Ultrasonic image quality evaluation method and ultrasonic equipment

Abstract

The invention provides an ultrasonic image quality evaluation method and ultrasonic equipment. The method is used for improving ultrasonic image quality accuracy. Comprising the following steps: determining the vibration speed of a shear wave according to an obtained shear wave echo signal of a tested tissue in an ultrasonic imaging process; obtaining phase velocity values of shear waves of the vibration velocity of each position point under a plurality of angular frequencies according to time data and the plurality of angular frequencies of each position point in the vibration velocity obtained by performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and the mask image after direction filtering; for any position point, the viscosity value and the elasticity value of the tissue of the position point are obtained by utilizing the phase velocity values of the shear waves of the vibration velocity of the position point under the multiple angular frequencies; obtaining a target phase velocity matrix based on the viscosity value and the elasticity value of each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point under the plurality of angular frequencies; and using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an ultrasonic image quality assessment map.

Description

Background Art

[0002] Biological soft tissues are mainly composed of collagen fibers, elastic fibers, and aminopolysaccharides. Common biological soft tissues include skin, muscles, ligaments, blood vessels, heart, liver, and kidneys. Generally, biological soft tissues can be considered as viscoelastic materials in mechanics. The role of the elastic characteristics of human soft tissues in disease diagnosis has long been recognized. However, the viscosity characteristics of human tissues are often ignored in disease diagnosis.

[0003] At present, among the many ultrasound imaging systems on the market, many machines only display the elastic characteristics of soft tissues. They do not display both the elastic characteristics and the viscous characteristics of soft tissues. That is, the ultrasound image quality assessment map is obtained only through the elastic characteristics of soft tissues. The function of the ultrasound image quality assessment map is to evaluate the quality of ultrasound images. However, the accuracy of ultrasound image quality evaluated only by elasticity is low, which will reduce the accuracy of clinical diagnosis. Summary of the invention

[0004] In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for evaluating the quality of an ultrasound image and an ultrasound device are provided to improve the accuracy of the quality of ultrasound images and improve the accuracy of clinical diagnosis.

[0005] A first aspect of the present disclosure provides a method for evaluating the quality of an ultrasound image, the method comprising:

[0006] In response to an ultrasound image quality assessment request sent by a user, the vibration velocity of the shear wave is determined by acquiring a shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasound imaging process, wherein the vibration velocity is a three-dimensional data signal composed of depth, number of channels and time;

[0007] performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain a vibration velocity after direction filtering;

[0008] According to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point under the multiple angular frequencies is obtained, wherein any position point is composed of the depth and the number of channels in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering, and the time data of any position point is the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering;

[0009] For any position point, using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and the elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point are obtained;

[0010] Based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, a target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained;

[0011] An ultrasound image quality assessment diagram is obtained by using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, wherein the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained based on the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

[0012] In this embodiment, the vibration velocity of the shear wave is determined by acquiring the shear wave echo signal in the ultrasonic imaging process, and then the vibration velocity is directionally filtered based on the vibration velocity and the preset mask image to obtain the vibration velocity after direction filtering, and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at multiple angular frequencies is obtained according to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after direction filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, and the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue corresponding to each position point are obtained by using the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies; based on the viscosity value, elasticity value corresponding to each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at multiple angular frequencies, the target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained; the ultrasonic image quality assessment map is obtained by using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the ultrasonic image quality is evaluated by using the ultrasonic image quality assessment map determined by the two dimensions of the viscosity characteristics and elastic characteristics of the tissue, which improves the accuracy of ultrasonic image quality assessment, so as to further improve the accuracy of clinical diagnosis.

[0013] In one embodiment, determining the vibration velocity of the shear wave by acquiring the shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasonic imaging process includes:

[0014] Demodulating the shear wave echo signal to obtain a plurality of isotropic components and a plurality of orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth, wherein the number of the isotropic components is the same as the number of the orthogonal components;

[0015] The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by using the multiple isotropic components and multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth.

[0016] In one embodiment, obtaining the vibration velocity of the shear wave by using the multiple isotropic components and multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth includes:

[0017] The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by:

[0018]

[0019] Wherein, u(n) is the vibration velocity of the shear wave at time n, Q(m,n) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, I(m,n+1) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, I(m,n) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, Q(m,n+1) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, M is the maximum depth of the ultrasonic echo signal, N is the maximum time corresponding to the ultrasonic echo signal, f c is the center frequency of the ultrasonic echo signal, and c is the speed of sound in the measured tissue.

[0020] In one embodiment, performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain the vibration velocity after direction filtering includes:

[0021] For the vibration velocity data corresponding to any depth in the vibration velocity, the vibration velocity data is subjected to Fourier transformation to obtain a frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data, wherein the vibration velocity data is the number of channels and time corresponding to the depth in the vibration velocity; and,

[0022] A first intermediate matrix is ​​obtained by multiplying the frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data with an image matrix corresponding to a preset mask image; and,

[0023] Performing an inverse Fourier transform on the first intermediate matrix to obtain vibration velocity data after direction filtering corresponding to the depth;

[0024] Based on the direction-filtered vibration velocity data corresponding to each depth, the direction-filtered vibration velocity is obtained.

[0025] In one embodiment, obtaining the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies according to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the direction filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies includes:

[0026] For the time data of any position point, the time data is Fourier transformed at multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies; and,

[0027] Performing Fourier transformation on the time data of the target position point corresponding to the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the target position point is a position point at a specified channel number away from the position point in a specified direction; and

[0028] For any angular frequency, the phase of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency and the phase of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the angular frequency are calculated to obtain a phase difference of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency; and

[0029] According to the phase differences of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies, the multiple angular frequencies and the designated number of channels, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies are obtained.

[0030] In one embodiment, obtaining the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocity of the location point at the multiple angular frequencies respectively according to the phase differences of the vibration velocity of the location point at the multiple angular frequencies respectively, the multiple angular frequencies and the designated number of channels includes:

[0031] For any angular frequency, multiplying the specified number of channels by the angular frequency to obtain a first intermediate value; and,

[0032] The first intermediate value is divided by the phase difference between the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency to obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency.

