Imaging method and device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound equipment and storage medium

Abstract

The invention provides an imaging method and device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound equipment and a storage medium, and relates to the technical field of medical ultrasonic imaging. The method comprises the steps of obtaining three-dimensional channel data, performing delay accumulation according to delay time of a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, and performing beam forming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result. According to the method, the three-dimensional data can be compressed into the two-dimensional data to be transmitted, and the imaging quality is kept under the condition that the data transmission quantity is reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of medical ultrasonic imaging technology, and in particular to an imaging method and device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device and a storage medium. Background Art

[0002] Synthetic aperture ultrasound technology can achieve dynamic focusing of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit, and is a technology that effectively improves the resolution and contrast of ultrasound images. Synthetic aperture ultrasound is a technology that transmits a signal from one array element, and all array elements receive the signal at the same time. After all array elements transmit and receive all signals in sequence, beamforming technology is used to add all channel data to obtain the imaging result. Convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound uses a convex array probe.

[0003] The amount of data required to be transmitted by convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound technology is huge. Although the current convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method based on image compression reduces the amount of data transmitted, it also reduces the quality of the image. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present invention provides an imaging method and device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device and a storage medium, so as to solve the defect that the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method based on image compression in the prior art reduces the amount of transmitted data but at the same time reduces the quality of the imaged image, thereby achieving the effect of not reducing the quality of the imaged image when compressing three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data for transmission.

[0005] The present invention provides an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, comprising the following steps: Acquire three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data including coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being original data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; Delay accumulation is performed according to the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined according to the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; Beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0006] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, the delay time of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data is accumulated to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, including: Determine a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data; When it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is located on a target line segment, the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is determined according to the transmission speed of sound waves, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, wherein the target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point; Delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

[0007] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, the method of determining multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data includes: Combining the plurality of transmitting array elements and the plurality of receiving array elements one by one according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; A two-dimensional coordinate system is established for each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, wherein the X-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to the target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the Z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line. The X-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is determined to be the midpoint of the target line and the Z-axis coordinate is zero. The target line is a line connecting the transmitting array element and the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0008] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is determined according to the sound wave transmission speed, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element, including: Calculating the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair to obtain a first distance and a second distance; The sum of the first distance and the second distance is divided by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a first time, and the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point is divided by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a second time; The first time is subtracted from the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0009] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0010] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result, including: The imaging result is obtained by using the acoustic wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data and adopting the Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

[0011] The present invention also provides an imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, comprising the following modules: A three-dimensional data acquisition module, used to acquire three-dimensional channel data, wherein the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is raw data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; A two-dimensional data acquisition module, used for performing delay accumulation according to the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; The ultrasonic image acquisition module is used to perform beam forming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0012] The present invention also provides a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device, comprising a convex array probe, a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor, wherein the convex array probe is used to collect three-dimensional channel data and send it to the processor, and when the processor executes the computer program, an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as described above is implemented.

[0013] The present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as described in any one of the above is implemented.

[0014] The present invention also provides a computer program product, comprising a computer program, wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor, the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as described in any one of the above is implemented.

[0015] The imaging method, device, convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound equipment and storage medium provided by the present invention compress three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data for transmission, thereby maintaining the imaging image quality while reducing the data transmission amount. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present invention or the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

[0017] Figure 1 It is a schematic flow chart of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method provided by the present invention.

[0018] Figure 2 It is a flow chart of the method for obtaining two-dimensional radio frequency data provided by the present invention.

[0019] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of ultrasonic propagation of a convex array synthetic aperture provided by the present invention.

[0020] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the overall process of imaging based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention.

[0021] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the liver and kidney imaging section provided by the present invention.

[0022] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of an imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention.

[0023] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the entity structure of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasonic device provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] In order to make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the technical solution of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0025] Synthetic aperture ultrasound technology can achieve dynamic focusing of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit, and is a technology that effectively improves the resolution and contrast of ultrasound images. Synthetic aperture ultrasound is a technology that transmits a signal from one array element, and all array elements receive the signal at the same time. After all array elements transmit and receive all signals in sequence, beamforming technology is used to add all channel data to obtain the imaging result. Convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound uses a convex array probe.

