A method of initializing a
spectral Doppler mode of operation for an ultrasonic
system includes acquiring
ultrasound-based data during a two-dimensional mode of operation for a particular examination session and includes automatically establishing settings for the Doppler mode operation parameters based upon the
ultrasound-based data. That is, the
ultrasound-based data is processed during the session to select
spectral Doppler mode settings that are specific to the ongoing session. The session-specific settings are invoked when the
system is switched to the
spectral Doppler mode. If the two-dimensional mode is a colorflow mode, the Doppler
sample volume can be based upon detecting the location of maximum velocity in the colorflow image, the angle correct setting can be based upon maximum velocities in colorflow vectors, the
pulse repetition frequency setting can be based upon the maximum
frequency shift detected in the colorflow data, and the
gain setting can be based upon the amplitude of colorflow data. On the other hand, if the two-dimensional mode is a
power mode, the Doppler
sample volume is based upon detecting the region of the
power mode image having the strongest signals, the angle correct setting can be based upon detecting the direction of flow, the Doppler
pulse repetition frequency can be based upon a scale setting for the
power mode data acquisition, and a
gain setting can be based upon the amplitude of power mode data. Lastly, if the two-dimensional mode is the grey-scale imaging mode, the selection of a Doppler
sample volume can be based upon identifying a dark region near the center of the grey-scale image, the angle correct setting can be based upon the orientation of the boundaries of the identified dark region, and the
gain setting can be based upon the amplitude of image data.