Ultrasound imaging method and system

Abstract

The invention provides an ultrasonic imaging method and system. The ultrasonic imaging method comprises the following steps: transmitting a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency to a scanning target; obtaining a first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave; transmitting a second ultrasonic wave with a second frequency to the scanning target at least once; a second ultrasonic image is obtained based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, the second ultrasonic image at least comprises compensation information used for compensating for sound shadow area missing information in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information comprises pixel value information of pixel points of the sound shadow area; and compounding the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image. According to the scheme, the sound shadow in the finally obtained target ultrasonic image can be removed or weakened, and the image quality of the non-sound shadow part is not influenced.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the invention patent application with application number 201910785078.1, application date August 23, 2019, and name “Ultrasound Imaging Method and System”. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the technical field of ultrasonic imaging, and more specifically to an ultrasonic imaging method and system. Background Art

[0003] During ultrasound scanning, dark areas are often encountered behind strongly echogenic tissues. For example, during obstetric examinations, dark areas appear in the cranial and brain sections and fetal spinal sections due to the strong reflection of the fetal skull and spine, resulting in the loss of ultrasound image information behind these tissues. This phenomenon is called acoustic shadowing in engineering. The presence of acoustic shadowing results in the loss of diagnostic information in ultrasound images, which has a great impact on doctors' diagnostic confidence and efficiency, and causes many inconveniences to clinicians.

[0004] Therefore, in view of the above problems, the present application provides a new ultrasound imaging method and system. Summary of the invention

[0005] On the one hand, the present application provides an ultrasonic imaging method, the ultrasonic imaging method comprising:

[0006] emitting a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency toward a scanning target;

[0007] obtaining a first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave;

[0008] transmitting at least once a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target;

[0009] Obtaining a second ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image at least includes compensation information for compensating for missing information of an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points of the acoustic shadow area;

[0010] The first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0011] Exemplarily, the transmitting at least once a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target further includes:

[0012] Identifying an acoustic shadow region in the scanned object;

[0013] A second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency is emitted to the acoustic shadow area at least once.

[0014] Exemplarily, the identifying the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target includes:

[0015] Based on the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, an acoustic shadow area in the scanning target is identified.

[0016] Exemplarily, identifying the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target based on the intensity information of the echo signal of each scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave includes:

[0017] Detect the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, wherein, when it is detected that the signal intensity of a critical point in the echo signal is oversaturated, and the signal intensity of the echo signal along the direction of the scanning line after the critical point is less than the threshold signal intensity, then determine that the area after the critical point along the direction of the scanning line is the acoustic shadow area.

[0018] Exemplarily, the first frequency is greater than the second frequency.

[0019] Exemplarily, the emission energy of the second ultrasonic wave is higher than the emission energy of the first ultrasonic wave.

[0020] Exemplarily, the transmission waveform length of the second ultrasonic wave is greater than the transmission waveform length of the first ultrasonic wave.

[0021] Exemplarily, the combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image includes:

[0022] Identifying pixel points located in an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image;

[0023] The information of at least the pixel points in the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasonic image is combined with the first ultrasonic image to obtain the target ultrasonic image.

[0024] Exemplarily, identifying pixel points located in the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image includes:

[0025] Pixels located in the acoustic shadow area are identified based on the difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixels between the second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image, and pixels whose pixel value difference is within a predetermined threshold are determined as pixels corresponding to the acoustic shadow area.

[0026] Exemplarily, the combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image includes:

[0027] Determining a first target weight value for each pixel in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map;

[0028] updating a pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map;

[0029] The updated second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0030] Exemplarily, the combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image includes:

[0031] Determine a first target weight value of each pixel point of at least the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map;

[0032] updating a pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map;

[0033] Determining a second target weight value for each pixel of the first ultrasound image to generate a second target weight map;

[0034] updating a pixel value of each pixel point of the first ultrasound image based on the second target weight map;

[0035] The updated first ultrasonic image and the updated second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0036] Exemplarily, determining a first target weight value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map includes:

[0037] Determine a first weight value for each pixel point based on a difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixel points in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to form a first weight map, wherein when the difference is less than a first threshold, the first weight value increases as the difference increases, and when the difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the first weight value decreases as the difference increases;

[0038] Determine a second weight value of each pixel point according to the pixel value of each pixel point in the first ultrasound image to form a second weight map, wherein when the pixel value of the pixel point is greater than a second threshold value, the second weight value decreases as the pixel value increases;

[0039] The first target weight value is obtained by multiplying the weight values ​​of the pixels corresponding to the first weight map and the second weight map to form the first target weight map.

[0040] Exemplarily, updating the pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map includes:

[0041] The pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image is multiplied by the corresponding first target weight value in the first target weight map to update the pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image.

[0042] Exemplarily, it also includes:

[0043] The pixel value of each pixel point of the target ultrasonic image is the sum of the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated first ultrasonic image and the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated second ultrasonic image.

[0044] Exemplarily, each of the second target weight values ​​in the second target weight map is greater than or equal to 1.

[0045] Exemplarily, the method further comprises the following steps:

[0046] Grayscale mapping is performed on the target ultrasound image.

[0047] Exemplarily, the target ultrasound image includes a one-dimensional ultrasound image or a two-dimensional ultrasound image.

[0048] In another aspect, the present application provides an ultrasound imaging system, comprising:

[0049] Probe;

[0050] A transmitting circuit, used for exciting the probe to transmit a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency to a scanning target and to transmit a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target at least once;

[0051] Processor for:

[0052] obtaining a first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave;

[0053] Obtaining a second ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image at least includes compensation information for compensating for missing information of an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points of the acoustic shadow area;

[0054] The first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0055] Exemplarily, the processor is further configured to identify an acoustic shadow region in the scan target;

[0056] The transmitting circuit is also used to excite the probe to transmit at least one second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the acoustic shadow area.

[0057] Exemplarily, the processor is specifically configured to:

[0058] Based on the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, an acoustic shadow area in the scanning target is identified.

[0059] Exemplarily, the processor is specifically configured to:

[0060] Detect the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, wherein, when it is detected that the signal intensity of a critical point in the echo signal is oversaturated, and the signal intensity of the echo signal along the direction of the scanning line after the critical point is less than the threshold signal intensity, then determine that the area after the critical point along the direction of the scanning line is the acoustic shadow area.