[0033] In one embodiment, the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point are obtained by using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave at the multiple angular frequencies of the vibration velocity at the position point, including:

[0034] For the vibration velocity at any location, perform the following steps:

[0035] For any one of the multiple angular frequencies, a velocity equation corresponding to the angular frequency is obtained based on the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at the angular frequency and the angular frequency, wherein the velocity equation is a quadratic equation with the viscosity value and the elasticity value as unknown variables;

[0036] According to the velocity equations corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue at the position point are obtained.

[0037] In one embodiment, the target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave at the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, including:

[0038] For any position point, the target phase velocity is obtained based on the fitting residual variance of the position point, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, and the average phase velocity values ​​corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the fitting residual variance of any position point is obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point;

[0039] The target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained by using the target phase velocity of each position point.

[0040] In one embodiment, the use of the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an ultrasound image quality assessment graph includes:

[0041] Using the preset weights of the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, respectively, a weighted sum is performed on the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an intermediate velocity matrix;

[0042] Normalizing the intermediate speed matrix to obtain the normalized intermediate speed matrix;

[0043] Based on the normalized intermediate velocity matrix, the ultrasound image quality assessment map is obtained.

[0044] A second aspect of the present disclosure provides an ultrasound device, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the processor and the memory are connected via a bus;

[0045] The memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to perform the following operations based on the computer program:

[0046] In response to an ultrasound image quality assessment request sent by a user, the vibration velocity of the shear wave is determined by acquiring a shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasound imaging process, wherein the vibration velocity is a three-dimensional data signal composed of depth, number of channels and time;

[0047] performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain a vibration velocity after direction filtering;

[0048] According to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point under the multiple angular frequencies is obtained, wherein any position point is composed of the depth and the number of channels in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering, and the time data of any position point is the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering;

[0049] For any position point, using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and the elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point are obtained;

[0050] Based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, a target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained;

[0051] An ultrasound image quality assessment diagram is obtained by using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, wherein the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained based on the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

[0052] In one embodiment, the processor executes the step of determining the vibration velocity of the shear wave by acquiring the shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasonic imaging process, and is specifically configured as follows:

[0053] Demodulating the shear wave echo signal to obtain a plurality of isotropic components and a plurality of orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth, wherein the number of the isotropic components is the same as the number of the orthogonal components;

[0054] The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by using the multiple isotropic components and multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth.

[0055] In one embodiment, the processor executes the step of obtaining the vibration velocity of the shear wave by using the multiple isotropic components and the multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth, and is specifically configured as follows:

[0056] The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by:

[0057]

[0058] Wherein, u(n) is the vibration velocity of the shear wave at time n, Q(m,n) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, I(m,n+1) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, I(m,n) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, Q(m,n+1) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, M is the maximum depth of the ultrasonic echo signal, N is the maximum time corresponding to the ultrasonic echo signal, f c is the center frequency of the ultrasonic echo signal, and c is the speed of sound in the measured tissue.

[0059] In one embodiment, the processor performs the directional filtering of the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain the vibration velocity after directional filtering, which is specifically configured as follows:

[0060] For the vibration velocity data corresponding to any depth in the vibration velocity, the vibration velocity data is subjected to Fourier transformation to obtain a frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data, wherein the vibration velocity data is the number of channels and time corresponding to the depth in the vibration velocity; and,

[0061] A first intermediate matrix is ​​obtained by multiplying the frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data with an image matrix corresponding to a preset mask image; and,

[0062] Performing an inverse Fourier transform on the first intermediate matrix to obtain vibration velocity data after direction filtering corresponding to the depth;

[0063] Based on the direction-filtered vibration velocity data corresponding to each depth, the direction-filtered vibration velocity is obtained.

[0064] In one embodiment, the processor executes the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the direction filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, which is specifically configured as follows:

[0065] For the time data of any position point, the time data is Fourier transformed at multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies; and,

[0066] Performing Fourier transformation on the time data of the target position point corresponding to the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the target position point is a position point at a specified channel number away from the position point in a specified direction; and

[0067] For any angular frequency, the phase of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency and the phase of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the angular frequency are calculated to obtain a phase difference of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency; and

[0068] According to the phase differences of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies, the multiple angular frequencies and the designated number of channels, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies are obtained.

[0069] In one embodiment, the processor executes the step of obtaining the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies respectively according to the phase difference of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, the multiple angular frequencies and the specified number of channels, and is specifically configured as follows:

[0070] For any angular frequency, multiplying the specified number of channels by the angular frequency to obtain a first intermediate value; and,

[0071] The first intermediate value is divided by the phase difference between the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency to obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency.

[0072] In one embodiment, the processor executes the step of using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave at the multiple angular frequencies of the vibration velocity at the location point to obtain the viscosity value and the elasticity value of the measured tissue at the location point, which is specifically configured as follows:

[0073] For the vibration velocity at any location, perform the following steps:

[0074] For any one of the multiple angular frequencies, a velocity equation corresponding to the angular frequency is obtained based on the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at the angular frequency and the angular frequency, wherein the velocity equation is a quadratic equation with the viscosity value and the elasticity value as unknown variables;

[0075] According to the velocity equations corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue at the position point are obtained.

[0076] In one embodiment, the processor executes the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave at the multiple angular frequencies based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the vibration velocity of each position point to obtain the target phase velocity matrix, which is specifically configured as follows:

[0077] For any position point, the target phase velocity is obtained based on the fitting residual variance of the position point, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, and the average phase velocity values ​​corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the fitting residual variance of any position point is obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point;

[0078] The target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained by using the target phase velocity of each position point.

