Patent ID: 6370480
Filing Date: 2002-04-09
Classification: A61B,G01S,G06T

Abstract:
A method of quantitatively evaluating image quality characteristics of an ultrasound imaging machine comprising the steps of:storing an optimum ultrasound image representation of a phantom; storing a test ultrasound image representation of said phantom, said test ultrasound image representation being obtained from an ultrasound instrument under test; electronically and automatically shifting in memory the stored test ultrasound image representation until said representation is in registration with said optimum ultrasound image representation comparing one or more image quality parameters of the test ultrasound image with one or more regions of interest of the optimum stored ultrasound image representation with one or more corresponding regions of the test ultrasound image representation, each said one or more regions of interest corresponding to an image quality parameter to be evaluated; calculating from the comparison a respective image quality index for each of said one or more regions of interest; and utilizing said image quality indices to calculate an image health index from said respective image quality indices, wherein said image health index quantitatively represents image quality characteristics of the ultrasound imaging machine under test.