The overall objective of this work is to investigate a new method of diagnostic ultrasound phased array imaging. Although primarily oriented towards applications in cardiology, this method may also find application in other areas of ultrasonic diagnosis. The proposed method is based on the parallel processing of received echo information to permit the simultaneous display of ten ultrasound B-mode lines. In this way frame rates of 300 per second can be achieved. This high data acquisition rate provides the possibility of image integration for improved visualization of anatomical structures. Integration of tomographic images of the same target under differing scan conditions can be obtained without compromising either the field of view or the temporal resolution of dynamic events. Aside from conventional sector scan formats, this technique will be applied to three-dimensional and spatial compound real-time imaging. This first attempt at producing real-time three dimensional images is based on the generation of two orthogonal tomographic images from the same transducer. It is hoped, that through the development and exploration of these imaging techniques the diagnostic accuracy and specificity of ultrasonic examinations may be improved and that more reliable clinical assessment can be obtained in a larger patient population.
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