[0079] In one embodiment, the processor performs the step of using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an ultrasound image quality assessment graph, and is specifically configured as follows:

[0080] Using the preset weights of the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, respectively, a weighted sum is performed on the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an intermediate velocity matrix;

[0081] Normalizing the intermediate speed matrix to obtain the normalized intermediate speed matrix;

[0082] Based on the normalized intermediate velocity matrix, the ultrasound image quality assessment map is obtained.

[0083] According to a third aspect provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer storage medium is provided, wherein the computer storage medium stores a computer program, and the computer program is used to execute the method as described in the first aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0084] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present disclosure. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative labor.

[0085] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an applicable scenario in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0086] Figure 2 This is one of the flowcharts of a method for evaluating the quality of an ultrasound image according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0087] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a process for determining the vibration velocity of a shear wave according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0088] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of a process of determining vibration velocity after direction filtering according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0089] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a mask image according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0090] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of a process of determining the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0091] Figure 7A schematic diagram of a flow chart for determining a viscosity value and an elasticity value of a tissue corresponding to a location point according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0092] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of a process for determining a target phase velocity matrix according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0093] Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an image of vibration velocity in a beam domain according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0094] Fig.10 is a schematic diagram of a beam domain vibration matrix according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0095] Fig.11 is a schematic diagram of an ultrasound image quality assessment diagram according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0096] Fig.12 FIG2 is a second flow chart of a method for evaluating the quality of an ultrasound image according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0097] Fig.13 A quality assessment device for ultrasound images according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0098] Fig.14 It is a schematic structural diagram of an ultrasonic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0099] In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure clearer, the technical solution in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0100] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "and / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B may represent three situations: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0101] The application scenarios described in the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure. It is known to those skilled in the art that with the emergence of new application scenarios, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure are also applicable to similar technical problems. In the description of the present disclosure, unless otherwise specified, the meaning of "multiple" is two or more.

[0102] In the prior art, among the numerous ultrasound imaging systems on the market, many machines only display the elastic characteristics of soft tissues. The elastic characteristics and viscosity characteristics of soft tissues are not displayed together, that is, the ultrasound image quality assessment map is obtained only by the elastic characteristics of soft tissues. The function of the ultrasound image quality assessment map is to evaluate the quality of ultrasound images. However, the accuracy of ultrasound image quality evaluated only by elasticity is low, which will reduce the accuracy of clinical diagnosis.

[0103] Therefore, the present disclosure provides a method for evaluating the quality of ultrasonic images, which determines the vibration velocity of the shear wave by acquiring the shear wave echo signal in the ultrasonic imaging process, and then performs direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain the vibration velocity after direction filtering, and obtains the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at multiple angular frequencies according to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after direction filtering and a plurality of preset angular frequencies, and obtains the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue corresponding to each position point by using the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the said plurality of angular frequencies; obtains the target phase velocity matrix based on the viscosity value, elasticity value corresponding to each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at multiple angular frequencies; obtains the ultrasonic image quality evaluation diagram by using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the ultrasonic image quality is evaluated by using the ultrasonic image quality evaluation diagram determined by the two dimensions of the viscosity characteristics and elastic characteristics of the tissue, which improves the accuracy of the ultrasonic image quality evaluation, so as to further improve the accuracy of the clinical diagnosis. Below, the scheme of the present disclosure is described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0104] like Figure 1 As shown, an application scenario of an ultrasound image quality assessment method includes an ultrasound device 110 and a terminal device 120.

[0105] In a possible application scenario, the ultrasound device 110 responds to an ultrasound image quality assessment request sent by a user, and determines the vibration velocity of the shear wave by acquiring the shear wave echo signal during the ultrasound imaging process, wherein the vibration velocity is a three-dimensional data signal composed of depth, number of channels, and time; then the ultrasound device 110 performs direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain the vibration velocity after direction filtering; and based on the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after direction filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, obtains the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, wherein any position point is the depth and number of channels in the vibration velocity after direction filtering. The time data of any position point is determined to be the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the direction filtering; for any position point, the ultrasound device 110 uses the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue corresponding to the position point; and based on the viscosity value, elasticity value corresponding to each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, obtain the target phase velocity matrix; finally, the ultrasound device 110 uses the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain the ultrasound image quality assessment diagram, and sends the ultrasound image quality assessment diagram to the terminal device 110 for display. Among them, the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained based on the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

[0106] in, Figure 1 The ultrasound device 110 and the terminal device 120 may exchange information via a communication network, wherein the communication mode adopted by the communication network may be divided into a wireless communication mode or a wired communication mode.

[0107] Exemplarily, the ultrasound device 110 can access the network through cellular mobile communication technology to communicate with the terminal device 120, wherein the cellular mobile communication technology, for example, includes the fifth generation mobile communication (5th Generation Mobile Networks, 5G) technology.

[0108] Optionally, the ultrasound device 110 may access the network and communicate with the terminal device 120 via short-range wireless communication, wherein the short-range wireless communication method, for example, includes Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology.

[0109] Among them, only a single ultrasound device 110 and a single terminal device 120 are described in detail in the description of this application, but those skilled in the art should understand that the ultrasound device 110 and the terminal device 120 shown are intended to represent the operation of the ultrasound device 110 and the terminal device 120 involved in the technical solution of this application. It does not imply any limitation on the number, type or location of the ultrasound device 110 and the terminal device 120. It should be noted that if additional modules are added to the illustrated environment or individual modules are removed therefrom, the underlying concept of the exemplary embodiment of this application will not be changed.

[0110] It should be noted that the ultrasound image quality assessment method proposed in this application is not only applicable to Figure 1 The application scenario shown is also applicable to any device for quality assessment of ultrasound images.

[0111] The following describes the ultrasound image quality assessment method of an exemplary embodiment of the present application in combination with the application scenarios described above and with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the above application scenarios are only shown to facilitate understanding of the methods and principles of the present application, and the implementation of the present application is not limited in this regard.

