METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DATA TRANSFER REDUCTION IN ULTRASOUND IMAGING

The invention is directed to method for ultrasound (US) imaging using an ultrasound system comprising a US probe (10), wherein the US probe (10) is configured to insonify an imaging region, receive echo signals, digitize the received echo signals and transfer the digitized radiofrequency (RF) data (14) to a data processing unit adapted to beamform the RF data (14). The method comprises acquiring at least one scouting image (15) including an anatomical structure; selecting at least one region of interest (ROI) (16) within the scouting image (15), wherein the at least one ROI (16) includes a portion of the anatomical structure; setting a transmit (TX) scheme (46) and a receive (RX) scheme (48) for US imaging of the imaging region (18), in which the ROI (16) is insonified with different TX and RX settings than the imaging region (18) outside the ROI (16); and acquiring a plurality of US images (26) according to the TX and RX scheme. The US probe (10) is configured to transfer to the data processing unit only the received RF data (14) corresponding to a depth range of the at least one ROI (16) for at least some of the stipulated receive beams (24) reflected from the at least one ROI (16), and is configured to transfer the received RF data corresponding to the full depth of the imaging region (18) for at least some of the receive beams (24) reflected from the imaging region (18) outside the at least one ROI (16).