Patent ID: 11885917
Assignee: SURF TECHNOLOGY AS
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  A | IPC A  G

Claim 16:
17. An instrument for carrying through the method according to claim 1, comprising
means for operator input/output for setting up the instrument components for a selected function,
transmit means for transmitting at least two pulse complexes composed of an overlapping high frequency (HF) and a low frequency (LF) pulse along at least one LF and HF transmit beam axis, where said HF pulse propagates close to the crest or trough of the LF pulse, and where one of the amplitude and polarity of the LF pulse varies between the at least two transmitted pulse complexes, where the amplitude of the LF pulse can be zero for a pulse complex and the amplitude of the LF pulse for at least one pulse complex of said at least two transmitted pulse complexes is non-zero, and
receive means for directing at least one HF receive cross-beam to cross said at least one HF transmit beam axis at a cross-angle to form cross-beam observation cells by the overlap between each of said at least one HF receive cross-beam and each of said at least one HF transmit beam, and
recording means for recording at least two HF cross-beam receive signals scattered from object structures in each cross-beam observation cell from said at least two transmitted pulse complexes with different LF pulses, where said cross-angle is selected at a magnitude to reduce multiple scattering noise in said HF cross-beam receive signals to produce adequately robust further processing of the HF cross-beam receive signals, and
processing means for processing said at least two HF cross-beam receive signals for each said at least one HF receive cross-beams to for at least one image point provide estimates of at least one of the parameters
i) an estimated nonlinear propagation delay (NPD), and
ii) an estimated nonlinear pulse form distortion (PFD), and
iii) an estimate of the linearly scattered signal with suppression of multiple scattering noise, and
iv) an estimate of the nonlinearly scattered signal with suppressions of linearly scattering components, and
v) an estimate of a spatially varying nonlinear propagation parameter, and
vi) an estimate of a spatially varying nonlinear propagation parameter βp(r), and
vii) an estimate of a spatially varying linear propagation velocity c0(r), and
viii) local estimates of the object mass density and the isentropic linear compressibility, and
ix) estimates of local changes in tissue properties during therapy, and
x) estimates of changes in local tissue temperature during therapy,
display means for display of images of said estimated parameters.