Abstract

In an ultrasonic imaging system capable of generating conventional envelope detected acoustic data and/or integrated backscatter acoustic data, a mechanism is provided to select a plurality of pixels in a specified region of a two dimensional ultrasonic image. The pixel values are processed to compute the average acoustic intensity for the selected pixels. The average value is then processed to reverse any non-linearities between the calculated average value and the originally received acoustic signals which non-linearities may have been introduced by the compression, scaling and mapping of the data in order to display it on a conventional video monitor. The processed average acoustic intensity is plotted and the procedure repeated at specified time intervals to form a time-intensity curve whose characteristics are linearly related to the originally received acoustic signals. The characteristics of the time-intensity curve are calculated to provide further information about the irradiated body and the presence of any contrast agent therein.