Patent Document ID: 20120157851
Application ID: 13408136
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of ultrasound imaging, said method comprising: transmitting ultrasound radiation towards a target and receiving reflections of the ultrasound radiation from a region of the target in a main reflected signal and one or more auxiliary reflected signals, wherein each one of the reflected signals comprises an input dataset and is associated with a beam with a different and distinct beam pattern; compounding the input datasets from the main reflected signal and one or more auxiliary reflected signals, by the use of a compounding function, said compounding function using parameters derived from spatial analysis of the input datasets, said compounding function parameters being derived from at least one of: (a) A local phase difference and/or magnitude difference and/or magnitude ratio and/or complex signal ratio between different receive beams, and/or functions of one or more of the aforementioned parameters; (b) Spatial functions of the local phase difference and/or magnitude difference and/or magnitude ratio and/or complex signal ratio between different beams; (c) A local difference and/or ratio between spatial functions of the local magnitude and/or phase and/or complex signal in the different receive beams; (d) Applying multiple temporal band-pass filters to the local magnitude and/or phase and/or complex signal in the different receive beams, applying spatial analysis to the outputs of multiple temporal band-pass filters and compounding the results; (e) Applying multiple temporal band-pass filters to the local phase difference and/or magnitude difference and/or magnitude ratio and/or complex signal ratio between different receive beams, applying spatial analysis to the outputs of multiple temporal band-pass filters and compounding the results; or (f) Spatial-temporal functions of the local phase difference and/or magnitude difference and/or magnitude ratio between different beams, wherein spatial derivatives of the local phase difference and/or magnitude difference and/or magnitude ratio between different beams, are applied after local temporal filtering; or wherein the local difference and/or ratio between spatial functions of the magnitude and/or phase and/or complex signal in the different beams are applied after local temporal filtering.