[0112] like Figure 2 FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the ultrasound image quality assessment method disclosed in the present invention, which may include the following steps:

[0113] Step 201: In response to an ultrasound image quality assessment request sent by a user, the vibration velocity of the shear wave is determined by acquiring a shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasound imaging process, wherein the vibration velocity is a three-dimensional data signal composed of depth, number of channels and time;

[0114] The tissue to be tested in the embodiment of the present application is the biological soft tissue described in the background technology, which may be skin, muscle, ligament, blood vessel, heart, liver, kidney, etc.

[0115] In the ultrasound-based shear wave viscoelastic imaging system in the embodiment of the present application, the ultrasonic transducer in the ultrasound device generates acoustic radiation force in a local area inside the measured tissue by emitting focused ultrasound, or external mechanical vibration causes vibration to the soft tissue, thereby stimulating the vibration of the measured tissue to generate shear waves. After the shear wave is generated by the excitation, the propagation of the shear wave can be detected by the ultrasonic pulse echo method. The echo signal of the shear wave is obtained from the acquisition. The method of obtaining the shear wave echo signal in the embodiment of the present application is only used for illustration, and does not limit the method of obtaining the shear wave echo signal. The specific acquisition method can be set according to the actual situation.

[0116] Next, the specific method of determining the vibration velocity of the shear wave by obtaining the shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasonic imaging process in step 201 is described. Figure 3 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of a process for determining the vibration velocity of a shear wave, which may include the following steps:

[0117] Step 301: demodulating the shear wave echo signal to obtain a plurality of isotropic components and a plurality of orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth, wherein the number of the isotropic components is the same as the number of the orthogonal components;

[0118] In the embodiment of the present application, the shear wave echo signal is demodulated to obtain the isotropic component and the positive component, which is a method in the prior art. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the demodulation method, and the specific demodulation method can be set according to actual conditions.

[0119] Step 302: Utilize the multiple isotropic components and multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth to obtain the vibration velocity of the shear wave. The vibration velocity of the shear wave can be obtained by formula (1):

[0120]

[0121] Wherein, u(n) is the vibration velocity of the shear wave at time n, Q(m,n) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, I(m,n+1) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, I(m,n) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, Q(m,n+1) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, M is the maximum depth of the ultrasonic echo signal, N is the maximum time corresponding to the ultrasonic echo signal, and f c is the center frequency of the ultrasonic echo signal, and c is the speed of sound in the measured tissue.

[0122] It should be noted that the maximum depth of the ultrasonic echo signal, the maximum time corresponding to the ultrasonic echo signal, the center frequency of the ultrasonic echo signal and the sound speed in the measured tissue in the embodiment of the present application can all be directly obtained during the ultrasonic imaging process.

[0123] Step 202: performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain a vibration velocity after direction filtering;

[0124] Next, the vibration velocity after the direction filtering is determined in step 202, such as Figure 4 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of a process for determining the vibration velocity after direction filtering, which may include the following steps:

[0125] Step 401: For the vibration velocity data corresponding to any depth in the vibration velocity, the vibration velocity data is subjected to Fourier transformation to obtain a frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data, wherein the vibration velocity data is the number of channels and time corresponding to the depth in the vibration velocity;

[0126] The vibration velocity in the embodiment of the present application is three-dimensional data, that is, data of three dimensions of depth, number of channels, and time. Therefore, any dimension has corresponding values ​​of the other two dimensions.

[0127] It should be noted that the Fourier transform in the embodiment of the present application is a method in the prior art, and the method of performing Fourier transform on each data in the embodiment of the present application will not be described in detail here.

[0128] Step 402: multiplying the frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data by the image matrix corresponding to the preset mask image to obtain a first intermediate matrix;

[0129] like Figure 5 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of a mask image, wherein the mask image in image a illustrates that the waveform propagates from right to left, and the mask image in image b illustrates that the waveform propagates from left to right. Which mask image to use can be determined according to the actual propagation direction of the shear wave. The embodiments of the present application are not limited here.

[0130] Step 403: performing inverse Fourier transform on the first intermediate matrix to obtain vibration velocity data after direction filtering corresponding to the depth;

[0131] The inverse Fourier transform in the embodiment of the present application corresponds to the Fourier transform method, which belongs to the prior art and will not be described in detail in the embodiment of the present application.

[0132] Step 404: based on the direction-filtered vibration velocity data corresponding to each depth, obtain the direction-filtered vibration velocity.

[0133] In one embodiment, step 404 may be specifically implemented as: determining the vibration velocity data after the depths and the direction filtering corresponding to the depths as the vibration velocity after the direction filtering.

[0134] Step 203: According to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies is obtained, wherein any position point is composed of the depth and the number of channels in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering, and the time data of any position point is the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering;

[0135] Any depth and any number of channels in the embodiments of the present application constitute a corresponding position point.

[0136] like Figure 6 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of the process of determining the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies in step 203, which may include the following steps:

[0137] Step 601: for time data of any position point, perform Fourier transform on the time data at multiple angular frequencies to obtain phases of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies;

[0138] Step 602: Performing Fourier transformation on the time data of the target position point corresponding to the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the target position point is a position point at a specified channel number away from the position point in a specified direction;

[0139] It should be noted that the number of designated channels in the embodiment of the present application can be 5, and the specific number of designated channels can be set according to actual conditions. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the number of designated channels.

[0140] Step 603: for any angular frequency, obtain the phase difference of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency by adding the phase of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency to the phase of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the angular frequency;

[0141] In one embodiment, step 603 may be specifically implemented as follows: subtracting the phase of the vibration velocity of the location point at the angular frequency from the phase of the vibration velocity of the target location point at the angular frequency to obtain a phase difference of the vibration velocity of the location point at the angular frequency.

[0142] Step 604: Obtain the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocity of the location point at the multiple angular frequencies according to the phase differences of the vibration velocity of the location point at the multiple angular frequencies, the multiple angular frequencies and the designated number of channels.

