DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shiran et al. (2021/0015463) in view of Kato et al. (2009/0054775).
With respect to claims 1 and 6, Shiran et al. teach of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus 100 and method that includes a probe 106, a transmit circuit 101 configured to excite the probe to emit ultrasonic waves to a target object, a receive circuit 110 configured to receive ultrasonic echoes from the target object through the probe to obtain ultrasonic echo signals [0013], a processor 116 configured to process the ultrasonic echo signals to obtain an ultrasonic image of the target object [0016, 0017], and a display 118 configured to display the ultrasonic image [0017]. Shiran et al. teach of the processor being configured enter a variable frame rate imaging mode or the cine loop with a first imaging frame rate [0035, 0037] and a second imaging frame rate with corresponding imaging parameters [0039, 0050, 0053] with the second imaging frame rate being greater than the first imaging frame rate or where the second frame rate is faster than the first frame rate [0039]. Shiran et al. therefore teach of a first cine loop at a first frame at the first display area and a second cine loop wat the second frame rate at a second display area of the display screen where the second frame rate is faster than the first frame rate and faster frame rate may be displayed in a larger format than the slower frame rate cine loop on the same display screen [0042, 0047]. Under broadest reasonable interpretation, Shiran et al. therefore teach of generating a contrast image based on the ultrasound data with first and second imaging frame rate and the contrast image has the first and second imaging frame rate.
Shiran et al. teach of injecting contrast agent into the target object [0019] and therefore would be part of the first and second image acquisition per the frame rates but do not explicitly teach of the generating the contrast image with respect to the first and second imaging frame rates. In a similar field of endeavor Kato et al. teach of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and method with contrast agent injection into a target object according to imaging parameters preconfigured for the first imaging frame rate, emitting ultrasonic waves to a region of interest of the target object and receiving echoes from the object to obtain ultrasonic data with the first imaging frame rate [0063] and after the contrast is injected, according to the imaging parameters preconfigured for the second imaging frame rate, emitting ultrasonic waves to the region of interest of the target object and receiving echoes from the object to obtain data with the second imaging frame rate or transmitting each of contrast imaging transmission pulses and creating the contrast image based on the received signal corresponding contrast imaging transmission pulse [0068-0071]. Kato et al. teach of generating a contrast image based on the first and second imaging frame rate wherein the contrast image has at least the first imaging frame rate and the second imaging frame rate [0076, 0080, 0081]. It would have therefore been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the teaching by Kato et al. to modify Shiran et al. to optimize the balance between a frame rate of a contrast image and the quality of a reference image and enhance the resolution of the reference image [Kato, 0040].
Claim(s) 2-5 and 7-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shiran et al. in view of Kato et al. and further in view of Sheeran et al. (2024/0358353). With respect to claims 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 10, he previous references do not teach of an early arterial phase during the imaging process of the contrast agent. In a similar field of endeavor Sheeran et al. teach of a contrast-enhanced ultrasound based imaging apparatus and method [0022] with a time period corresponding to an early arterial phase during an imaging process of the contrast agent [0040, 0041] includes a first time and a second time wherein the first time is a start time of the early arterial phase, measured from start of the injection of the contrast agent [0052] and the second time is an end time of the early arterial phase, measured from the start of the injection of the contrast agent [0057, 0058, 0060]. Sheeran et al. additionally teach of obtaining the first and/or second time response to a time parameter preconfigured by a user or automatically detecting the first and/or second time based on the ultrasonic data obtained according to the imaging parameters preconfigured for the imaging frame rate or alerts on the display provided to the user on the selection of timers [0040, 0056-0059]. Sheeran et al. also teach of adjusting the frame rate from a user [0058].
With respect to claims 4 and 9, Shiran et al. do not explicitly teach of the specifics of the contrast injection and the frame rate. Kato et al. teach of obtaining reference ultrasonic data based on ultrasonic data obtained according to the imaging parameters preconfigured for the first imaging frame rate or obtaining a first reference image based on a received signal preconfigured for the first imaging frame rate [0040, 0062]. Kato et al. teach of obtaining current ultrasonic data or second reference image after fixed time interval after obtaining the first reference data preconfigured for the first imaging frame rate and taking each obtained current data or second reference data as target ultrasonic data [0040, 0062]. Shiran et al. and Kato et al. do not explicitly teach of the average intensity difference between the current and reference ultrasound data. Sheeran et al. teach of determining increase in pixel intensity over the initial time period that occurs as a result of the contrast agent’s arriving in the imaging plane or frames at which the maximum signal power or pixel intensity occurs in the organ of interest and after this, there is a gradual decay of the agent to sample wash-in which is the increase in pixel intensity over the initial time period [0041] and therefore teaches of average intensity difference between the ultrasound data with respect to time.
It would have therefore been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the teaching by Sheeran et al. to modify the previous teachings to effectively control an imaging procedure to allow user to select time-based actions and event of contrast enhance ultrasound and ensure more accuracy with image acquisition initiation and termination and prevent loss of data or need for repeated injections [Sheeran, 0005, 0008].
Conclusion
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/BAISAKHI ROY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3797