Patent · US Expired

Method of displaying stream lines of an inhomogeneous flowing medium and a device therefor

US4790321A · kind A · utility

20Cited by
10References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 14, 1986
Grant dateDec 13, 1988
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 14, 2006

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S7/52085
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method and device to display in real time a stream line of an inhomogeneous flowing medium such as blood flow in a heart, is disclosed. The object is scanned several times by ultrasonic beam pulses. Echoes appearing within a predetermined time interval at each point of the object are combined to produce an image of speckles formed by the flow. The process is repeated several times, to obtain the motion of the speckles. Differences between the images of spatially correlated speckles obtained within the time interval, produce the segments of the stream lines. Differences between successive frames or successive lines can be used to produce the speckle and several methods of scanning are disclosed to produce the differences between the images to produce the stream lines.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.