[0143] In one embodiment, step 604 can be specifically implemented as follows: for any angular frequency, multiply the specified channel number by the angular frequency to obtain a first intermediate value; and divide the first intermediate value by the phase difference of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency to obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency. The phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency can be obtained by formula (2):

[0144]

[0145] Among them, c(ω s ) is the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency ω s The phase velocity value of the shear wave under s is the angular frequency, Δr is the specified channel number, is the vibration velocity at the position point at the angular frequency ω s The phase difference below.

[0146] Step 204: for any position point, using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point;

[0147] like Figure 7 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of a process for determining the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at a location point, comprising the following steps:

[0148] Step 701: for the vibration velocity at any position point, perform the following steps: for any angular frequency among the multiple angular frequencies, based on the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at the angular frequency and the angular frequency, obtain a velocity equation corresponding to the angular frequency, wherein the velocity equation is a quadratic equation with the unknown variables being the viscosity value and the elasticity value; wherein formula (3) is the velocity equation of the angular frequency:

[0149]

[0150] Among them, c(ω s ) is the vibration velocity at angular frequency ω s The phase velocity value of the shear wave under s is the angular frequency, ρ is the preset medium density, μ1 is the elasticity value, and μ2 is the viscosity value.

[0151] Step 702: Obtain the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue at the position point according to the velocity equations corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies.

[0152] In one embodiment, step 702 may be specifically implemented as follows: using a nonlinear least squares fitting algorithm to solve the velocity equations corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, respectively, to obtain the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue organized at the location point.

[0153] The nonlinear least squares fitting algorithm used in the embodiment of the present application is the Isqcurvefit function, but the embodiment of the present application does not limit the nonlinear least squares fitting algorithm. The least squares fitting algorithm in the embodiment of the present application can be set according to actual conditions.

[0154] Step 205: obtaining a target phase velocity matrix based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point at the multiple angular frequencies;

[0155] Next, the specific method of determining the target phase velocity matrix is ​​introduced, such as Figure 8 As shown, a flow chart of determining a target phase velocity matrix may include the following steps:

[0156] Step 801: For any position point, the target phase velocity is obtained based on the fitting residual variance of the position point, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, and the average phase velocity values ​​corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies; wherein the fitting residual variance of any position point is obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the position point; wherein the target phase velocity can be obtained by formula (4):

[0157]

[0158] Where R is the target phase velocity, r is the fitting residual variance matrix, c(ω s ) is the vibration velocity at any point at the angular frequency ω s The phase velocity value of the shear wave under is the average phase velocity matrix, and q is the number of the multiple angular frequencies.

[0159] The fitting residual variance corresponding to any position point in the embodiment of the present application is obtained in the following manner: for any position point, the square of the difference between the viscosity value of the position point and the initial viscosity value is determined as a first intermediate value, and the square of the difference between the elasticity value of the position point and the initial elasticity value is determined as a second intermediate value, and the first intermediate value and the second intermediate value are added to obtain the fitting residual variance corresponding to the position point.

[0160] It should be noted that the initial viscosity value and the initial elasticity value in the embodiment of the present application can be pre-set, or can be estimated by the velocity equations corresponding to the position points at the multiple angular frequencies. The specific method can be set according to actual conditions. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the method for determining the initial viscosity value and the initial elasticity value.

[0161] Step 802: Using the target phase velocity of each position point, obtain the target phase velocity matrix.

[0162] In the embodiment of the present application, each target phase velocity position in the target phase velocity matrix is ​​sorted according to the position of each position point in the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

[0163] Step 206: Obtain an ultrasound image quality assessment diagram using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, wherein the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained based on the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

[0164] In one embodiment, the beam domain vibration velocity matrix is ​​obtained by:

[0165] The vibration velocity of the shear wave is compensated by using the propagation distance of the shear wave to obtain the vibration velocity after the shear wave compensation. The time data corresponding to each position point is Fourier transformed to obtain the vibration velocity of the beam domain corresponding to the position point; the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained according to the maximum value of the vibration velocity of the beam domain corresponding to each position point. The vibration velocity after the shear wave compensation can be obtained by formula (5):

[0166]

[0167] Where μ(n) ′ is the vibration velocity after shear wave compensation at time n, μ(n) is the vibration velocity of the shear wave at time n, r n is the propagation distance of the shear wave at time n.

[0168] It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present application, the propagation distance of the shear wave at each time point can be directly obtained.

[0169] For example, Fig. 9 As shown, an image of vibration velocity in the beam domain is obtained by Fourier transforming the time data corresponding to any position point into the frequency beam domain. Fig.10 It is a schematic diagram of the beam domain vibration matrix obtained according to the maximum value of the vibration velocity in the beam domain corresponding to each position point.

[0170] In one embodiment, step 206 can be specifically implemented as follows: using the preset weights of the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, weighted summing the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an intermediate velocity matrix; normalizing the intermediate velocity matrix to obtain the normalized intermediate velocity matrix; and obtaining the ultrasound image quality assessment map based on the normalized intermediate velocity matrix. The intermediate velocity matrix can be obtained by formula (6):

[0171] D3=Q1×D1+Q2×D2……(6);

[0172] Among them, D3 is the intermediate velocity matrix, D1 is the target phase velocity matrix, D2 is the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, Q1 is the weight of the target phase velocity matrix, and Q2 is the weight of the beam domain vibration velocity matrix.

[0173] In the embodiment of the present application, the normalization method of the intermediate speed matrix is ​​to divide each parameter in the intermediate speed matrix by the parameter with the largest value to obtain the normalized intermediate speed matrix. Then, the parameters in the normalized intermediate speed matrix that are greater than the specified threshold are set to 1, and the parameters that are less than the specified threshold are set to 0.

[0174] Since the position of each parameter in the normalized intermediate velocity matrix in the embodiment of the present application corresponds to each position point, for any position point, if the parameter corresponding to the position point is 0, the pixel value of the pixel point of the position point is set to 0, and if the parameter corresponding to the position point is 1, the pixel value of the pixel point of the position point is set to 255, and the ultrasound image quality assessment map is obtained. Fig.11 Shown is a schematic diagram of an ultrasound image quality assessment diagram.

