Patent•
Spatially compounded three dimensional ultrasonic images
TL;DR: In this article, an ultrasonic probe is moved to scan a volumetric region of the body and targets within the region are interrogated from multiple look directions, which are compounded to form spatially compounded image data, which is processed for display in a three dimensional display format.
Abstract: An ultrasonic probe is moved to scan a volumetric region of the body. As it is moved, targets within the region are interrogated from multiple look directions. The echo data from the multiple look directions are compounded to form spatially compounded image data, which is processed for display in a three dimensional display format.
Citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, an adjunctive ultrasound mammography system and associated methods are described, comprising a scanning apparatus for facilitating standardized, repeatable breast ultrasound scans, and further comprising an adjuncctive ultrasound display apparatus configured for fast, intuitive viewing of adjuncious ultrasound data concurrently with x-ray mammogram information.
Abstract: An adjunctive ultrasound mammography system and associated methods are described, comprising a scanning apparatus for facilitating standardized, repeatable breast ultrasound scans, and further comprising an adjunctive ultrasound display apparatus configured for fast, intuitive viewing of adjunctive ultrasound data concurrently with x-ray mammogram information. In one preferred embodiment, thick-slice ultrasound images are displayed near an x-ray mammogram such that a screening radiologist can quickly view the thick-slice images for assistance in interpreting the x-ray mammogram. Methods for concurrently acquiring and displaying vibrational resonance image (VDI) data are described. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) algorithms that incorporate acoustically-based feature vectors are described, the feature vectors including lateral shadow metrics, vertical shadow metrics, posterior enhancement metrics, and VDI-based metrics. Algorithms are also described that combine x-ray mammogram CAD results with adjunctive ultrasound CAD results without requiring complex image registrations therebetween. Many of the practical, economic, and political barriers to acceptance and integration of ultrasound mammography into existing mass breast cancer screening environments are mitigated.
215Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, an adjunctive ultrasound mammography system and associated methods are described in which an ultrasound image being displayed near an x-ray mammogram image may be superimposed thereon or thereunder by a user for facilitating rapid comprehension of breast structures and detection of abnormalities therein.
Abstract: An adjunctive ultrasound mammography system and associated methods are described in which an ultrasound image being displayed near an x-ray mammogram image may be superimposed thereon or thereunder by a user for facilitating rapid comprehension of breast structures and detection of abnormalities therein. In one preferred embodiment, the x-ray mammogram image corresponds to a standard x-ray mammogram view, and the ultrasound image is a thick-slice image representing a thick-slice or slab-like portion of the breast volume substantially parallel to that standard x-ray mammogram view. In another preferred embodiment, the user is permitted to manually manipulate the registration of the ultrasound image with the x-ray mammogram image. It has been found that the manual registration process, which involves manual vernier adjustments responsive to perceived registration differences, can rapidly increase the radiologist's perception of the breast structures being displayed by both component images. Even though ultrasound images tend to have substantially different textures and feature emphases than x-ray images, the bimodal thick-slice/x-ray image, alone or in conjunction with the vernier registration process, can often expose or clarify tissue structures hidden in the separate component images, and can often obviate or explain certain noticed structures in the component images.
113Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, an adjunctive ultrasound mammography system and associated methods are described comprising an adjuncctive ultrasound display configured for quick, intuitive, interactive viewing of data derived from volumetric ultrasound scans, the data being displayed near a conventional x-ray mammogram display.
Abstract: An adjunctive ultrasound mammography system and associated methods are described comprising an adjunctive ultrasound display configured for quick, intuitive, interactive viewing of data derived from volumetric ultrasound scans, the data being displayed near a conventional x-ray mammogram display. Preferred embodiments for navigating among a thick-slice image array, a selected enlarged thick-slice image, and planar ultrasound views are described, including a preferred embodiment in which the planar ultrasound views are updated in real time as a cursor is moved across an active thick-slice image. In one preferred embodiment the thick-slice images are inverted prior to display, with non-breast areas of the image preferably segmented out and reset to dark. The inverted thick-slice images are of more familiar significance to radiologists having years of expertise in analyzing conventional x-ray mammograms. For example, the inverted thick-slice images allow benign features to be more easily dismissed as compared to non-inverted thick-slice images. Preferred embodiments for computing thick-slice image values from the volumetric scan data are also described that emphasize larger mass lesions in the resulting thick-slice images, and that compensate for mass lesions that straddle thick-slice region borders.
104Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an ultrasound phased array imaging system consisting of a probe with a 2-D array of transducer elements for acquiring 3-D ultrasound data of a volume of a body, including moving tissue and fluid flow is presented.
Abstract: The invention relates to an ultrasound phased array imaging system comprising: probe ( 10 ) with a 2-D array of transducer elements ( 12 ) for acquiring 3-D ultrasound data of a volume of a body, including moving tissue and fluid flow; a beamforming system ( 10, 12, 14, 16 ) for emitting and receiving in real time ultrasound beams in said volume, which provides, in real time and in 3-D, more than one spatial receive beams signals for each transmission beam within an ensemble length of more than two temporal samples, among which the receive flow beam signals and the receive tissue beam signals are substantially temporally uncorrelated but spatially correlated; separation means ( 30 ) for processing in real time the receive beams signals, comprising adaptive spatial tissue filtering means using simultaneously more than one spatial receive beam signals acquired in 3-D within the ensemble length of more than two temporal samples, which separation means analyzes temporal variations of the respective successive receive signals and extracts flow receive beam signals from spatial combinations of receive beam signals; processing means ( 40, 50 ) and display means ( 62, 60 ) for processing flow Doppler signals and for displaying images based on said processed flow Doppler signals.
