Ultrasound system with iterative high pass filter selection

Abstract

Disclosed herein is the iterative selection of an optimal high pass filter for progressive, ordered filtering of clutter from ultrasound color flow imaging data wherein a criterion for selecting the optimal high pass filter is if a mean frequency of filtered signal data is less than a clutter frequency threshold wherein if the mean frequency is less than the clutter frequency threshold is determined by whether an absolute value of an imaginary part of a first order autocorrelation of the filtered signal data is less than a constant times a real part of the autocorrelation, where the constant is determined by the clutter frequency threshold, wherein a high pass filter input for each iterative selection is the original ultrasound color flow imaging data.

1 . An ultrasound system comprising: 
 an imaging unit configured to gather ultrasound color flow imaging data; and    a processing and display unit comprising a plurality of high pass filters, the processing and display unit configured to iteratively select one of the plurality of high pass filters for progressive, ordered filtering of the ultrasound color flow imaging data.    
   
   
       2 . The ultrasound system of  claim 1 , wherein the iterative selection is based on magnitude and mean frequency of the ultrasound color flow imaging data.  
   
   
       3 . The ultrasound system of  claim 1 , wherein the processing and display unit comprises a handle and buttons, the buttons configured to be operated single-handedly.  
   
   
       4 . The ultrasound system of  claim 1 , wherein the processing and display unit comprises a touch sensitive screen.  
   
   
       5 . The ultrasound system of  claim 1 , wherein the system further comprises a docking unit coupled to the processing and display unit.  
   
   
       6 . The ultrasound system of  claim 5 , wherein the docking unit is configured to exchange files with the processing and display unit.  
   
   
       7 . The ultrasound system of  claim 5 , wherein the docking unit is configured to recharge the processing and display unit.  
   
   
       8 . A computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by a processor in an ultrasound device, the instructions comprising: 
 iteratively selecting an optimal high pass filter for progressive, ordered filtering of clutter from ultrasound color flow imaging data wherein a criterion for selecting the optimal high pass filter is if a mean frequency of filtered signal data is less than a clutter frequency threshold wherein if the mean frequency is less than the clutter frequency threshold is determined by whether an absolute value of an imaginary part of a first order autocorrelation of the filtered signal data is less than a constant times a real part of the autocorrelation, where the constant is determined by the clutter frequency threshold, wherein a high pass filter input for each iterative selection is the original ultrasound color flow imaging data.    
   
   
       9 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , the instructions further comprising selecting the optimal high pass filter if the filtered signal is less than a threshold.  
   
   
       10 . The computer-readable medium of claim of  8 , the instructions further comprising selecting the optimal high pass filter if a magnitude of the filtered signal that is within a predetermined frequency range is less than a threshold.  
   
   
       11 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , the instructions further comprising selecting the optimal high pass filter if a total energy of the filtered signal is less than an energy threshold.  
   
   
       12 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , the instructions further comprising performing filtering over each packet of flow data that corresponds to an acoustic point in a color flow region of interest.  
   
   
       13 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 8 , the instructions further comprising performing filtering in real time while imaging.