STEPHEN M SMITH, MD
Osteopathic Medicine at Carroll Ave, Silver Spring, MD

4974461, Dec 4, 1990

Nov 6, 1989

7/432433

Stephen W. Smith - Rockville MD
Jean E. Rinaldi - Silver Spring MD

The United States of America as represented by Department of Health and
Human Services - Washington DC

G01M 1900, G09B 2328

738656

Apparatus and method are disclosed for producing ultrasound readings of simulated blood flow through a model left ventricle or larger portion of the human heart, held inside a fluid filled chamber with membrane-covered windows, and through mitral and aortic valves cooperating therewith to provide a simulated human circulation flow free of reverberation artifacts and the like. Adjustable flow of a selected hydraulic fluid into and out of the chamber that also contains a plurality of ultrasound absorbing elements disposed oppositely to the ultrasound viewing windows is utilized to produce ultrasound signals picked up by an ultrasound transducer for processing in any known manner. A range of flow rate and systolic characteristics of a heart are readily simulated, to provide outputs substantially free of reverberations and ultrasound reflections from the inside walls of the chamber as well as the ultrasound absorbing elements.

4894013, Jan 16, 1990

Oct 13, 1988

7/257174

Stephen W. Smith - Rockville MD
Jean E. Rinaldi - Silver Spring MD

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health
and Human Services - Washington DC

G09B 2328

434268

Apparatus and method are disclosed for producing ultrasound readings of simulated blood flow through a model left ventricle or larger portion of the human heart, held inside a fluid filled chamber with membrane-covered windows, and through mitral and aortic valves cooperating therewith to provide a simulated human circulation flow free of reverberation artifacts and the like. Adjustable flow of a selected hydraulic fluid into and out of the chamber that also contains a plurality of ultrasound absorbing elements disposed oppositely to the ultrasound viewing windows is utilized to produce ultrasound signals picked up by an ultrasound transducer for processing in any known manner. A range of flow rate and systolic characteristics of a heart are readily simulated, to provide outputs substantially free of reverberations and ultrasound reflections from the inside walls of the chamber as well as the ultrasound absorbing elements.

4331021, May 25, 1982

Sep 11, 1980

6/186381

Hector Lopez - Kensington MD
Stephen W. Smith - Rockville MD

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services - Washington DC

G01N 2900

73 1DV

A contrast resolution tissue-equivalent ultrasound test phantom comprises a block of material having ultrasonic propagation characteristics similar to that of human or animal tissue. A plurality of contrast objects are embedded in the block, each having a different reflectivity. The contrast objects have at least one dimension wherein the size of the object in cross-section decreases so that periodic ultrasonic scans of all of the objects simultaneously produce successive displays of plural cross-sectional patterns, the pattern in each display having the same size but different contrasts whereas the pattern size changes for successive displays.

4694434, Sep 15, 1987

Jun 12, 1984

6/619899

Olaf T. von Ramm - Durham NC
Stephen W. Smith - Rockville MD

G01N 2904, A61B 1000

367 7

An acoustic pulse echo imaging system capable of producing an image of a three-dimensional object utilizing a two-dimensional display having perspective capabilities is described. In the system angular relationships of targets at all ranges are maintained for display. The system uses a two-dimensional transducer array of piezoelectric elements; the array is steered to assume transmit and receive orientations in both azimuth and elevation by producing (1) a directed transmit pulse and many similarly directed receive orientations or (2) a non-directed transmit pulse and many directed receive orientations. For each transmit pulse a parallel processing system produces several unique image points whose locations in the image correspond to the tangents of the angles of the receive orientations in the azimuth and elevation planes. The brightness of each image point is the weighted integral of the echo data received along each receive path. As an option, range discrimination capability is provided by means of a range dependent gain control, brightness shading as a function of range or a color display in which data originating from different ranges is displayed in different hues.

4949310, Aug 14, 1990

Nov 21, 1988

7/273601

Stephen W. Smith - Rockville MD
Olaf T. Von Ramm - Hillsborough NC

Duke University - Durham NC

G03B 4206

367 7

An electronic signal processing device which forms a compound image for any pulse-echo ultrasound imaging system using a two-dimensional array transducer. The processing device obtains the detected sum of a series of cross-shaped apertures within the transducer in order to form a spatial compound image with the output of each cross-shaped aperture consisting of the product of the output signals from the orthogonal arms of the cross.

4852577, Aug 1, 1989

Apr 7, 1988

7/178736

Stephen W. Smith - Rockville MD
Gregg E. Trahey - Hillsborough NC

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health
and Human Services - Washington DC

A61B 800

12866007

An ultrasonic phased array imaging system is provided which includes a normal mode and an adaptive mode of operation. The adaptive mode adjusts the delay associated with each element in the transducer such that the average image brightness of the region of interest is maximized. A motion detector is provided for determining when the transducer has been moved a distance sufficient to render the previous adaptive measurements possibly invalid whereupon the system automatically reenters the normal mode. A method of operating the ultrasonic phased array imaging system is also provided.

4982339, Jan 1, 1991

Jan 18, 1989

7/298022

Michael F. Insana - Rockville MD
Stephen W. Smith - Rockville MD
David G. Brown - Derwood MD
Robert F. Wagner - Gaithersburg MD

The United States of America as represented by Department of Health and
Human Service - Washington DC

A61B 1000, G06F 1520

364507

Tissue signatures are obtained from first and second order statistics of an image texture to discriminate between different normal tissues and to detect abnormal conditions. These signatures described intrinsic backscatter properties of the tissue imaged and are used as the basis of an automatic tissue characterization algorithm. A device for on-line classifying of the texture of an image measures a total of four first and second order statistical properties of echo signals of a region of interest (ROI) selected by an operator, the echo signals being contained in an image memory. These can be used to obtain the tissue signatures, to detect low contrast lesions by machine, and to produce parametric images.