[0175] In order to further understand the technical solution of the present disclosure, Fig.12 A detailed description may include the following steps:

[0176] Step 1201: in response to an ultrasound image quality assessment request sent by a user, demodulate the acquired shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasound imaging process to obtain a plurality of isotropic components and a plurality of orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth, wherein the number of the isotropic components is the same as the number of the orthogonal components;

[0177] Step 1202: Obtain the vibration velocity of the shear wave using the multiple isotropic components and multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth;

[0178] Step 1203: For the vibration velocity data corresponding to any depth in the vibration velocity, the vibration velocity data is subjected to Fourier transformation to obtain a frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data, wherein the vibration velocity data is the number of channels and time corresponding to the depth in the vibration velocity;

[0179] Step 1204: multiplying the frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data by the image matrix corresponding to the preset mask image to obtain a first intermediate matrix;

[0180] Step 1205: performing inverse Fourier transform on the first intermediate matrix to obtain vibration velocity data after direction filtering corresponding to the depth;

[0181] Step 1206: obtaining the direction-filtered vibration velocity based on the direction-filtered vibration velocity data corresponding to each depth;

[0182] Step 1207: according to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, wherein any position point is determined by the depth and the number of channels in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering, and the time data of any position point is the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering;

[0183] Step 1208: for any position point, using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point;

[0184] Step 1209: for any position point, the target phase velocity is obtained based on the fitting residual variance of the position point, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, and the average phase velocity values ​​corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the fitting residual variance of any position point is obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point;

[0185] Step 1210: using the target phase velocity of each position point to obtain the target phase velocity matrix;

[0186] Step 1211: using the preset weights of the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, respectively, weighted summing the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an intermediate velocity matrix;

[0187] Step 1212: normalizing the intermediate speed matrix to obtain the normalized intermediate speed matrix;

[0188] Step 1213: Based on the normalized intermediate velocity matrix, obtain the ultrasound image quality assessment map.

[0189] Based on the same disclosure concept, the ultrasound image quality assessment method described above in the present disclosure can also be implemented by an ultrasound image quality assessment device. The effect of the ultrasound image quality assessment device is similar to that of the above method, and will not be repeated here.

[0190] Fig.13 The figure is a schematic diagram of the structure of an ultrasound image quality assessment device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0191] like Fig.13 As shown, the ultrasound image quality assessment device 1300 of the present disclosure may include a shear wave vibration velocity determination module 1310, a directional filtering module 1320, a phase velocity value determination module 1330, a viscoelastic value determination module 1340, a target phase velocity matrix determination module 1350 and an ultrasound image quality assessment graph determination module 1360.

[0192] The shear wave vibration velocity determination module 1310 is used to determine the vibration velocity of the shear wave by acquiring the shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasonic imaging process in response to the ultrasonic image quality assessment request sent by the user, wherein the vibration velocity is a three-dimensional data signal composed of depth, number of channels and time;

[0193] A direction filtering module 1320 is used to perform direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain a vibration velocity after direction filtering;

[0194] The phase velocity value determination module 1330 is used to obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies according to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, wherein any position point is composed of the depth and the number of channels in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering, and the time data of any position point is the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering;

[0195] The viscoelastic value determination module 1340 is used to obtain the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at any position point by using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies;

[0196] A target phase velocity matrix determination module 1350 is used to obtain a target phase velocity matrix based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point at the multiple angular frequencies;

[0197] The ultrasound image quality assessment diagram determination module 1360 is used to obtain an ultrasound image quality assessment diagram using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, wherein the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained based on the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

[0198] In one embodiment, the shear wave vibration velocity determination module 1310 is specifically configured to:

[0199] Demodulating the shear wave echo signal to obtain a plurality of isotropic components and a plurality of orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth, wherein the number of the isotropic components is the same as the number of the orthogonal components;

[0200] The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by using the multiple isotropic components and multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth.

[0201] In one embodiment, the shear wave vibration velocity determination module 1310 is specifically configured to:

[0202] The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by:

[0203]

[0204] Wherein, u(n) is the vibration velocity of the shear wave at time n, Q(m,n) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, I(m,n+1) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, I(m,n) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, Q(m,n+1) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, M is the maximum depth of the ultrasonic echo signal, N is the maximum time corresponding to the ultrasonic echo signal, f c is the center frequency of the ultrasonic echo signal, and c is the speed of sound in the measured tissue.

[0205] In one embodiment, the direction filtering module 1320 is specifically used to:

[0206] For the vibration velocity data corresponding to any depth in the vibration velocity, the vibration velocity data is subjected to Fourier transformation to obtain a frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data, wherein the vibration velocity data is the number of channels and time corresponding to the depth in the vibration velocity; and,

[0207] A first intermediate matrix is ​​obtained by multiplying the frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data with an image matrix corresponding to a preset mask image; and,

[0208] Performing an inverse Fourier transform on the first intermediate matrix to obtain vibration velocity data after direction filtering corresponding to the depth;

[0209] Based on the direction-filtered vibration velocity data corresponding to each depth, the direction-filtered vibration velocity is obtained.

[0210] In one embodiment, the phase velocity value determination module 1330 is specifically configured to:

[0211] For the time data of any position point, the time data is Fourier transformed at multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies; and,

[0212] Performing Fourier transformation on the time data of the target position point corresponding to the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the target position point is a position point at a specified channel number away from the position point in a specified direction; and

[0213] For any angular frequency, the phase of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency and the phase of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the angular frequency are calculated to obtain a phase difference of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency; and

[0214] According to the phase differences of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies, the multiple angular frequencies and the designated number of channels, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies are obtained.

[0215] In one embodiment, the phase velocity value determination module 1330 is specifically configured to:

[0216] For any angular frequency, multiplying the specified number of channels by the angular frequency to obtain a first intermediate value; and,

[0217] The first intermediate value is divided by the phase difference between the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency to obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency.

