Patent ID: 9380992
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: A61B,G01S

Claim Text:
1. A method for estimating velocity of flow within an ultrasound dataset, the method comprising: defining a sample volume gate on a two-dimensional (2D) image, the 2D image being based on an ultrasonic dataset; determining a transmit aperture having one or more transducer elements of an ultrasound probe for transmitting at least one signal, first and second receive apertures that are disposed on opposite sides of the transmit aperture in a first dimension, and third and fourth receive apertures that are disposed on opposite sides of the transmit aperture in a second orthogonal dimension, the first, second, third, and fourth receive apertures being separate from the transmit aperture and each including one or more transducer elements; changing one or more of a first position of the transmit aperture, a second position of the first and second receive apertures, or a third position of the third and fourth receive apertures in the probe in response to an operator changing a position of the sample volume gate by altering which of the transducer elements are included in one or more of the transmit aperture, the first receive aperture, the second receive aperture, the third receive aperture, or the fourth receive aperture; detecting, with the first, second, third, and fourth receive apertures, spectral Doppler velocity estimates of flow within the sample volume gate based on the at least one signal that is transmitted by the transducer elements in the transmit aperture, the spectral Doppler velocity estimates being detected in the first and second dimensions; and determining a true velocity estimate of the flow within the sample volume gate based on the spectral Doppler velocity estimates.