US Patent 10194888 Continuously oriented enhanced ultrasound imaging of a sub-volume

An entire volume is scanned. A sub-volume is separately scanned with different settings for beamforming parameters, allowing greater image quality for the sub-volume while providing context from the volume. The anatomy of interest is periodically detected, and the sub-volume shifted in position to cover the anatomy of interest, allowing for relatively continuous volume imaging with enhanced quality imaging of the sub-volume. Interleaving by volume and sub-volume slices may allow for optimization of relative frame rate and image quality. Different combinations between volume and sub-volume data for anatomy detection and display may provide for desired imaging while allowing the regular detection of the anatomy.