92Â citations
Abstract: Displaying breast ultrasound information on an interactive user interface is described, the user interface being useful in adjunctive ultrasound mammography environments and/or ultrasound-only mammography environments. Bilateral comparison is facilitated by a pairwise display of thick-slice images corresponding to analogous slab-like subvolumes in the left and right breasts. Coronal thick-slice imaging and convenient navigation on and among coronal thick-slice images is described. In one preferred embodiment, a nipple marker is displayed the coronal thick-slice image representing a projection of a nipple location thereupon. A convenient breast icon is also displayed including a cursor position indicator variably disposed thereon in a manner that reflects a relative position between the cursor and the nipple marker. Preferably, the breast icon is configured to at least roughly resemble a clock face, the center of the clock face representing the nipple marker location. Bookmark-centric and CAD-marker-centric navigation within and among thick-slice images is also described.
75Â citations
References
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TL;DR: A new statistical theory is developed to predict the improvement in signal-to-noise ratio with increased levels of compounding, and a novel reconstruction algorithm is presented which uses landmarks to register each B-scan accurately as it is inserted into the voxel array.
163Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, a compounded field of view ultrasound image is derived from correlated frames of ultrasound image data, which are processed to detect probe motion without the use of a dedicated position sensor or motion sensor.
Abstract: A compounded field of view ultrasound image is derived from correlated frames of ultrasound image data. An operator manually translates an ultrasound probe across a patient target area. Frames of sensed echo signals are processed to detect probe motion without the use of a dedicated position sensor or motion sensor. Motion is detected by correlating the frames for probe translation among as many as 6 degrees of freedom. Image registration then is performed for correlated portions to compound a large ultrasound image. Such image encompasses an area larger than a single field of view image frame for the given manually-scanned transducer probe.
156Â citations
Patent•
21 Mar 1997
TL;DR: In this article, a medical diagnostic ultrasound system is described in which ultrasonic B mode tissue information and Doppler flow information are acquired from a volumetric region of the body and processed together to render a 3D image.
Abstract: A medical diagnostic ultrasound system is described in which ultrasonic B mode tissue information and Doppler flow information is acquired from a volumetric region of the body and processed together to render a three dimensional image. The three dimensional rendering processes the B mode and Doppler flow information as a function of the spatial location of B mode and Doppler pixels in the volumetric region. The rendering utilizes separate three dimensional rendering parameters for the tissue and flow information, respectively.
138Â citations
TL;DR: In this study, the use of 3-D spatial compounding to improve data quality is investigated, and it is found that precise registration is the key.
Abstract: One of the most promising applications of 3-D ultrasound (US) lies in the visualisation and volume estimation of internal 3-D structures. Unfortunately, artifacts and speckle make automatic analysis of the 3-D data sets difficult. In this study, we investigated the use of 3-D spatial compounding to improve data quality, and found that precise registration is the key. A correlation-based registration technique was applied to 3-D ultrasound data sets acquired from in vivo examinations of a human gall bladder. We found that the registration technique performed well, and visualisation and segmentation of the compounded data were clearly improved. We also demonstrated that an automatic volume estimate made from the compounded data (13.0 mL) was comparable to a labour-intensive manual estimate (12.5 mL). In comparison, automatic estimates of uncompounded data are less accurate (ranging from 13.5 mL to 16.7 mL). The registration technique also has applications in intra- and interpatient comparative studies.
120Â citations
TL;DR: In pulse-echo imaging, homologous feature registration for compounding appears to have advantages over mechanically registered compounding methods previously employed in the breast and significant increases in lesion and structural conspicuity are noted due to a reduction in speckle noise.
Abstract: Use of multiple lood directions, that is, compound imaging, has been shown previously to increase detection of specular reflectors and averaging of speckle noise in gray-scale images, often at the expense of spatial resolution and other misregistration errors. In color flow imaging, additional view angles can fill in vessels missed due to Doppler angle dropout and increase quantitative and visual Doppler accuracy by triangulation or a simple peak-frequency-shift combination algorithm. Image registration and unwarping throughout multiple three-dimensional (3D) volume sets should correct for many refraction artifacts, motion between and during compounded image sets and even, possibly, positioning errors between image sets, acquired months apart, to display growth of abnormalities. The registration described here does not provide sufficient accuracy for formation of enhanced coherent apertures, but shows promise in some cases to provide superior compound images and possibly comparisons of current and prior studies. In this study, the breast is stabilized by mild compression between a flat plate and a scanning membrane. Registration and unwarping is performed retrospectively on two separate volumetric data sets by defining pairs of corresponding points and, in some cases, line and plane segments. Three-dimensional linear affine transforms are performed using identified points, lines and planes. 3D nonlinear warped transforms are also possible given adequate numbers of identifiable points. More than two data sets are registered by selecting one as the standard, and registering the remainder to match. The most appropriate algorithm, such as averaging or maximum amplitude, may be used to combine the data sets for display. Significant success has been achieved in compound display of a test object and of the breast in vivo , even when there was relative motion or warping between image sets. In pulse-echo imaging, homologous feature registration for compounding appears to have advantages over mechanically registered compounding methods previously employed in the breast and significant increases in lesion and structural conspicuity are noted due to a reduction in speckle noise. The improvements from compounding in 3D, surface-rendered Doppler imaging of vasculature are striking.
83Â citations