Tissue motion comparison display

• US 20060173328A1
• Filed: 01/19/2005
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Fan, Liexiang, Gustafson, David E., Jackson, John I.
• Granted Patent: US 9,814,439 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/441
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/503 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52071 Multicolour displays; using colour coding; Optimising colour or information content in displays, e.g. parametric imaging

Abstract

A difference between a detected motion and a reference motion is automatically displayed. The reference motion is a modeled motion of an organ, a base line motion of an organ or another portion of an organ. A deviation in motion amplitude, angle or both angle and amplitude from a reference set may more easily identify abnormal or normal motion of the organ.

Claims

1. A method for displaying tissue motion information, the method comprising:

determining a first motion characteristic of tissue within a body;

comparing the first motion characteristic to a first reference motion characteristic;

determining a difference as a function of the comparison; and

displaying information as a function of the difference.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first motion characteristic comprises:

scanning the tissue with ultrasound at different times; and

tracking tissue position at the different times.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first motion characteristic, comparing, determining the difference and displaying are performed automatically by one or more processors in an imaging mode.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first motion characteristic comprises determining a two-dimensional vector.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first motion characteristic comprises determining a three-dimensional vector.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first motion characteristic comprises determining an amplitude, an angle or both an amplitude and an angle of motion.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein comparing comprises comparing the first motion characteristic to the first reference motion characteristic, the first reference motion characteristic being a modeled characteristic.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein comparing comprises comparing the first motion characteristic to the first reference motion characteristic, the first reference motion characteristic being a baseline characteristic.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein comparing comprises comparing the first motion characteristic to the first reference motion characteristic, the first reference motion characteristic being a second motion characteristic determined from the same data as the first motion characteristic but at a different tissue location.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the difference comprises determining a difference in amplitude, angle or both amplitude and angle.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying information as a function of the difference comprises modulating two or three dimensional image color, gray scale or both color and gray scale as a function of the difference.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying information as a function of the difference comprises displaying a value, a graph or both a value and a graph as a function of the difference.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying information as a function of the difference comprises displaying as a function of the difference relative to at least two different ranges of difference values.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

spatially registering a first image associated with the first tissue motion characteristic with a second image associated with the first reference motion characteristic;

wherein comparing is performed after the spatial registration.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

temporally aligning a first image associated with the first tissue motion characteristic with a second image associated with the first reference motion characteristic, the second image being in a sequence of reference images.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

repeating the determining the first motion characteristic, comparing, and determining the difference for each of a plurality of locations at a substantially same time;

wherein displaying comprises displaying as a function of differences for each of the plurality of locations in a same image.

17. A system for displaying tissue motion information, the system comprising:

a processor operable to determine a first motion characteristic of tissue within a body, compare the first motion characteristic to a first reference motion characteristic, and determine a difference as a function of the comparison; and

a display operable to display information as a function of the difference.

18. The system of claim 17 comprising a medical diagnostic ultrasound system.

19. A computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for displaying tissue motion information, the storage medium comprising instructions for:

determining a first motion characteristic of tissue within a body with ultrasound data acquired at different times;

comparing the first motion characteristic to a first reference motion characteristic; and

determining a difference as a function of the comparison.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 further comprising instructions for displaying information as a function of the difference.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein determining the first motion characteristic comprises determining a two-or three-dimensional vector.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein determining the first motion characteristic comprises determining an amplitude, an angle or both an amplitude and an angle of motion, and wherein determining the difference comprises determining a difference in amplitude, angle or both amplitude and angle.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein comparing comprises comparing the first motion characteristic to the first reference motion characteristic, the first reference motion characteristic being a modeled characteristic, a baseline characteristic, being a second motion characteristic determined from the same data as the first motion characteristic but at a different tissue location, or combinations thereof.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein displaying information as a function of the difference comprises modulating two or three dimensional image color, gray scale or both color and gray scale as a function of the difference.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein displaying information as a function of the difference comprises displaying a value, a graph or both a value and a graph as a function of the difference.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein displaying information as a function of the difference comprises displaying as a function of the difference relative to at least two different ranges of difference values.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 further comprising instructions for:

temporally aligning a first image associated with the first tissue motion characteristic with a second image associated with the first reference motion characteristic, the second image being in a sequence of reference images; and

spatially registering the first image with the second image;

wherein comparing is performed after the spatial registration.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 further comprising instructions for:

repeating the determining the first motion characteristic, comparing, and determining the difference for each of a plurality of locations at a substantially same time;

wherein displaying comprises displaying as a function of differences for each of the plurality of locations in a same image.