[0026] The amount of data required to be transmitted by convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound technology is huge. Although the current convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method based on image compression reduces the amount of data transmitted, it also reduces the quality of the image.

[0027] In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method, which obtains three-dimensional channel data, and performs delay accumulation according to the delay time of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay time of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data is determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result. This method can compress three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data for transmission, and maintain the imaging image quality while reducing the amount of data transmission.

[0028] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

[0029] Figure 1 : is a flow chart of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method provided by the present invention. The convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method can be applied to a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device, which can be a device with information processing capabilities during implementation. For example, the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device can include a personal computer, a laptop computer, a PDA or a server, etc. Figure 1 As shown, the method may include the following steps 101 to 103: Step 101: Acquire three-dimensional channel data, wherein the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is original data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0030] It should be noted that the three-dimensional channel data is the original data collected by the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device. The method for obtaining the three-dimensional channel data can be receiving data transmitted by the convex array probe or receiving data transmitted by other devices. The present invention does not limit the method for obtaining the three-dimensional channel data.

[0031] Step 102: Delay accumulation is performed according to the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined according to the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs.

[0032] It should be noted that delay accumulation is performed according to the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, which can be the first step of beamforming. The first step of beamforming can be completed at the sensor end (front end) using a delay accumulation method.

[0033] Among them, determining multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements can be to select transmitting array elements and receiving array elements according to a preset rule to form a transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, or to form a transmitting array element-receiving array element pair by combining one by one. The present invention does not limit the method of determining the transmitting array element-receiving array element pair. In addition, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs can be set to be located on the same line segment according to requirements.

[0034] Step 103: Perform beam forming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0035] It should be noted that there are many ways to obtain imaging results by performing beamforming based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, medical ultrasound imaging or sonar imaging, etc. The present invention does not limit the way to obtain imaging results by performing beamforming based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

[0036] It is understandable that the delay time of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs is greatly affected by the position of the imaging point. In the traditional convex array synthetic aperture single-step beamforming method, the imaging point falls within a pre-given two-dimensional imaging area, and the amount of beamforming calculation is large. Beamforming at the imaging end requires the transmission of all three-dimensional channel data, which results in a large amount of data. In the present application, the coordinates of the imaging points of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, which can reduce the amount of calculation and thus reduce the amount of data transmission.

[0037] In some embodiments, the imaging point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair may be located on a line segment passing through the center point of the transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0038] Figure 2 FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method for obtaining two-dimensional radio frequency data provided by the present invention. Figure 2 As shown, the delay accumulation of the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data may include: Step 201: Determine a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data.

[0039] It should be noted that the method for determining the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair may also be determined according to a preset rule, or may be determined according to the center of the line connecting the transmitting array element and the receiving array element in the transmitting array element and the receiving array element pair. The present invention does not limit the method for determining the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0040] Step 202: When it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is located on a target line segment, the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is determined according to the sound wave transmission speed, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, and the target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point.

[0041] Step 203: Accumulate the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

[0042] It should be noted that the given sound wave propagation speed , the delay time is calculated using the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element, and then the delay accumulation is performed to obtain the two-dimensional RF data estimation of self-excitation and self-reception (i.e. the first stage beamforming result) in is the first stage beamformer, Represents two-dimensional RF data.

[0043] Among them, the first step of beamforming is completed at the sensor end (front end), similar to the superposition of seismic data. The three-dimensional channel data of the original convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound is delayed and accumulated to obtain an estimate of the two-dimensional RF data of self-excitation and self-reception (a single array element transmits and receives by itself), which not only realizes the first stage of beamforming, but also compresses the amount of data that needs to be transmitted.

