Volumetric Quantification for Ultrasound Diagnostic Imaging

• US 20110208056A1
• Filed: 02/25/2010
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Seshadri, Duong, Christophe, Datta, Saurabh
• Granted Patent: US 9,320,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/441
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5223 for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

Volumetric quantification is provided in medical diagnostic ultrasound. By acquiring both B-mode and color flow data without stitching or acquiring in real-time at tens of volumes a second, more reliable quantification may be provided. Using multiple regions of interest in a volume may allow for more accurate and/or complete flow information, such as averaging flow from different locations in the same structure (e.g., use preservation of mass to acquire multiple measures of the same flow).

Claims

1. A method for volumetric quantification in medical diagnostic ultrasound, the method comprising:

acquiring B-mode and flow ultrasound data representing a volume of a patient at a substantially same time;

identifying at least two regions of interest in the volume, the at least two regions of interest being flow regions, the identifying being a function of the B-mode, flow or both B-mode and flow data, the at least two regions of interest being associated with different spaced apart structures, associated with different velocities, or associated with the different velocities and the different spaced apart structures; and

calculating a flow quantity as a function of the flow ultrasound data for the at least two regions of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the at least two regions of interest is a conical region adjacent a heart valve.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein acquiring comprises acquiring with a volume frame rate of at least 10 per second including scans for both the B-mode and flow ultrasound data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein calculating comprises calculating during a same heart cycle as the acquiring.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating the acquiring and calculating and displaying a graph of the flow quantity as a function of time during the acquiring.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein calculating the flow quantity comprises calculating a proximal iso-velocity surface area within a same physiologically-relevant period of interest as the acquiring.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying comprises identifying the at least two regions of interest as spatially distinct such that first locations in the volume in a first of the at least two regions of interest are not in a second of the at least two regions of interest and such that second locations in the volume in the second region of interest are not in the first region of interest.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the first and second regions of interest are free of overlap.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the first and second regions of interest comprise different areas associated with the different velocities, and the calculating comprises calculating the flow quantity as for iso-velocity surfaces for a same flow structure at the different velocities and averaging values calculated from the iso-velocity surfaces.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

segmenting flow and anatomical information for the at least two regions of interest.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

correcting the flow ultrasound data prior to calculating.

12. The method of claim 11 where correcting comprises velocity angle correction, velocity aliasing correction, wall-filter cut-off compensation, or combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein calculating comprises calculating an effective regurgitant orifice area.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating the acquiring, and tracking the at least two regions of interest through a sequence of the B-mode, flow ultrasound or both B-mode and flow ultrasound data;

wherein calculating comprises calculating the flow quantity as a temporal flow parameter representing flow over a heart cycle.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein calculating the flow quantity comprises calculating a surface or volume integral within a same physiological period of interest as the acquiring.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein calculating the flow quantity comprises calculating flow statistics from an iso-surface area or a sub-volume within a same physiologically-relevant period of interest as the acquiring.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying comprises identifying the at least two regions of interest as associated with different spaced apart structures comprising different tissue structures.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein identifying comprises identifying the at least two regions of interest as associated with different flow regions in a same flow tract.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying comprises identifying areas of different velocities in a same flow region.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein calculating the flow quantity comprises calculating a proximal iso-velocity surface area for a first of the at least two regions and calculating a flow quantity from flow ultrasound data in a second of the at least two regions.

17. In a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for volumetric quantification in medical diagnostic ultrasound, the storage medium comprising instructions for:

receiving B-mode data and flow data representing a volume at a first time in a first cardiac cycle;

identifying a volume region of interest from the B-mode data;

segmenting a flow structure from the volume region of interest;

computing a first region of interest from the flow data of the flow structure;

refining the flow data for the first region of interest; and

calculating a flow quantity from the refined flow data for the first region of interest, the calculating occurring during the first cardiac cycle.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein calculating the flow quantity comprises calculating a perimeter, area, or velocity area integral of a proximal iso-velocity surface area.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the flow data comprises velocity estimates and wherein refining comprises unaliasing the velocity estimates, angle correcting the velocity estimates, or moving the volume region of interest.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein identifying comprises identifying a conical region of interest adjacent to a heart valve or heat wall orifice.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 further comprising repeating the receiving and calculating a plurality of times during the first cardiac cycle and outputting a graph of the flow quantity as a function of time throughout the first cardiac cycle.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 further comprising repeating the receiving a plurality of times during the first cardiac cycle as a sequence and wherein calculating comprises calculating a temporal flow parameter as a function of the flow data for the region of interest throughout the sequence.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 further comprising identifying another volume region of interest spatially distinct from the volume region of interest, and wherein calculating comprises calculating as a function of flow data for the volume region of interest and the other volume region of interest.