Method for Ultrasound Color Doppler Imaging

Abstract

Methods for color Doppler imaging in an ultrasound imaging system are disclosed herein. Ultrasound radio frequency RF data is demodulated using a nested processing loop including an inner loop and an outer loop. A plurality of Wall filter coefficients are fetched from ultrasound imaging system memory in a single memory access cycle. The plurality Wall filter coefficients are applied to a plurality of complex ultrasound data values in a single execution cycle. The Wall filtered ultrasound data are provided to a flow estimator.

1 .- 10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . A method, comprising:
 demodulating ultrasound RF data using a nested processing loop including an inner loop and an outer loop;   fetching from ultrasound imaging system memory, in a single memory access cycle, a plurality of Wall filter coefficients;   applying the plurality Wall filter coefficients to a plurality of complex ultrasound data values in a single execution cycle; and   providing Wall filtered ultrasound data to a flow estimator.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 fetching from a table stored in ultrasound imaging system memory, in a single memory access cycle, a sine value and a cosine value;   rounding an index value maintained at higher precision than is used to access the table to a precision used to access the table;   updating the index value at the higher precision; and   generating a complex ultrasound radio frequency (“RF”) data value by applying the sine and cosine value to an RF ultrasound data sample.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising wherein both inner and outer loops of the nested processing loop are unrolled. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising decimating complex ultrasound RF data wherein the decimation uses at least four anti-alias filter coefficients during each iteration of an inner filter loop. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising computing two-dimensional flow parameter estimates by storing a set of partial sum of powers values and computing a flow parameter value based on a stored partial sum of powers value. 
     
     
         16 .- 26 . (canceled)