[0044] Further, determining multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and the center points of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data may include: combining multiple transmitting array elements and multiple receiving array elements one by one according to the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; establishing a two-dimensional coordinate system for each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, the X-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system being a line parallel to the target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the Z-axis being a line perpendicular to the target line, determining that the X-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is the midpoint of the target line and the Z-axis coordinate is zero, and the target line is the line between the transmitting array element and the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0045] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of ultrasonic propagation using a convex array synthetic aperture provided by the present invention. Figure 3 As shown, the three-dimensional channel data collected by convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound is ,in, is the coordinate of the transmitting array element, is the coordinate of the receiving array element, is the round-trip propagation time of the sound wave. and , construct a two-dimensional coordinate system, set a line parallel to the line connecting the two and tangent to the front edge of the convex array as the X-axis, and the line perpendicular to the line as the Z-axis. The coordinates of the center point of the transmitting-receiving array element are marked as ( , .

[0046] Further, determining the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the sound wave transmission speed, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element may include: calculating the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair to obtain a first distance and a second distance; dividing the sum of the first distance and the second distance by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a first time, and then dividing the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a second time; and subtracting the first time from the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0047] It should be noted that the method proposed in the present invention first assumes that a transmitting array element-receiving array element pair and Imaging point Only fall on Figure 3 The dotted line through the center point shown, that is Using the given sound wave propagation speed To calculate the delay time as follows: (1) (1) In the formula, , , , It is the propagation time of the ultrasound from the center point to the imaging point and then back to the center point.

[0048] It is understandable that in the traditional convex array synthetic aperture single-step beamforming method, for each transmitting element-receiving element pair and , imaging point It falls within a pre-given two-dimensional imaging area. The computational complexity of beamforming is large. Beamforming at the imaging end requires the transmission of all three-dimensional channel data, which results in a large amount of data.

[0049] The delay obtained by formula (1) is used to accumulate the delay to obtain the two-dimensional RF data estimation of self-excitation and self-reception (i.e. the first stage beamforming result) ,in It is the first stage beamformer. Through the first step of beamforming, the first stage of beamforming is completed and the three-dimensional channel data is compressed into two-dimensional self-excited and self-received data, which greatly reduces the amount of data transmission.

[0050] In some embodiments, the delay times of the plurality of transmit array element-receive array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data may be pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0051] It should be noted that since all transmit array-receive array element pairs and of The values ​​are limited, we calculate all possible The delay is reduced and stored in the memory, thus reducing the amount of calculation.

[0052] In the embodiment of the present invention, according to formula (1), all possible The data is stored in memory to improve the processing speed.

[0053] In some embodiments, the second step of beam forming can be completed at the imaging end (back end) using the wavefield extrapolation Fourier domain imaging method.

[0054] In the embodiment of the present invention, performing beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result may include: using the sound wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain the imaging result by adopting a Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

[0055] It should be noted that the two-dimensional RF data obtained by the first beamforming is subjected to a second beamforming using the Fourier domain imaging method to obtain the final imaging result. The Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation is an effective acoustic imaging technology that can realize the imaging of the target object by combining the acoustic wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional RF data.

[0056] Exemplarily, this step of beamforming is performed at the imaging end (back end), using a given acoustic wave propagation speed , using the Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation to obtain ,in is the first stage beamformer, For imaging results.

[0057] The invention provides an efficient convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging technology, which is a means to reduce the data transmission volume and imaging calculation amount of convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound. It is also a convex array synthetic aperture imaging method based on superposition first and then offset, which not only realizes the compression of transmission data, but also reduces the calculation amount of beam forming, and provides a new imaging method option for fast convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging system.

[0058] The following describes an exemplary application of an embodiment of the present invention in a practical application scenario.

[0059] Figure 4 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall process of imaging based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention. Figure 4 As shown, the method includes the following steps 401 to 404: Step 401: According to formula (1), calculate all possible The delay is stored in memory; Step 402: Based on the first step of delay accumulation beamforming, obtain the self-excited and self-received two-dimensional RF data estimation ; Step 403: The second step of beam forming based on the wave field extrapolation Fourier domain imaging method is used to obtain a B-ultrasound image ; Wherein, step 402 may also include: for the transmitting array-receiving array element pair and , get the one-dimensional delay from the memory; the corresponding transmit-receive array element pair and The channel data is delayed and accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional RF data estimation of self-excitation and self-reception .

