Patent ID: 8172756

Claim:
An ultrasonic imaging system for evaluating and displaying a deformation of a body organ, comprising: an ultrasonic probe configured to acquire a sequence of image data sets comprising at least a first image data set of echographic data and a second image data set of echographic data from said body organ by transmitting ultrasonic beams against said body organ and receiving corresponding beams reflected by said body organ; and a processor including a computer program therein configured to: calculate motion vectors corresponding to image data points of said sequence of image data sets between said second image data set and said first image data set, said image data points comprising coordinates within a referential of said sequence of image data sets; select a reference point within said referential of said sequence of image data sets; project a motion vector corresponding to an image data point onto a first scanline which links said image data point to said reference point to generate a first projected tissue velocity value of the body organ at said image data point; project said motion vector onto a second scanline, which second scanline, for said image data point, is perpendicular to the first scanline to generate a second projected tissue velocity value of the body organ at said image data point; derive an evaluation of two components of a deformation of the body organ at said image data point from said two projected tissue velocity values; and display a graphical representation of said deformation.