[0061] Exemplarily, the first frequency is greater than the second frequency.

[0062] Exemplarily, the emission energy of the second ultrasonic wave is higher than the emission energy of the first ultrasonic wave.

[0063] Exemplarily, the transmission waveform length of the second ultrasonic wave is greater than the transmission waveform length of the first ultrasonic wave.

[0064] Exemplarily, the processor is specifically configured to:

[0065] Identifying pixel points located in an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image;

[0066] The information of at least the pixel points in the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasonic image is combined with the first ultrasonic image to obtain the target ultrasonic image.

[0067] Exemplarily, the processor is further configured to:

[0068] Pixels located in the acoustic shadow area are identified based on the difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixels between the second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image, and pixels whose pixel value difference is within a predetermined threshold are determined as pixels corresponding to the acoustic shadow area.

[0069] Exemplarily, the processor is specifically configured to:

[0070] Determine a first target weight value of each pixel point of at least the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map;

[0071] updating a pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map;

[0072] The updated second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0073] Exemplarily, the processor is specifically configured to:

[0074] Determine a first target weight value of each pixel point of at least the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map;

[0075] updating a pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map;

[0076] Determining a second target weight value for each pixel of the first ultrasound image to generate a second target weight map;

[0077] updating a pixel value of each pixel point of the first ultrasound image based on the second target weight map;

[0078] The updated first ultrasonic image and the updated second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0079] Exemplarily, the processor is further configured to:

[0080] Determine a first weight value for each pixel point based on a difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixel points in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to form a first weight map, wherein when the difference is less than a first threshold, the first weight value increases as the difference increases, and when the difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the first weight value decreases as the difference increases;

[0081] Determine a second weight value of each pixel point according to the pixel value of each pixel point in the first ultrasound image to form a second weight map, wherein when the pixel value of the pixel point is greater than a second threshold value, the second weight value decreases as the pixel value increases;

[0082] The first target weight value is obtained by multiplying the weight values ​​of the pixels corresponding to the first weight map and the second weight map to form the first target weight map.

[0083] Exemplarily, the processor is further configured to:

[0084] The pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image is multiplied by the corresponding first target weight value in the first target weight map to update the pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image.

[0085] Exemplarily, the pixel value of each pixel point of the target ultrasound image is the sum of the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated first ultrasound image and the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated second ultrasound image.

[0086] Exemplarily, each of the second target weight values ​​in the second target weight map is greater than or equal to 1.

[0087] Exemplarily, the processor is further configured to:

[0088] Grayscale mapping is performed on the target ultrasound image.

[0089] Exemplarily, the target ultrasound image includes a one-dimensional ultrasound image or a two-dimensional ultrasound image.

[0090] According to the ultrasonic imaging method and system of the embodiment of the present application, a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency is emitted to a scanning target; a first ultrasonic image is obtained based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave; a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency is emitted to the scanning target at least once; a second ultrasonic image is obtained based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image includes at least compensation information for compensating for missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points in the acoustic shadow area; the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image, thereby removing or weakening the acoustic shadow in the target ultrasonic image finally obtained, and will not affect the image quality of the non-acoustic shadow part, thereby improving the doctor's confidence and efficiency in making a diagnosis based on the target ultrasonic image. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0091] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, 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 application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative labor.

[0092] Figure 1 A schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0093] Figure 2 A flow chart showing an ultrasound imaging method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0094] Figure 3 A schematic diagram showing the identification of sound shadows along a scan line according to an embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0095] Figure 4 A flow chart showing an ultrasound imaging method according to another embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0096] Figure 5 A schematic diagram showing a first weight map of an embodiment of the present application is shown;

[0097] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a second weight map according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0098] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more obvious, the example embodiments according to the present application will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments of the present application, and it should be understood that the present application is not limited to the example embodiments described herein. Based on the embodiments of the present application described in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative work should fall within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0099] In the following description, a large amount of specific details are provided to provide a more thorough understanding of the application. However, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that the application can be implemented without one or more of these details. In other examples, in order to avoid confusion with the application, some technical features well known in the art are not described. It should be understood that the application can be implemented in different forms and should not be interpreted as being limited to the embodiments proposed herein. On the contrary, providing these embodiments will make disclosure thorough and complete, and the scope of the application is fully conveyed to those skilled in the art.

[0100] The purpose of the terms used herein is only to describe specific embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the present application. When used herein, the singular forms "one", "an" and "said / the" are also intended to include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the terms "consisting of" and / or "comprising", when used in this specification, determine the presence of the features, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or parts, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, parts and / or groups. When used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of the relevant listed items.

[0101] In order to thoroughly understand the present application, a detailed structure will be proposed in the following description to illustrate the technical solution proposed by the present application. The optional embodiments of the present application are described in detail as follows, but in addition to these detailed descriptions, the present application may also have other implementation methods.

[0102] Specifically, the ultrasonic imaging method and system of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the absence of conflict, the features of the following embodiments and implementations can be combined with each other.

[0103] first, Figure 1 FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system in one embodiment of the present application. Figure 1 As shown, the ultrasound imaging system generally includes: a probe 1, a transmitting circuit 2, a transmitting / receiving selection switch 3, a receiving circuit 4, a beamforming circuit 5, a processor 6, a display 9, etc.

[0104] The processor 6 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other forms of processing units having data processing capabilities and / or instruction execution capabilities, and may control other components in the ultrasound imaging system to perform desired functions. For example, the processor 6 may include one or more embedded processors, processor cores, microprocessors, logic circuits, hardware finite state machines (FSMs), digital signal processors (DSPs), graphics processing units (GPUs), or combinations thereof.

