Methods and systems for creating 4D images using multiple 2D images acquired in real-time ("4D ultrasound")

• US 20060239540A1
• Filed: 03/09/2006
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Bracco Imaging S.p.A. (Bracco SPA)
• Original Assignee: Bracco Imaging S.p.A. (Bracco SPA)
• Inventors: Serra, Luis, Choon, Chua Beng
• Application Number:
  US11/373,642
• Publication Number:
  US 20060239540A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4245 involving determining the position of the probe, e.g. with respect to an external reference frame or to the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/523 for generating planar views from image data in a user selectable plane not corresponding to the acquisition plane
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8993 Three dimensional imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52044 Scan converters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52068 Stereoscopic displays; Three-dimensional displays; Pseudo 3D displays G01S15/8993 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering

Abstract

Methods and systems for rendering high quality 4D ultrasound images in real time, without the use of expensive graphics hardware, without resampling, but also without lowering the resolution of acquired image planes, are presented. In exemplary embodiments according to the present invention, 2D ultrasound image acquisitions with known three dimensional (3D) positions can be mapped directly into corresponding 2D planes. The images can then be blended from back to front towards a user'"'"'s viewpoint to form a 3D projection. The resulting 3D images can be updated in substantially real time to display the acquired volumes in 4D.

Claims

1. A method for creating 4D images, comprising:

acquiring a series of 2D images in substantially real time;

mapping each image onto a plane in 3D space with its corresponding 3D position and orientation;

applying a blending function to the series of acquired images; and

rendering the planes in substantially real time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the series of images are ultrasound images.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the resolution of the acquired images is greater than or equal to 128×

128;

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the resolution of the acquired images is greater than or equal to 256×

256;

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the resolution of the acquired images is greater than or equal to 512×

512;

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the blending function is C=A*Wa+B*Wb+ . . . +(N−

1)*W(n−

1)+N*Wn.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding 3D position and orientation of each 2D image is obtained by one or more positional sensors.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the positional sensors are a 3D tracking system and a tracked ultrasound probe.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding 3D position and orientation of each 2D image is either acquired, computed, or both acquired and computed.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing 2D filtering on one or more of the 2D images after acquisition.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the 2D filtering comprises smoothing and/or noise removal.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the 4D images are displayed stereoscopically.

23. A method of conducting volumetric ultrasound examination, comprising:

performing a initial examination using volumes generated according to the method of claim 1;

and

performing a more detailed examination of selected areas using conventional volume rendering of acquired ultrasound slices.

12. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein, the computer readable program code means in said computer program product comprising means for causing a suitable computer to;

acquire a series of images in substantially real time;

map each image onto a plane in 3D space with its corresponding 3D position and orientation;

apply a blending function to all acquired images; and

render the planes in substantially real time.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein said means further causes a computer to perform 2D filtering to one or more of the 2D images after acquisition.

13. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for creating 4D images, said method comprising:

acquiring a series of 2D images in substantially real time;

mapping each image onto a plane in 3D space with its corresponding 3D position and orientation;

applying a blending function to all acquired images; and

rendering the planes in substantially real time.

15. The program storage device of claim 13, wherein said method further comprises performing 2D filtering to one or more of the 2D images after acquisition.

17. A method of utilizing all of the 3D data acquired by a high-resolution ultrasound probe in a 4D ultrasound display, comprising:

acquiring a series of 2D images at full resolution in substantially real time;

mapping each image onto a plane in 3D space with its corresponding 3D position and orientation without downsampling;

applying a blending function to the series of acquired images; and

rendering the planes in substantially real time.

19. A method of obtaining a volume from ultrasound images acquired using a 1 D probe, comprising:

acquiring a set of ultrasound slices;

obtaining the position and orientation of each slice;

determining a bounding box that can approximately enclose the entire set of images;

allocating memory for the bounding box;

resampling the acquired slices into the allocated memory; and

interpolating to fill any empty voxels to create a volume.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the acquired ultrasound slices have different positions and orientations from each other.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the bounding box is determined by calculating the maximum and minimum offset in the direction of the scan from a reference slice.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein after obtaining the set of slices, a slice reduction optimization is performed.