An ECG gated ultrasonic imaging compounding system and method for
synthesizing a cineloop of a compound ultrasonic image such as a cardiac
cycle is presented. In real-time operation, a series of image frames may
be recorded at a frame rate over a cardiac cycle and stored in a cineloop
memory. A second series of image frames are recorded over a second cardiac
cycle. The image frames of the second cardiac cycle are frame-by-frame
aligned in time and space with the corresponding image frames from the
cineloop memory. The aligned frames are then combined to form a series of
synthesized image frames which then replace the original image frames in
the cineloop memory. Subsequent series of image frames are also combined
with the synthesized image frames in the cineloop memory to form new
synthesized image frames which then replace the old synthesized image
frames in the image array, and so forth. The series of image frames may be
triggered to begin at a cardiac event such as the R-event.