[0105] During the ultrasonic imaging process, the transmitting circuit 2 sends the transmitting pulse with a certain amplitude and polarity after delayed focusing to the probe 1 through the transmitting / receiving selection switch 3. The probe 1 is stimulated by the transmitting pulse to transmit ultrasonic waves to the scanning target (for example, organs, tissues, blood vessels, etc. in the human body or animal body, not shown in the figure), and receives the ultrasonic echo with information of the scanning target reflected and / or scattered from the target area after a certain delay, and reconverts the ultrasonic echo into an electrical signal. The receiving circuit receives the electrical signal converted and generated by the probe 1, obtains the ultrasonic echo signal, and sends these ultrasonic echo signals to the beam synthesis circuit 5. The beam synthesis circuit 5 performs focusing delay, weighting and channel summing on the ultrasonic echo signal, and then sends the ultrasonic echo signal to the processor 6 for related signal processing. For example, the processor 6 includes a signal processing unit 7 (for example, a digital signal processor), and sends the ultrasonic echo signal to the signal processing unit 7 for related signal processing.

[0106] The ultrasonic echo signal processed by the signal processing unit 7 is sent to the image processing unit 8 (for example, an image processing unit (GPU)). The image processing unit processes the signal differently according to the different imaging modes required by the user, obtains image data of different modes, and then forms ultrasonic images of different modes, such as B image, C image, D image, etc., through logarithmic compression, dynamic range adjustment, digital scan conversion, etc.

[0107] The ultrasound image generated by the image processing unit 8 is sent to the display 9 for display.

[0108] The probe 1 generally includes an array of multiple array elements. Each time an ultrasonic wave is emitted, all array elements of the probe 1 or a part of all array elements participate in the emission of the ultrasonic wave. At this time, each array element or each part of the array elements participating in the ultrasonic wave emission is excited by the emission pulse and emits ultrasonic waves respectively. The ultrasonic waves emitted by these array elements are superimposed during the propagation process to form a synthetic ultrasonic beam emitted to the scanning target. The direction of the synthetic ultrasonic beam is the ultrasonic propagation direction mentioned in this article.

[0109] The array elements participating in the ultrasonic emission can be excited by the emission pulse at the same time; or, there can be a certain delay between the times when the array elements participating in the ultrasonic emission are excited by the emission pulse. By controlling the delay between the times when the array elements participating in the ultrasonic emission are excited by the emission pulse, the propagation direction of the above-mentioned synthetic ultrasonic beam can be changed, which will be described in detail below.

[0110] By controlling the delay between the time when the array elements participating in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave are excited by the transmission pulse, the ultrasonic waves emitted by each array element can be superimposed at a predetermined position, so that the intensity of the ultrasonic wave at the predetermined position is the largest, that is, the ultrasonic waves emitted by each array element are "focused" at the predetermined position, and the predetermined position of focus is called "focus". In this way, the synthesized ultrasonic beam obtained is a beam focused at the focus, which is referred to as "focused ultrasonic wave" in this article. Here, the array elements participating in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave work in a predetermined transmission delay (that is, there is a predetermined delay between the time when the array elements participating in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave are excited by the transmission pulse), and the ultrasonic waves emitted by each array element are focused at the focus to form a focused ultrasonic wave beam. When using a focused ultrasonic wave beam for imaging, because the beam is focused at the focus, only one or several scanning lines can be obtained each time, and multiple transmissions are required to obtain all the scanning lines in the imaging area, so as to combine all the scanning lines to obtain a frame of a two-dimensional ultrasonic image of the imaging area. In the case of only one scanning line, a frame of a one-dimensional ultrasonic image can be obtained through the scanning line.

[0111] Alternatively, by controlling the delay between the time when the array elements participating in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave are excited by the transmission pulse, the ultrasonic wave emitted by each array element participating in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave will not be focused or completely diverged during the propagation process, but will form a plane wave that is generally flat as a whole. This plane wave without focus can also be called a "plane ultrasonic beam".

[0112] Alternatively, by controlling the delay between the time when the array elements participating in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave are excited by the transmission pulse, the ultrasonic wave emitted by each array element participating in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave is caused to diverge during the propagation process, and the whole wave is generally formed into a divergent wave. This divergent form of ultrasonic wave can also be called a "divergent ultrasonic beam".

[0113] However, in ultrasound scanning, dark areas often appear behind strongly echogenic tissues. For example, during obstetric examinations, dark areas appear in the cranial and brain sections and fetal spinal sections due to the strong reflection of the fetal skull and spine, resulting in the loss of ultrasound image information behind these tissues. This phenomenon is called acoustic shadowing in engineering. The existence of acoustic shadowing results in the loss of diagnostic information in ultrasound images, which has a great impact on doctors' diagnostic confidence and efficiency, and causes many inconveniences to clinicians.

[0114] Therefore, in order to solve the problem of missing information in ultrasonic images due to the presence of acoustic shadows, this article provides an ultrasonic imaging method, which includes: transmitting a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency to a scanning target; obtaining a first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave; transmitting a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target at least once; obtaining a second ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image includes at least compensation information for compensating for the missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points in the acoustic shadow area; and compounding the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0115] Through the ultrasound imaging method of the embodiment of the present application, the acoustic shadow in the target ultrasound image finally obtained is removed or weakened, and the image quality of the non-acoustic shadow part is not affected, thereby improving the doctor's confidence and efficiency in making a diagnosis based on the target ultrasound image.

[0116] Next, the ultrasonic imaging method of the embodiment of the present application is explained and illustrated in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0117] First, if Figure 2 As shown, in step S201, a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency is transmitted to a scanning target.

[0118] For example, Figure 1 As shown, the transmitting circuit excites the probe to transmit a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency toward the scanning target. A corresponding delay line is configured for each array element in the probe 1, and the probe is controlled and dynamically focused by changing the delay time of each array element in the probe 1 to obtain different types of synthetic ultrasonic beams or different ultrasonic propagation directions. Optionally, the first ultrasonic wave includes a focused ultrasonic wave, an unfocused ultrasonic wave or a wide-beam ultrasonic wave, wherein the unfocused ultrasonic wave includes at least one of a plane wave and a diverging wave. The emission of plane waves and diverging waves has been described above and will not be repeated here.

[0119] Optionally, the first frequency can be reasonably set according to actual needs, wherein the setting of the first frequency must satisfy the requirements of image quality of the non-acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasound image obtained based on the first frequency. For example, the first frequency can use a frequency higher than a set threshold frequency.

