolution.
Core Innovation
The invention relates to an ultrasound imaging system that uses a multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array together with a shear-wave-initiating transducer to perform ultrasound elastography in a region of interest. The processor controls the multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array to transmit a first circular waveform into the region of interest, receive echoes of the first circular waveform, and form a baseline image of the region of interest.
The processor further controls the shear-wave-initiating transducer to transmit an ultrasonic pulse configured to induce a propagating shear wave in the region of interest. The processor then controls the multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array to transmit a second circular waveform and form a first image frame that includes a first speckle pattern caused by the propagating shear wave as it moves through the region of interest, and also transmits a third circular waveform to form a second image frame that includes a second speckle pattern caused by the propagating shear wave as it moves through the region of interest.
To estimate propagation, the processor subtracts the baseline image from the first image frame to obtain a first difference frame and subtracts the baseline image from the second image frame to obtain a second difference frame. The processor calculates a first distance between an init line of the multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array and the first speckle pattern of the first difference frame to determine a first position of the propagating shear wave, calculates a second distance between the init line and the second speckle pattern of the second difference frame to determine a second position, and calculates a propagation speed of the propagating shear wave from the first and second positions in the first and second difference frames.
Claims Coverage
Independent claim clm-00001 defines the core system architecture and the main processing chain for inducing a propagating shear wave, acquiring multiple circular-waveform echo-based frames that produce speckle patterns, forming difference frames by baseline subtraction, and calculating propagation speed from measured speckle-pattern positions. Dependent claims refine how the speckle-pattern position is determined and how propagation speed is computed and constrained, including options for segment-level comparisons and a specified frame-rate range.
Multiple-aperture ultrasound array with shear-wave initiation and circular waveforms
The processor controls a multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array to transmit first, second, and third circular waveforms into a region of interest and receive echoes to form a baseline image and successive image frames, while the shear-wave-initiating transducer transmits an ultrasonic pulse configured to induce a propagating shear wave in the region of interest.
Baseline image subtraction to obtain difference frames with shear-wave-caused speckle patterns
The processor subtracts the baseline image from a first image frame to obtain a first difference frame and subtracts the baseline image from a second image frame to obtain a second difference frame, where the first and second image frames include speckle patterns caused by the propagating shear wave as it moves through the region of interest.
Distance-based positioning of speckle patterns relative to an init line and propagation speed calculation
The processor calculates a first distance between an init line of the multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array and the first speckle pattern of the first difference frame to determine a first position, calculates a second distance between the init line and the second speckle pattern of the second difference frame to determine a second position, and calculates a propagation speed of the propagating shear wave from the first and second positions.
Center line-based distance measurement for speckle-pattern localization
The processor determines a first center line of the first speckle pattern and calculates the first distance between the init line and the first center line to determine the first position, and determines a second center line of the second speckle pattern and calculates the second distance between the init line and the second center line to determine the second position.
Distance-over-elapsed-time propagation speed computation
The processor calculates propagation speed by dividing the distance traveled by a propagating shear wave between the first difference frame and the second difference frame by the elapsed time between those frames.
Frame rate range for multiple-aperture image acquisition
The multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array is configured to produce images at a frame rate between 1,000 and 75,000 fps.
Segment-level propagation speed by comparing adjacent segments
The processor determines whether a first shear-wave segment propagates faster than adjacent segments and calculates the propagation speed of that first segment.
The independent claim centers on combining a shear-wave-initiating transducer with a multiple aperture ultrasound transducer array using circular waveforms to generate baseline and successive frames, forming difference frames via baseline subtraction, and computing shear-wave propagation speed from distances between an init line and shear-wave-caused speckle-pattern positions. Dependent claims further specify center-line positioning, a distance-over-elapsed-time speed computation, a frame-rate range, and an optional segment-level comparison of propagation speeds.
Stated Advantages
Not explicitly described in patent.
Documented Applications
Not explicitly described in patent.
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