[0060] In the imaging based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided in the above embodiment, the first step of beamforming takes into account that the convex array elements are not on the same horizontal plane, and the second step of beamforming takes into account the expansion characteristics of the convex array imaging area along the depth, and uses the wave field extrapolation method to achieve imaging at each depth in the Fourier domain. This not only achieves the compression of transmission data, but also reduces the amount of calculation of beamforming.

[0061] The following introduces the prototype test results obtained by using the above-mentioned convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method to conduct prototype tests.

[0062] A 32-channel handheld synthetic aperture ultrasound prototype is used to verify the method of the present invention, with an ultrasound main frequency of 3 MHz, a time sampling rate of 40 MHz, a convex array radius of 60 mm, and an array element spacing of 0.498 mm. The imaging end uses an RTX4070 GPU laptop.

[0063] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of liver and kidney imaging section provided by the present invention. Figure 5 As shown, the liver and kidney imaging sections obtained by the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention have a detection depth of 160 mm and an imaging frame rate of 19 fps, which verifies that the present invention can effectively compress three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data transmission and reduce the computational complexity of the convex array synthetic aperture imaging algorithm.

[0064] Based on the foregoing embodiments, an embodiment of the present invention provides an imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound. The modules included in the device and the units included in each module can be implemented by a processor; of course, they can also be implemented by a specific logic circuit; in the implementation process, the processor can be a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor (MPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.

[0065] The imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention is described below. The imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound described below and the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound described above can be referred to each other.

[0066] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the structure of the imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention. Figure 6 As shown, the device 600 includes a three-dimensional data acquisition module 601, a two-dimensional data acquisition module 602 and an ultrasound image acquisition module 603, wherein: The three-dimensional data acquisition module 601 is used to acquire three-dimensional channel data, wherein the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is original data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; The two-dimensional data acquisition module 602 is used to perform delay accumulation according to the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; The ultrasound image acquisition module 603 is used to perform beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0067] In some embodiments, the two-dimensional data acquisition module 602 includes a center point determination unit, a delay time determination unit and a two-dimensional data acquisition unit, wherein: The center determination unit is used to determine a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data; The delay time determination unit is used to determine the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the transmission speed of sound waves, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, when it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is located on a target line segment, and the target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point; The two-dimensional data acquisition unit is used to accumulate the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

[0068] In some embodiments, the center point determination unit is specifically used to combine multiple transmitting array elements and multiple receiving array elements one by one according to the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; establish a two-dimensional coordinate system for each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, the X-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to the target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the Z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line, and determine that the X-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is the midpoint of the target line and the Z-axis coordinate is zero, and the target line is the line between the transmitting array element and the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0069] In some embodiments, the delay time determination unit is specifically used to calculate the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair to obtain a first distance and a second distance; divide the sum of the first distance and the second distance by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a first time, and then divide the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a second time; and find the difference between the first time and the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0070] In some embodiments, the delay times of the plurality of transmit array element-receive array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0071] In some embodiments, the ultrasound image acquisition module 603 is specifically used to obtain the imaging result by using the sound wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data and adopting the Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

[0072] In the embodiment of the present invention, three-dimensional data can be compressed into two-dimensional data for transmission, thereby maintaining the quality of the imaging image while reducing the amount of data transmission.

[0073] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of the physical structure of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasonic device provided by the present invention. Figure 7As shown, the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device 700 may include: a processor 710, a communications interface 720, a memory 730, a communication bus 740 and a convex array probe 750, wherein the processor 710, the communications interface 720, and the memory 730 communicate with each other through the communication bus 740, and the convex array probe 750 collects three-dimensional channel data and sends it to the processor 710. The processor 710 can call the logic instructions in the memory 730 to execute an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, the method comprising: acquiring three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data comprising the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being the original data collected by the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; performing delay accumulation according to the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined according to the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0074] In addition, the logic instructions in the above-mentioned memory 730 can be implemented in the form of a software functional unit and can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium when it is sold or used as an independent product. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention can be essentially or partly embodied in the form of a software product that contributes to the prior art. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions to enable a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), disk or optical disk, etc. Various media that can store program codes.