[0120] The scanning target may be an organ, tissue, blood vessel, etc. in a human or animal body. For example, the scanning target may be a fetal cranial section, a fetal spinal section, etc.

[0121] Then, continue as Figure 2 As shown, in step S202, a first ultrasonic image is obtained based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave.

[0122] Specifically, the receiving circuit receives the echo of the first ultrasonic wave emitted in the above step, and obtains a group of first ultrasonic echo signals each time the first ultrasonic wave is emitted. For example, a group of first ultrasonic echo signals is obtained by emitting the first ultrasonic wave once, or multiple groups of first ultrasonic echo signals are obtained by emitting multiple groups of first ultrasonic waves.

[0123] The method for obtaining the first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave can use any suitable method commonly used in the art at present and in the future, and is not specifically limited here. For example, the electrical signal converted and generated by the probe 1 can be received by the receiving circuit to obtain the ultrasonic echo signal, and these ultrasonic echo signals are sent to the beam synthesis circuit 5. The beam synthesis circuit 5 performs focusing delay, weighting and channel summing on the ultrasonic echo signal, and then sends the ultrasonic echo signal to the processor 6 for related signal processing. For example, the processor 6 includes a signal processing unit 7 (such as a digital signal processor), and the ultrasonic echo signal is sent to the signal processing unit 7 for related signal processing. The ultrasonic echo signal processed by the signal processing unit 7 is sent to the image processing unit 8 (such as an image processing unit (GPU)). The image processing unit performs different processing on the signal according to the different imaging modes required by the user, obtains image data of different modes, and then forms ultrasonic images of different modes, such as B image, C image, D image, etc., through logarithmic compression, dynamic range adjustment, digital scan conversion and other processing.

[0124] Among them, dark areas often appear behind strong echo tissues. For example, during obstetric examinations, the strong reflections of the fetal skull and spine cause the lack of ultrasound image information behind these tissues, resulting in dark areas. This phenomenon is called acoustic shadowing in engineering. A large part of the reason for this phenomenon is that the ultrasound wave is too small and the frequency is too high, resulting in excessive attenuation. Therefore, there is an acoustic shadow in the first ultrasound image.

[0125] Next, continue to refer to Figure 2 In step S203, a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency is emitted to the scanning target at least once.

[0126] In one example, the emission energy of the second ultrasonic wave can be made higher than the emission energy of the first ultrasonic wave, thereby weakening or eliminating the acoustic shadow. For example, the first frequency can be made greater than the second frequency. By using a low-frequency second ultrasonic wave, the acoustic shadow caused by excessive attenuation due to a small ultrasonic wave length and a high frequency can be weakened or eliminated, thereby obtaining tissue information in the acoustic shadow area to compensate for the missing information in the first ultrasonic image.

[0127] Alternatively, the emission energy of the second ultrasonic wave may be made higher than the emission energy of the first ultrasonic wave by changing other parameters of the second ultrasonic wave, for example, the focal position of the second ultrasonic wave may be made different from the focal position of the first ultrasonic wave, or the emission aperture size of the second ultrasonic wave may be made different from the emission aperture size of the first ultrasonic wave, or the emission waveform length of the second ultrasonic wave may be made longer than the emission waveform length of the first ultrasonic wave. When the above parameters are set, the first frequency and the second frequency may be kept the same or the first frequency may be kept longer than the second frequency.

[0128] In one example, the transmitting at least once a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target further includes: identifying an acoustic shadow area in the scanning target; transmitting at least once a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the acoustic shadow area. The acoustic shadow area in the scanning target can be identified by any suitable method, for example, the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target can be identified based on the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, or the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target can be identified based on the first ultrasonic image. By identifying the acoustic shadow area, a second ultrasonic wave is supplementarily transmitted for the acoustic shadow area, including but not limited to the acoustic shadow area, so that the second ultrasonic image obtained based on the supplementary transmitted second ultrasonic wave includes compensation information for compensating for the missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of the pixel points of the acoustic shadow area.

[0129] The acoustic shadow area can be identified by any method known to those skilled in the art based on the first ultrasonic image to identify the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target. For example, the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image can be determined by scanning each column of pixel points in the first ultrasonic image and judging whether each column of the first ultrasonic image contains an acoustic shadow based on prior knowledge.

[0130] In one example, based on the intensity information of the echo signal of each scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, identifying the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target includes: detecting the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, wherein Figure 3As shown, when the signal intensity of the critical point in the echo signal is detected to be oversaturated, wherein oversaturation means that the signal intensity is greater than the threshold intensity, the range of the threshold intensity depends on the type of ultrasonic imaging system, and different types of ultrasonic imaging systems have different requirements for the threshold intensity, which is not specifically limited here, and the signal intensity of the echo signal along the direction of the scanning line after the critical point is less than the threshold signal intensity (for example, the signal intensity of the echo signal along the direction of the scanning line after the critical point is very small and close to 0), then the area along the direction of the scanning line after the critical point is determined to be the acoustic shadow area. Among them, the signal intensity of the critical point is oversaturated, which can indicate that there is a strong reflection at the critical point, and the signal intensity of the echo signal along the direction of the scanning line after the critical point is less than the threshold signal intensity, which indicates that a low echo or no echo area appears after the point, so it can be judged as an acoustic shadow area. The threshold signal intensity can be reasonably set according to prior experience. When the signal intensity of the echo signal is less than the threshold signal intensity, it can usually be determined that the corresponding area is an acoustic shadow area.

[0131] Alternatively, a second ultrasonic wave may be emitted to the same imaging area as that scanned by the first ultrasonic wave, so as to obtain information of the acoustic shadow area and ensure that an ultrasonic image of the same imaging area is obtained by subsequent processing.

[0132] In this article, the imaging area refers to the area of ​​the scanning target that needs to be imaged by ultrasound, for example, the scanning target can be an organ, tissue, blood vessel, etc. in the human body or animal body. The imaging area (i.e., scanning area) of the first ultrasonic scanning and the imaging area (scanning area) of the second ultrasonic scanning refer to the area corresponding to the beam received by the probe for subsequent image processing.

[0133] Next, continue to refer to Figure 2 In step S204, a second ultrasonic image is obtained based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image at least includes compensation information for compensating for missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points in the acoustic shadow area.