[0218] In one embodiment, the viscoelastic value determination module 1340 is specifically used to:

[0219] For the vibration velocity at any location, perform the following steps:

[0220] For any one of the multiple angular frequencies, a velocity equation corresponding to the angular frequency is obtained based on the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at the angular frequency and the angular frequency, wherein the velocity equation is a quadratic equation with the viscosity value and the elasticity value as unknown variables;

[0221] According to the velocity equations corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue at the position point are obtained.

[0222] In one embodiment, the target phase velocity matrix determination module 1350 is specifically configured to:

[0223] For any position point, the target phase velocity is obtained based on the fitting residual variance of the position point, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, and the average phase velocity values ​​corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the fitting residual variance of any position point is obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point;

[0224] The target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained by using the target phase velocity of each position point.

[0225] In one embodiment, the ultrasound image quality assessment map determination module 1360 is specifically configured to:

[0226] Using the preset weights of the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, respectively, a weighted sum is performed on the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an intermediate velocity matrix;

[0227] Normalizing the intermediate speed matrix to obtain the normalized intermediate speed matrix;

[0228] Based on the normalized intermediate velocity matrix, the ultrasound image quality assessment map is obtained.

[0229] After introducing a method and apparatus for evaluating the quality of an ultrasound image according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, an ultrasound device according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is introduced next.

[0230] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented as systems, methods or program products. Therefore, various aspects of the present disclosure may be specifically implemented in the following forms, namely: complete hardware implementation, complete software implementation (including firmware, microcode, etc.), or a combination of hardware and software, which may be collectively referred to herein as "circuits", "modules" or "systems".

[0231] In some possible implementations, the ultrasound device according to the present disclosure may include at least one processor and at least one computer storage medium. The computer storage medium stores program code, and when the program code is executed by the processor, the processor executes the steps of the ultrasound image quality assessment method according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described above in this specification. For example, the processor may execute the following steps: Figure 2 Steps 201-206 shown in .

[0232] like Fig.14 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of the ultrasound device provided by the present application. The ultrasound device 1400 includes: a processor 1402, a communication interface 1403, and a memory 1401. Optionally, the ultrasound device 1400 may also include a communication line 1404. Among them, the communication interface 1403, the processor 1402 and the memory 1401 may be interconnected through the communication line 1404; the communication line 1404 may be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The communication line 1404 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, Fig.14 Only one thick line is used in the diagram, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0233] Processor 1402 may be a CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present application.

[0234] The communication interface 1403 uses any transceiver-like device for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, radio access network (RAN), wireless local area networks (WLAN), wired access networks, etc.

[0235] The memory 1401 may be a ROM or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a RAM or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compressed optical disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory may exist independently and be connected to the processor via a communication line 1404. The memory may also be integrated with the processor.

[0236] The memory 1401 is used to store computer-executable instructions for executing the solution of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 1402. The processor 1402 is used to execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 1401, thereby realizing the ultrasound image quality assessment method provided in the above embodiment of the present application.

[0237] Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application code, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0238] In some possible embodiments, various aspects of the ultrasound image quality assessment method provided by the present disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product, which includes program code. When the program product is run on a computer device, the program code is used to enable the computer device to execute the steps of the ultrasound image quality assessment method according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described above in this specification.

[0239] The program product may use any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. The readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, device or device, or any combination of the above. More specific examples of readable storage media (a non-exhaustive list) include: an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a random access computer storage medium (RAM), a read-only computer storage medium (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only computer storage medium (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only computer storage medium (CD-ROM), an optical computer storage medium, a magnetic computer storage medium, or any suitable combination of the above.

[0240] The ultrasound image quality assessment program product of the embodiment of the present disclosure can adopt a portable compact disk read-only computer storage medium (CD-ROM) and include program code, and can be run on an ultrasound device. However, the program product of the present disclosure is not limited to this. In this document, a readable storage medium can be any tangible medium containing or storing a program, which can be used by or in combination with an instruction execution system, an apparatus or a device.

[0241] The readable signal medium may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, wherein the readable program code is carried. Such propagated data signals may take a variety of forms, including but not limited to electromagnetic signals, optical signals, or any suitable combination of the above. The readable signal medium may also be any readable medium other than a readable storage medium, which may send, propagate, or transmit a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

[0242] The program code embodied on the readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wired, optical cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0243] Program code for performing the operations of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages ​​such as Java, C++, etc., and conventional procedural programming languages ​​such as "C" or similar programming languages. The program code may be executed entirely on the user ultrasound device, partially on the user device, as a separate software package, partially on the user ultrasound device and partially on a remote ultrasound device, or entirely on a remote ultrasound device or server. In the case of a remote ultrasound device, the remote ultrasound device may be connected to the user ultrasound device via any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or may be connected to an external ultrasound device (e.g., via the Internet using an Internet service provider).

[0244] It should be noted that although several modules of the device are mentioned in the above detailed description, this division is merely exemplary and not mandatory. In fact, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the features and functions of two or more modules described above can be embodied in one module. Conversely, the features and functions of one module described above can be further divided into multiple modules to be embodied.

[0245] In addition, although the operations of the disclosed method are described in a specific order in the drawings, this does not require or imply that the operations must be performed in this specific order, or that all the operations shown must be performed to achieve the desired results. Additionally or alternatively, some steps may be omitted, multiple steps may be combined into one step, and / or one step may be decomposed into multiple steps.

[0246] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present disclosure may take the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk computer storage media, CD-ROM, optical computer storage media, etc.) containing computer-usable program codes.

[0247] The present disclosure is described with reference to flowcharts and / or block diagrams of methods, devices (systems), and computer program products according to the present disclosure. It should be understood that each process and / or block in the flowchart and / or block diagram, as well as the combination of processes and / or blocks in the flowchart and / or block diagram, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device generate instructions for implementing the processes in the flowchart and / or block diagram. Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A device that provides the functions specified in a block or multiple blocks.

[0248] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable computer storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable computer storage medium produce a manufactured product including an instruction device, which implements the process Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A function specified in one or more boxes.

