Patent ID: 8187191

Claim:
A method for providing an equalized ultrasound echo signal for rendering intravascular images comprising: inserting at least a portion of a catheter into a vascular structure; activating a transducer portion of the catheter, said activating of the transducer portion resulting in transmission of an ultrasound signal transmitted toward vascular tissue; acquiring an ultrasound echo signal corresponding to reflections by backscatterers of the ultrasound signal transmitted toward vascular tissue; filtering and amplifying the ultrasound echo signal to remove frequency components that constitute noise; performing a first time-gain compensation on the ultrasound echo signal to accommodate for a drop off in the ultrasound echo signal as a function of distance; and performing a second time-gain compensation on the ultrasound echo signal according to sub-bands within a frequency response spectrum of the ultrasound echo signal, the second time-gain compensation comprising: separating, using an odd-numbered set of band-pass filters, the ultrasound echo signal into a set of frequency band-specific signal components, wherein frequency bands of adjacent band-pass filters partially overlap and wherein the middle band-pass filter of the odd-numbered set of band-pass filters covers a center frequency of the transducer portion of the catheter, applying frequency band-specific amplifier gains to the set of frequency band-specific signal components to create a set of gain compensated frequency band-specific components, and combining the set of gain compensated frequency band-specific components to create an equalized ultrasound echo signal.