[0134] The method for obtaining the second ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave may be any suitable method commonly used in the art at present or in the future, and is not specifically limited here.

[0135] Since the second frequency of the second ultrasonic wave is lower than the first frequency of the first ultrasonic wave, or the emission energy of the second ultrasonic wave is higher than the emission energy of the first ultrasonic wave, it can scan the acoustic shadow area and obtain an echo signal. Therefore, the second ultrasonic image obtained based on the ultrasonic echo signal includes at least compensation information for compensating for the missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information may include pixel value information of pixel points in the acoustic shadow area.

[0136] It is worth noting that in this article, the second ultrasonic wave can be emitted once to the scanning target, or the second ultrasonic wave can be emitted multiple times. When the second ultrasonic wave is emitted multiple times, a group of sub-ultrasonic images can be obtained based on each emission of the second ultrasonic wave, and multiple emissions can obtain multiple groups of sub-ultrasonic images. The multiple groups of sub-ultrasonic images are superimposed and compounded to obtain the final second ultrasonic image.

[0137] Next, continue to refer to Figure 2 In step S205, the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are combined to obtain a target ultrasonic image. Since the first ultrasonic image has a higher imaging quality for the non-acoustic shadow area, and the second ultrasonic image has a higher imaging quality for the acoustic shadow area, the target ultrasonic image obtained by combining the two has a high quality.

[0138] For example, you can use Figure 1 The image processing unit 8 (eg, image processing unit (GPU)) shown in the figure compounds the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image according to different imaging modes required by the user to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0139] In one example, the method of compounding the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image may also include: identifying pixel points located in the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image; compounding information of at least the pixel points in the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasonic image (e.g., pixel value information of the pixel points) with the first ultrasonic image to obtain the target ultrasonic image.

[0140] Pixels located in the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image can be identified by any suitable method. For example, pixels located in the acoustic shadow area can be identified based on the difference in pixel values ​​between the corresponding pixels in the second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image. Pixels whose pixel value difference is within a predetermined threshold can be identified as pixels corresponding to the acoustic shadow area. Alternatively, pixels in the acoustic shadow area can be identified based on the pixel value of each pixel in the first ultrasonic image. Pixels in the first ultrasonic image whose pixel values ​​are lower than the threshold pixel value can be roughly identified as pixels corresponding to the acoustic shadow area. The pixel value information of the pixels corresponding to the acoustic shadow area can be composited into the first ultrasonic image, and the pixel value information of the pixels in the non-acoustic shadow area of ​​the first ultrasonic image is retained, thereby compensating for the missing information in the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and obtaining a high-quality target ultrasonic image.

[0141] In this article, the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image may be ultrasonic images with a low dynamic range (Low Dynamic Range, LDR for short), and the target ultrasonic image may be an ultrasonic image with a high dynamic range (High Dynamic Range, HDR for short).

[0142] In one example, the step of combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image may further include steps S1 to S3:

[0143] First, in step S1, the first target weight value of each pixel point in the second ultrasonic image is determined to generate a first target weight map, wherein the first target weight value corresponding to the pixel point in the acoustic shadow area of ​​the second ultrasonic image is greater than the first target weight value corresponding to the pixel point in the non-acoustic shadow area, so that the pixel value information of the pixel point in the acoustic shadow area of ​​the second ultrasonic image can compensate for the missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image without affecting the image quality of the non-acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image.

[0144] In one example, if Figure 4 As shown, determining a first target weight value of each pixel point in at least the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map includes the following steps A1 to A3:

[0145] In step A1, based on the difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixels in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image, a first weight value of each pixel is determined to form a weight value as shown in FIG. Figure 5The first weight map shown, wherein, when the difference is less than the first threshold, the first weight value increases with the increase of the difference, and when the difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the first weight value decreases with the increase of the difference, wherein the first threshold can be reasonably set according to the a priori, wherein the pixels whose difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold can be roughly identified as some obviously erroneous pixels, and these erroneous pixels are filtered out by assigning a smaller first weight value to these erroneous pixels, optionally, the pixels whose difference is within the threshold interval can also be assigned the maximum weight value, the pixels within the threshold interval can be roughly identified as pixels within the acoustic shadow area, and therefore are assigned the maximum weight value, so that the pixel value information of the pixels within the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasonic image can be compensated to the first ultrasonic image during subsequent compounding, and for the pixels whose difference is less than the threshold interval, the first weight value increases with the increase of the difference, and the pixels whose difference is greater than the threshold interval can be identified as some obviously erroneous pixels, and the first weight value decreases with the increase of the difference, thereby filtering out these erroneous pixels.

[0146] In step A2, a second weight value of each pixel is determined according to the pixel value of each pixel in the first ultrasound image to form a second weight map, wherein: Figure 6 As shown, when the pixel value of the pixel point is less than or equal to the second threshold, the second weight value can be taken as a fixed weight value, for example, roughly between 0.7 and 1, or other suitable ranges. For the pixel points in the first ultrasound image whose pixel values ​​are less than or equal to the second threshold, they can be roughly identified as pixels belonging to the acoustic shadow area, so they can be assigned a higher weight value. When the pixel value of the pixel point is greater than the second threshold, the second weight value decreases with the increase of the pixel value. For example, the second weight value gradually decreases from a fixed weight value to zero with the increase of the pixel value. It can be roughly determined that this part of the pixels may belong to the pixels in the non-acoustic shadow area, so the weight value assigned to them gradually decreases. It can also be that the second weight values ​​of the pixels whose pixel values ​​are greater than or equal to the third threshold (for example, the third threshold is greater than the second threshold) are all set to zero, because the pixels whose pixel values ​​are greater than or equal to the third threshold must belong to the pixels in the non-acoustic shadow area. Therefore, the weight value of this part of the pixels can be assigned to zero, so that the pixels in the acoustic shadow area of ​​the ultrasound image are assigned a relatively large weight value, while the pixels in the non-acoustic shadow area are assigned a smaller weight value.

[0147] In step A3, the first target weight value is obtained by multiplying the weight values ​​of the pixels corresponding to the first weight map and the second weight map to form the first target weight map, that is, the first weight value and the second weight value of the corresponding pixel are multiplied to obtain the first target weight value of each pixel. The first target weight values ​​of all pixels constitute the first target weight map, which includes the first target weight value of each pixel.

