Patent ID: 8517947

Claim:
An ultrasound system, comprising: an ultrasound data acquisition unit configured to transmit an ultrasound signal to a target object including vessels, receive an ultrasound echo signal reflected from the target object and form ultrasound data corresponding to the target object; a volume data forming unit configured to form volume data based on the ultrasound data; and a processor configured to form a 3-dimensional ultrasound image based on the volume data, perform edge detection on the 3-dimensional ultrasound image to detect edges of the vessels, set a plurality of slices on the edge-detected 3-dimensional ultrasound image, calculate differences in location between edges of the vessels on each adjacent pair of the slices, compare the calculated location differences with a predetermined threshold and connect edges based on a result of the comparison, perform vessel segmentation of the vessels based on the connected edges to form segmented vessels, detect at least one vessel junction from the segmented vessels and perform vessel labeling on the segmented vessels based on the detected at least one vessel junction.