Patent ID: 8187186

Claim:
A method for depicting the synchronous functioning of the heart from a sequence of images acquired during a plurality of phases of the heart cycle comprising: acquiring a sequence of ultrasound images of the heart with an ultrasound imaging system during a sequence of phases of the heart cycle; identifying in each image of the sequence the locations of reference points on opposite sides of a chamber of the heart; connecting a pair of reference points on opposite sides of the chamber with a line extending across the chamber of the heart; tracking the reference points and the connecting line during the sequence of phases of the heart cycle; accumulating positional changes of the line in the same locations in relation to a static reference in which the line was first detected during the sequence of phases of the heart cycle; and displaying the shape of the accumulated changes of the positions of the line at the end of the sequence of phases of the heart cycle as an indicator of asynchronicity.