[0148] Next, in step S2, continue as follows Figure 4 As shown, the pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasonic image is updated based on the first target weight map. For example, the pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasonic image is multiplied by the corresponding first target weight value in the first target weight map to update the pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasonic image. The first target weight value of the pixel in the acoustic shadow area in the first target weight map obtained by the above steps will be significantly higher than the first target weight value of the pixel in the non-acoustic shadow area. Therefore, through this updating step, the pixel in the acoustic shadow area of ​​the updated second ultrasonic image has a higher pixel value to compensate for the missing information in the acoustic shadow area of ​​the first ultrasonic image, while the pixel in the non-acoustic shadow part is assigned a relatively small weight value. Therefore, the pixel in the non-acoustic shadow area of ​​the updated second ultrasonic image has a smaller pixel value, thereby reducing or avoiding the impact on the information of the non-acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image during subsequent compounding.

[0149] Next, in step S3, the updated second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image are combined to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

[0150] In one example, the updated second ultrasound image and the first ultrasound image may be directly combined, or the following may be continued: Figure 4As shown, the second target weight value of each pixel point of the first ultrasound image is determined to generate a second target weight map. Each of the second target weight values ​​in the second target weight map can be reasonably set according to actual needs. For example, each of the second target weight values ​​in the second target weight map is greater than or equal to 1. Preferably, each of the second target weight values ​​in the second target weight map can be equal to 1, that is, the original first ultrasound image is compounded with the second ultrasound image without any processing. For example, a larger second target weight value can be assigned to the pixel points in the non-acoustic shadow area, and a smaller second target weight value can be assigned to the pixel points in the acoustic shadow area, so as to retain more pixel value information of the pixel points in the non-acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasound image; then, the pixel value of each pixel point of the first ultrasound image is updated based on the second target weight map, that is, the pixel value of each pixel point in the first ultrasound image is multiplied by the second target weight value in the corresponding second target weight map, and the updated pixel value is obtained; then, the updated first ultrasound image and the updated second ultrasound image are composited to obtain the target ultrasound image, and optionally, the pixel value of each pixel point of the target ultrasound image is the sum of the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated first ultrasound image and the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated second ultrasound image. The weight value of each pixel point is independent, which can ensure that the composite image weakens or eliminates the acoustic shadow while the image quality of the non-acoustic shadow area is not affected.

[0151] For example, you can also use Figure 1 The image processing unit 8 (eg, image processing unit (GPU)) shown compounds the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image according to different imaging modes required by the user to obtain a frame of target ultrasonic image.

[0152] Furthermore, the method of compounding the first ultrasonic image (or the updated first ultrasonic image) and the second ultrasonic image (or the updated second ultrasonic image) to obtain the target ultrasonic image may also use any suitable method commonly used in the art at present or in the future.

[0153] The target ultrasound image may include a one-dimensional ultrasound image, a two-dimensional ultrasound image, or an ultrasound image in other dimensions.

[0154] In one example, if Figure 4 As shown, the method further includes the following steps: a step of grayscale mapping the target ultrasound image. The grayscale mapping process can be performed by any suitable method, such as using a tone mapping algorithm, etc., to map the target ultrasound image into a grayscale target ultrasound image with a grayscale value of 0 to 255 through grayscale mapping, and by adjusting the grayscale of the image, the processed image looks more comfortable to the human eye and can better express the information and features in the original image.

[0155] It is worth mentioning that for this article Figure 2 The order of the steps shown can be changed under reasonable conditions. For example, step S203 and step S204 can be placed before step S201. Figure 2 At least part of the steps may include multiple sub-steps or multiple stages. These sub-steps or stages are not necessarily executed at the same time, but can be executed at different times. The order of execution is not necessarily sequential, but can be executed in turn or alternately with other steps or at least part of the sub-steps or stages of other steps.

[0156] Based on the above-mentioned ultrasonic imaging method, an ultrasonic imaging system is also provided in the embodiment of the present application. Figure 1 As shown, including:

[0157] Probe 1;

[0158] A transmitting circuit 2, used for exciting the probe 1 to transmit a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency to a scanning target and to transmit a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target at least once;

[0159] The receiving circuit 4 and the beamforming circuit 5 are used to respectively receive the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave emitted each time, and respectively receive the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave emitted each time;

[0160] Processor 6 is used to: obtain a first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave; obtain a second ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image at least includes compensation information for compensating for missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points in the acoustic shadow area; and composite the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image, optionally, the target ultrasonic image includes a one-dimensional ultrasonic image or a two-dimensional ultrasonic image.

[0161] In one example, the ultrasound imaging system also includes a display (not shown) for displaying information input by a user or provided to a user and various graphical user interfaces of the ultrasound imaging device. These graphical user interfaces can be composed of graphics, text, icons, videos and any combination thereof. In this embodiment, the display can display the target ultrasound image. The display may include a display panel. Optionally, the display panel can be configured in the form of a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), etc.

[0162] In one example, the ultrasound imaging system further includes a storage device (not shown), which may include one or more computer program products, and the computer program product may include various forms of computer-readable storage media, such as volatile memory and / or non-volatile memory. The volatile memory may include, for example, a random access memory (RAM) and / or a cache memory (cache), etc. The non-volatile memory may include, for example, a read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, a flash memory, etc. One or more computer program instructions may be stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and the processor 6 may run the program instructions to implement the functions (implemented by the processor) in the embodiments of the present application described herein and / or other desired functions. Various applications and various data, such as various data used and / or generated by the application, may also be stored in the computer-readable storage medium.

[0163] In one example, the ultrasound imaging system further includes an input device (not shown), which may be a device used by a user to input instructions, and may include one or more of a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a touch screen, and the like.

[0164] In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 6 is also used to: identify the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target based on the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave. Exemplarily, the processor is specifically used to: detect the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, wherein, when it is detected that the signal intensity of the critical point in the echo signal is oversaturated, and the signal intensity of the echo signal in the direction along the scanning line after the critical point is less than the threshold signal intensity, then the area in the direction along the scanning line after the critical point is determined to be the acoustic shadow area.