[0075] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program. The computer program can be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer can execute the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the above methods. The method includes: acquiring three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is the original data collected by the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; according to the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data The delay time of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data is accumulated and delayed to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, the delay time of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data is determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined according to the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0076] The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present invention is generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can store or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated therein. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state drive Solid State Disk (SSD)), etc.

[0077] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which is implemented when the processor executes the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the above methods, the method comprising: acquiring three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data comprising coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being original data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; performing delay accumulation according to delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined based on the coordinates of imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain imaging results.

[0078] The above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium can adopt any combination of one or more computer-readable media. The computer-readable medium can be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium can 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 (non-exhaustive list) of computer-readable storage media include: an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) or flash memory, an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the above. In this document, a computer-readable storage medium can be any tangible medium containing or storing a program, which can be used by an instruction execution system, device or device or used in combination with it.

[0079] Computer-readable signal media may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, which carries a computer-readable program code. 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. Computer-readable signal media may also be any computer-readable medium other than a computer-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.

[0080] The program code embodied on the computer-readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wire, optical cable, radio frequency (RF), etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0081] Computer program code for performing the operations of the present specification may be written in one or more programming languages ​​or a combination thereof, including object-oriented programming languages ​​such as Java, Smalltalk, C++, and conventional procedural programming languages ​​such as "C" or similar programming languages. The program code may be executed entirely on the user's computer, partially on the user's computer, as a separate software package, partially on the user's computer and partially on a remote computer, or entirely on a remote computer or server. In the case of a remote computer, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computer (e.g., through the Internet using an Internet service provider).

[0082] The device embodiments described above are merely illustrative, wherein the units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place, or they may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the scheme of this embodiment. Ordinary technicians in this field can understand and implement it without paying creative labor.

[0083] Through the description of the above implementation methods, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that each implementation method can be implemented by means of software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and of course, can also be implemented by hardware. Based on this understanding, the above technical solution is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as ROM / RAM, a disk, an optical disk, etc., including a number of instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in each embodiment or some parts of the embodiments.

[0084] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. However, these modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. An imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, characterized in that: include: Acquire three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data including coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being original data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; Delay accumulation is performed according to the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined according to the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; Beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

2. The imaging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step of performing delay accumulation according to the delay times of the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data includes: Determine a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data; When it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is located on a target line segment, the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is determined according to the transmission speed of sound waves, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, wherein the target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point; Delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

3. The imaging method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The determining, according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data, a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair comprises: Combining the plurality of transmitting array elements and the plurality of receiving array elements one by one according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; A two-dimensional coordinate system is established for each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, wherein the X-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to the target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the Z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line. The X-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is determined to be the midpoint of the target line and the Z-axis coordinate is zero. The target line is a line connecting the transmitting array element and the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

4. The imaging method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The step of determining the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the sound wave transmission speed, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair comprises: Calculating the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair to obtain a first distance and a second distance; The sum of the first distance and the second distance is divided by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a first time, and the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point is divided by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a second time; The first time is subtracted from the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

5. The imaging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The delay times of the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

6. The imaging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The performing beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result includes: The imaging result is obtained by using the acoustic wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data and adopting the Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

7. An imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, characterized in that: include: A three-dimensional data acquisition module, used to acquire three-dimensional channel data, wherein the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is raw data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; A two-dimensional data acquisition module, used for performing delay accumulation according to the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; The ultrasonic image acquisition module is used to perform beam forming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

8. A convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device, comprising a convex array probe, a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor, characterized in that: The convex array probe is used to collect three-dimensional channel data and send it to the processor. When the processor executes the computer program, it implements the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as described in any one of claims 1 to 6.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, characterized in that: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 is implemented.

10. A computer program product, comprising a computer program, characterized in that When the computer program is executed by a processor, the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 is implemented.

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