Patent ID: 7513870
Filing Date: 2009-04-07
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
1. An ultrasound tissue harmonic imaging method, comprising the steps of: providing a biological tissue sample; generating a transmit ultrasonic signal at a fundamental frequency; transmitting the ultrasound signal into and along a propagation path in the sample, wherein the tissue distorts the transmit ultrasonic signal along the propagation path and thereby produces a distorted ultrasonic signal including a fundamental component at the fundamental frequency, and harmonic components at second and higher order harmonic frequencies of the fundamental frequency, and further wherein the sample also reflects and scatters the distorted ultrasonic signal including said fundamental and harmonic components; receiving the fundamental and the harmonic components of the reflected or scattered distorted ultrasonic signal; using a band pass filter to remove the fundamental component and filter the received harmonic components to enhance the relative signal strength of at least the received second harmonic component at the second order harmonic frequency; using principally the second harmonic component of the distorted generated transmit ultrasonic signal in producing an ultrasound image of the biological tissue sample; and displaying the produced ultrasound image of the biological tissue sample.