[0165] In one embodiment of the present application, the first frequency is greater than the second frequency. Alternatively, the emission energy of the second ultrasonic wave is higher than the emission energy of the first ultrasonic wave, for example, the emission waveform length of the second ultrasonic wave is greater than the emission waveform length of the first ultrasonic wave.

[0166] In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 6 is further used to: identify pixel points in the first ultrasound image and the second ultrasound image that are located in the acoustic shadow area; and combine information of at least the pixel points in the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasound image with the first ultrasound image to obtain the target ultrasound image. The processor 6 is also more specifically used to: identify pixel points located in the acoustic shadow area based on the difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixel points in the second ultrasound image and the first ultrasound image, and determine pixel points whose pixel value difference is within a predetermined threshold as pixel points corresponding to the acoustic shadow area.

[0167] In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 6 is also used to: determine a first target weight value for each pixel point in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map; update the pixel value of each pixel point in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map; and composite the updated second ultrasound image and the first ultrasound image to obtain a target ultrasound image.

[0168] In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 6 is also used to: determine a second target weight value for each pixel point of the first ultrasound image to generate a second target weight map; update the pixel value of each pixel point of the first ultrasound image based on the second target weight map; and composite the updated first ultrasound image and the updated second ultrasound image to obtain a target ultrasound image. Optionally, the pixel value of each pixel point of the target ultrasound image is the sum of the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated first ultrasound image and the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated second ultrasound image.

[0169] In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 6 is also used to: determine a first weight value for each pixel point based on the difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixel points in the first ultrasound image and the second ultrasound image to form a first weight map, wherein when the difference is less than a first threshold value, the first weight value increases with the increase of the difference, and when the difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the first weight value decreases with the increase of the difference; determine a second weight value for each pixel point according to the pixel value of each pixel point in the first ultrasound image to form a second weight map, wherein when the pixel value of the pixel point is greater than a second threshold value, the second weight value decreases with the increase of the pixel value, and optionally, each of the second target weight values ​​in the second target weight map is greater than or equal to 1; subsequently, the first target weight value is obtained by multiplying the weight values ​​of the corresponding pixel points in the first weight map and the second weight map to form the first target weight map.

[0170] In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 6 is further configured to:

[0171] The pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image is multiplied by the corresponding first target weight value in the first target weight map to update the pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image.

[0172] In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 6 is further configured to: perform grayscale mapping processing on the target ultrasound image.

[0173] In addition, the embodiment of the present application further provides a computer storage medium on which a computer program is stored. One or more computer program instructions may be stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and the processor may run the program instructions stored in the storage device to implement the functions (implemented by the processor) in the embodiment of the present application described herein and / or other desired functions, such as to execute the corresponding steps of the ultrasound imaging method according to the embodiment of the present application, and various applications and various data may also be stored in the computer-readable storage medium, such as various data used and / or generated by the application, etc.

[0174] For example, the computer storage medium may include a memory card of a smart phone, a storage component of a tablet computer, a hard disk of a personal computer, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a USB memory, or any combination of the above storage media.

[0175] In summary, according to the ultrasonic imaging method and system of the embodiment of the present application, a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency is emitted to a scanning target; a first ultrasonic image is obtained based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave; a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency is emitted to the scanning target at least once; a second ultrasonic image is obtained based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image at least includes compensation information for compensating for missing information of the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points in the acoustic shadow area; the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image, thereby removing or weakening the acoustic shadow in the target ultrasonic image finally obtained, and will not affect the image quality of the non-acoustic shadow part, thereby improving the doctor's confidence and efficiency in making a diagnosis based on the target ultrasonic image.

[0176] Although example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the above example embodiments are merely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application to this. Those of ordinary skill in the art may make various changes and modifications therein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present application. All these changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present application as required by the appended claims.

[0177] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

[0178] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic, for example, the division of the units is only a logical function division, and there may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another device, or some features can be ignored or not executed.

[0179] In the description provided herein, a large number of specific details are described. However, it is understood that the embodiments of the present application can be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques are not shown in detail so as not to obscure the understanding of this description.

[0180] Similarly, it should be understood that in order to streamline the present application and help understand one or more of the various inventive aspects, in the description of the exemplary embodiments of the present application, the various features of the present application are sometimes grouped together into a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof. However, the method of the present application should not be interpreted as reflecting the following intention: the claimed application requires more features than the features clearly stated in each claim. More specifically, as reflected in the corresponding claims, the inventive point is that the corresponding technical problem can be solved with features less than all the features of a single disclosed embodiment. Therefore, the claims following the specific embodiment are hereby explicitly incorporated into the specific embodiment, wherein each claim itself serves as a separate embodiment of the present application.

[0181] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, except for mutually exclusive features, all features disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstracts and drawings) and all processes or units of any method or device disclosed in this specification may be combined in any combination. Unless otherwise expressly stated, each feature disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstracts and drawings) may be replaced by an alternative feature that provides the same, equivalent or similar purpose.

[0182] In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that, although some embodiments described herein include certain features included in other embodiments but not other features, the combination of features of different embodiments is meant to be within the scope of the present application and form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any one of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

[0183] The various component embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP) can be used in practice to implement some or all functions of some modules according to the embodiments of the present application. The application can also be implemented as a device program (e.g., computer program and computer program product) for executing a part or all of the methods described herein. Such a program implementing the present application can be stored on a computer-readable medium, or can have the form of one or more signals. Such a signal can be downloaded from an Internet website, or provided on a carrier signal, or provided in any other form.

[0184] It should be noted that the above embodiments illustrate rather than limit the present application, and that those skilled in the art may devise alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference symbol between brackets should not be constructed as a limitation to the claims. The present application may be implemented by means of hardware including several different elements and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In a unit claim that lists several devices, several of these devices may be embodied by the same hardware item. The use of the words first, second, and third, etc. does not indicate any order. These words may be interpreted as names.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic imaging method, characterized in that: The ultrasonic imaging method comprises: emitting a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency toward a scanning target; obtaining a first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave; transmitting at least once a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target; Obtaining a second ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave, wherein the second ultrasonic image at least includes compensation information for compensating for missing information of an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points of the acoustic shadow area; The first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

2. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The transmitting at least once a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target further comprises: Identifying a corresponding acoustic shadow area in the scanned object; A second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency is emitted at least once to a corresponding acoustic shadow area in the scanning target.

3. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The identifying the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target includes: Based on the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, an acoustic shadow area in the scanning target is identified.

4. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 3, characterized in that: Based on the intensity information of the echo signal of each scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, identifying the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target includes: Detect the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, wherein, when it is detected that the signal intensity of a critical point in the echo signal is oversaturated, and the signal intensity of the echo signal along the direction of the scanning line after the critical point is less than the threshold signal intensity, then determine that the area after the critical point along the direction of the scanning line is the acoustic shadow area.

5. The ultrasonic imaging method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The first frequency is greater than the second frequency, or the first frequency is the same as the second frequency.

6. The ultrasonic imaging method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The emission energy of the second ultrasonic wave is higher than the emission energy of the first ultrasonic wave.

7. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 6, characterized in that: The transmission waveform length of the second ultrasonic wave is greater than the transmission waveform length of the first ultrasonic wave.

8. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 1, wherein: The combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image comprises: Identifying pixel points located in an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image; The information of at least the pixel points in the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasonic image is combined with the first ultrasonic image to obtain the target ultrasonic image.

9. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 8, characterized in that: Identifying pixel points located in the acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image includes: Pixels located in the acoustic shadow area are identified based on the difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixels between the second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image, and pixels whose pixel value difference is within a predetermined threshold are determined as pixels corresponding to the acoustic shadow area.

10. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 1, wherein: The combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image comprises: Determine a first target weight value of each pixel point of at least the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map; updating a pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map; The updated second ultrasonic image and the first ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

11. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 1, wherein: The combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image comprises: Determine a first target weight value of each pixel point of at least the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map; updating a pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map; Determining a second target weight value for each pixel of the first ultrasound image to generate a second target weight map; updating a pixel value of each pixel point of the first ultrasound image based on the second target weight map; The updated first ultrasonic image and the updated second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

12. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 10, characterized in that: Determining a first target weight value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image to generate a first target weight map includes: Determine a first weight value for each pixel point based on a difference in pixel values ​​of corresponding pixel points in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to form a first weight map, wherein when the difference is less than a first threshold, the first weight value increases as the difference increases, and when the difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the first weight value decreases as the difference increases; Determine a second weight value of each pixel point according to the pixel value of each pixel point in the first ultrasound image to form a second weight map, wherein when the pixel value of the pixel point is greater than a second threshold value, the second weight value decreases as the pixel value increases; The first target weight value is obtained by multiplying the weight values ​​of the pixels corresponding to the first weight map and the second weight map to form the first target weight map.

13. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 10, characterized in that: Updating the pixel value of each pixel in the second ultrasound image based on the first target weight map includes: The pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image is multiplied by the corresponding first target weight value in the first target weight map to update the pixel value of each pixel point of the second ultrasound image.

14. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 11, characterized in that: Also includes: The pixel value of each pixel point of the target ultrasonic image is the sum of the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated first ultrasonic image and the pixel value of the corresponding pixel point of the updated second ultrasonic image.

15. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 11, characterized in that: Each of the second target weight values ​​in the second target weight map is greater than or equal to 1.

16. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 1, wherein: The method further comprises the following steps: Grayscale mapping is performed on the target ultrasound image.

17. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The target ultrasound image includes a one-dimensional ultrasound image or a two-dimensional ultrasound image.

18. An ultrasonic imaging method, characterized in that: The ultrasonic imaging method comprises: Obtaining a first ultrasonic image of a scanning target, wherein the first ultrasonic image includes an acoustic shadow area; Obtaining a second ultrasonic image of the scanned object, wherein the second ultrasonic image at least includes compensation information for compensating for missing information of an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image, and the compensation information includes pixel value information of pixel points of the acoustic shadow area; The first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image are composited to obtain a target ultrasonic image.

19. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 18, characterized in that: The step of obtaining a first ultrasonic image of a scanning target comprises: transmitting a first ultrasonic wave of a first frequency to the scanning target, and obtaining the first ultrasonic image based on an ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave; The obtaining of a second ultrasonic image of the scanning target comprises: Transmitting a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the scanning target at least once, and obtaining a second ultrasonic image based on an ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave; or identifying a corresponding acoustic shadow area in the scanning target, transmitting a second ultrasonic wave of a second frequency to the corresponding acoustic shadow area in the scanning target at least once, and obtaining a second ultrasonic image based on an ultrasonic echo of the second ultrasonic wave; The first frequency is greater than the second frequency, or the first frequency is the same as the second frequency.

20. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 19, wherein: The first ultrasonic wave includes at least one of focused ultrasonic wave, unfocused ultrasonic wave and wide-beam ultrasonic wave, wherein the unfocused ultrasonic wave includes at least one of a plane wave and a divergent wave.

21. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 19, wherein: The step of obtaining the first ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave comprises: Transmitting the first ultrasonic wave once to obtain a group of ultrasonic echoes of the first ultrasonic wave, thereby obtaining a group of first ultrasonic echo signals; or transmitting multiple groups of the first ultrasonic wave to obtain multiple groups of ultrasonic echoes of the first ultrasonic wave, thereby obtaining multiple groups of first ultrasonic echo signals; The first ultrasound image is obtained according to the first ultrasound echo signal.

22. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 19, wherein: The combining the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image to obtain a target ultrasonic image comprises: Identifying pixel points located in an acoustic shadow area in the first ultrasonic image and the second ultrasonic image; The information of at least the pixel points in the acoustic shadow area in the second ultrasonic image is combined with the first ultrasonic image to obtain the target ultrasonic image.

23. The ultrasonic imaging method according to claim 19, wherein: The identifying the acoustic shadow area in the scanning target includes: Based on the intensity information of the echo signal of the scanning line of the first ultrasonic wave, an acoustic shadow area in the scanning target is identified.

24. An ultrasonic imaging system, characterized in that: include: Probe; A transmitting circuit, used for stimulating the probe to transmit ultrasonic waves toward a scanning target; A processor, configured to execute the ultrasonic imaging method according to any one of claims 1 to 23.

Images