[0249] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby providing instructions for implementing the process in the computer or other programmable device. Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The steps for the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0250] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present disclosure fall within the scope of the claims of the present disclosure and their equivalents, the present disclosure is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating the quality of an ultrasound image, characterized in that: The method comprises: In response to an ultrasound image quality assessment request sent by a user, the vibration velocity of the shear wave is determined by acquiring a shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasound imaging process, wherein the vibration velocity is a three-dimensional data signal composed of depth, number of channels and time; performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain a vibration velocity after direction filtering; According to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point under the multiple angular frequencies is obtained, wherein any position point is composed of the depth and the number of channels in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering, and the time data of any position point is the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering; For any position point, using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and the elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point are obtained; Based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, a target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained; An ultrasound image quality assessment diagram is obtained by using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, wherein the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained based on the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method of determining the vibration velocity of the shear wave by acquiring the shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasonic imaging process includes: Demodulating the shear wave echo signal to obtain a plurality of isotropic components and a plurality of orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth, wherein the number of the isotropic components is the same as the number of the orthogonal components; The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by using the multiple isotropic components and multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method of obtaining the vibration velocity of the shear wave by using the multiple isotropic components and the multiple orthogonal components of the shear wave echo signal at each time and each depth includes: The vibration velocity of the shear wave is obtained by: Wherein, u(n) is the vibration velocity of the shear wave at time n, Q(m,n) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, I(m,n+1) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, I(m,n) is the isotropic component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n, Q(m,n+1) is the orthogonal component of the ultrasonic echo signal at depth m and time n+1, M is the maximum depth of the ultrasonic echo signal, N is the maximum time corresponding to the ultrasonic echo signal, f c is the center frequency of the ultrasonic echo signal, and c is the speed of sound in the measured tissue.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain the vibration velocity after direction filtering includes: For the vibration velocity data corresponding to any depth in the vibration velocity, the vibration velocity data is subjected to Fourier transformation to obtain a frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data, wherein the vibration velocity data is the number of channels and time corresponding to the depth in the vibration velocity; and, A first intermediate matrix is ​​obtained by multiplying the frequency spectrum matrix of the vibration velocity data with an image matrix corresponding to a preset mask image; and, Performing an inverse Fourier transform on the first intermediate matrix to obtain vibration velocity data after direction filtering corresponding to the depth; Based on the direction-filtered vibration velocity data corresponding to each depth, the direction-filtered vibration velocity is obtained.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The step of obtaining the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point at the multiple angular frequencies according to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the direction filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies includes: For the time data of any position point, the time data is Fourier transformed at multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies; and, Performing Fourier transformation on the time data of the target position point corresponding to the position point at the multiple angular frequencies to obtain the phases of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the target position point is a position point at a specified channel number away from the position point in a specified direction; and For any angular frequency, the phase of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency and the phase of the vibration velocity of the target position point at the angular frequency are calculated to obtain a phase difference of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency; and According to the phase differences of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies, the multiple angular frequencies and the designated number of channels, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocities of the location points at the multiple angular frequencies are obtained.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The obtaining the phase velocity values ​​of the shear waves of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies respectively according to the phase differences of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies respectively, the multiple angular frequencies and the designated number of channels comprises: For any angular frequency, multiplying the specified number of channels by the angular frequency to obtain a first intermediate value; and, The first intermediate value is divided by the phase difference between the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency to obtain the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the angular frequency.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method of obtaining the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point by using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave at the multiple angular frequencies of the vibration velocity at the position point comprises: For the vibration velocity at any location, perform the following steps: For any one of the multiple angular frequencies, a velocity equation corresponding to the angular frequency is obtained based on the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at the angular frequency and the angular frequency, wherein the velocity equation is a quadratic equation with the viscosity value and the elasticity value as unknown variables; According to the velocity equations corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and elasticity value of the tissue at the position point are obtained.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave at the vibration velocity of each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, including: For any position point, the target phase velocity is obtained based on the fitting residual variance of the position point, the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, and the average phase velocity values ​​corresponding to the multiple angular frequencies, wherein the fitting residual variance of any position point is obtained based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point; The target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained by using the target phase velocity of each position point.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The method of obtaining an ultrasound image quality assessment graph by using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix includes: Using the preset weights of the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, respectively, a weighted sum is performed on the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix to obtain an intermediate velocity matrix; Normalizing the intermediate speed matrix to obtain the normalized intermediate speed matrix; Based on the normalized intermediate velocity matrix, the ultrasound image quality assessment map is obtained.

10. An ultrasonic device, characterized in that: The method comprises a memory and a processor, wherein the processor and the memory are connected via a bus; The memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to perform the following operations based on the computer program: In response to an ultrasound image quality assessment request sent by a user, the vibration velocity of the shear wave is determined by acquiring a shear wave echo signal of the measured tissue during the ultrasound imaging process, wherein the vibration velocity is a three-dimensional data signal composed of depth, number of channels and time; performing direction filtering on the vibration velocity based on the vibration velocity and a preset mask image to obtain a vibration velocity after direction filtering; According to the time data of each position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering and the preset multiple angular frequencies, the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point under the multiple angular frequencies is obtained, wherein any position point is composed of the depth and the number of channels in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering, and the time data of any position point is the time corresponding to the position point in the vibration velocity after the directional filtering; For any position point, using the phase velocity values ​​of the shear wave of the vibration velocity of the position point at the multiple angular frequencies, the viscosity value and the elasticity value of the measured tissue at the position point are obtained; Based on the viscosity value and elasticity value of the measured tissue at each position point and the phase velocity value of the shear wave of the vibration velocity at each position point at the multiple angular frequencies, a target phase velocity matrix is ​​obtained; An ultrasound image quality assessment diagram is obtained by using the target phase velocity matrix and the beam domain vibration velocity matrix, wherein the beam domain vibration matrix is ​​obtained based on the vibration velocity of the shear wave.

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