Patent Document ID: 10130340
Application ID: 14369697
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of needle visualization enhancement in ultrasound imaging, comprising acts of: performing by a processor a Radon transform (RT) on a sequence of frames to detect line features in the frames, a frame comprising ultrasound (US) radio-frequency (RF) data obtained during monitoring the insertion of a needle into a subject or an US image reconstructed from the RF data; removing by the processor line features which remain substantially stationary among the frames as false needles while locating a line feature which extends among the frames as the needle; overlaying by the processor the location of the line feature as the needle on an US image of a frame to produce an enhanced image to be displayed; and outputting an output signal by the processor for producing the enhanced image to be displayed, wherein said act of removing of line features which remain substantially stationary among the frames as false needles while locating a line feature which extends among the frames as the needle comprises acts of: for two consecutive frames of the sequence after the RT, determining the location difference of a detected line feature between the two consecutive frames, and accumulating the location differences of the line feature to obtain an accumulated location difference of the line feature; and removing a line feature as false needle if the accumulated location difference of the line feature is below a threshold, and locating a line feature as the needle if the accumulated location difference of the line feature is above the threshold.