Steven C. Leavitt

Medical ultrasound imaging system with velocity‐dependent rejection filtering

A medical Doppler ultrasound imaging system with improved filtering to separate blood flow information from clutter due to heart wall and vessel motion. In combination with a clutter rejection filter and velocity determination system as in the prior art, a velocity sample rejection system implements a velocity-dependent (i.e., frequency-dependent) threshold for rejecting velocity values, or samples, based on too weak echoes. That is, the acceptance/rejection threshold is a function of frequency. Optimally, the shape of the velocity-dependent thresholding function closely matches that of the attenuation transfer function of the clutter rejection filter. Thuys, for low velocity samples (corresponding to low Doppler frequency shifts), the rejection threshold is substantially lower than it is for high velocity samples. The rejection level increases monotonically as the signal deviates from the I.F.