Claims
- 1. A method of automatically detecting an area without altering data for performing a calculation for a region of interest comprising the steps of:selecting a region of interest associated with an at least two-dimensional ultrasound image display; obtaining a first ultrasound value for each of multiple spatial locations in the region of interest; applying a threshold to altered ones of said first ultrasound values to detect said area within said region of interest; and performing said calculation to derive a surface integral of said first ultrasound values within said area including said first ultrasound values that are below and above said threshold.
- 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of color mapping said first ultrasound values within the area.
- 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of highlighting said area.
- 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of inputting said threshold.
- 5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:obtaining a second ultrasound value for each of said spatial locations within said area; and averaging said second ultrasound values within said area.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said obtaining step comprises the step of obtaining said first ultrasound values from the group of: Doppler velocities, Doppler energies and B-mode intensities.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said applying said threshold step comprises the step of applying said threshold to a histogram created from said first ultrasound values.
- 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:obtaining a second ultrasound value for each of said multiple spatial locations in said region of interest at a different time from said obtaining said first ultrasound values, said second ultrasound values being of a same type of ultrasound parameter as said first ultrasound values; applying said threshold to said second ultrasound values to detect a second area within said region of interest; performing a second calculation with said second ultrasound values within said second area including second ultrasound values below and above said threshold.
- 9. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating said obtaining, thresholding and performing steps over a time period selected from the group of: a portion, single or multiple heart cycles.
- 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of selecting said region of interest of said at least two dimensional ultrasound image display comprises selecting a volume region of interest of a three dimensional ultrasound image display.
- 11. An ultrasound apparatus for automatically detecting a region of interest for performing a calculation comprising:a buffer for storing ultrasound values associated with each of multiple spatial locations in a region of interest; and a microprocessor for applying a threshold to altered ones of said ultrasound values to detect an area within said region of interest and for calculating a quantity derived from a surface integral of said ultrasound values corresponding to spatial locations within said area and including said ultrasound values below and above said threshold.
- 12. The ultrasound apparatus of claim 11 further comprising a display including a highlighted portion corresponding to said area.
- 13. A method of automatically detecting an area without altering data for performing a surface integral calculation for a region of interest comprising the steps of:selecting a region of interest associated with an at least two-dimensional ultrasound image display; obtaining a first ultrasound value for each of multiple spatial locations in said region of interest; applying a threshold to said first ultrasound values to detect said area within said region of interest; obtaining a second ultrasound value for each of said multiple spatial locations within said area at a same time as obtaining said first ultrasound values; and performing said surface integral calculation using said second ultrasound values within said area.
- 14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of color mapping said second ultrasound values within said area.
- 15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of highlighting said area.
- 16. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of inputting said threshold.
- 17. The method of claim 13, wherein said obtaining said first ultrasound value step comprises the step of obtaining said first ultrasound value from the group of: a Doppler velocity, a Doppler energy, and a B-mode intensity and said obtaining said second ultrasound value step comprises obtaining said second ultrasound value from the group of: a Doppler energy, a Doppler velocity, and a B-mode intensity.
- 18. The method of claim 13, wherein said applying said threshold step comprises the step of applying said threshold to a two-dimensional histogram derived from said first ultrasound values in a first dimension and said second ultrasound values in a second dimension.
- 19. The method of claim 13, wherein said thresholding step comprises the step of lowpass filtering backscatter data.
- 20. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of repeating for a time period the steps of obtaining said first ultrasound value, detecting said area, obtaining said second ultrasound value and performing said calculation.
- 21. The method of claim 13 wherein the step of selecting said region of interest of said at least two dimensional ultrasound image display comprises selecting a volume region of interest of a three dimensional ultrasound image display.
- 22. An ultrasound apparatus for automatically detecting a region of interest for performing a calculation comprising:a buffer for storing first and second ultrasound values associated with each of multiple spatial locations in a region of interest; and a microprocessor for applying a threshold to said first ultrasound values to detect an area within said region of interest and for calculating a surface integral quantity derived from said second ultrasound values corresponding to said spatial locations within said area.
- 23. The ultrasound apparatus of claim 22 further comprising a display including a highlighted portion corresponding to said area.
Parent Case Info
This application is a division of application Ser. No. 08/753,999, filed Dec. 4, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,539.
US Referenced Citations (6)