Patent Document ID: 4830015
Application ID: 07094737
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for acquiring ultrasound tissue characterization values for a region of interest of a subject, the ultrasound tissue characterization values including an ultrasound beam propagation velocity, an attenuation coefficient, and a waveform width, the method comprising the steps of: sequentially transmitting a plurality of ultrasound beams from a corresponding plurality of ultrasound transmitting elements to the region of interest along a first axis; sequentially receiving the ultrasound beams reflected from the region of interest along a second axis intersecting the first axis at the region of interest with a corresponding plurality of ultrasound receiving elements to obtain a waveform; measuring a propagation time from the transmission of the transmitted ultrasound beams to the reception of the reflected ultrasound beams from the waveform and calculating the propagation velocity for the transmitted and reflected ultrasound beams using the propagation time; measuring a peak amplitude value, a time of occurrence of the peak amplitude value, and the waveform width for the waveform; computing the attenuation coefficient for the region of interest; and converting the waveform into a displayed image of the region of interest and simultaneously displaying the image and the tissue characterization values.