METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING DIAGNOSTIC IMAGE AND MEDICAL IMAGE SYSTEM

• US 20130116562A1
• Filed: 07/25/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KONG, Dong-geon, CHOI, Ki-wan
• Application Number:
  US13/557,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20130116562A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/439
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00084 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00106 ultrasonic
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/378 using ultrasound
• 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 8/5223 for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5276 due to motion
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 7/02 Localised ultrasound hyperthermia hyperthermia in general A61F7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8977 using special techniques for image reconstruction, e.g. FFT, geometrical transformations, spatial deconvolution, time deconvolution
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/899 Combination of imaging systems with ancillary equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52036 using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52049 using correction of medium-induced phase aberration
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A method of generating a diagnostic image of a subject including transmitting a transmission signal to the subject; acquiring a first RF frame and a second RF frame from an echo signal reflected from the subject; estimating a second directional displacement indicating a degree of movement of a first point of the subject appearing in the first RF frame in the second RF frame; generating an ultrasonic image corresponding to the second RF frame; and correcting an error of the generated ultrasonic image using the estimated second directional displacement. The first point may appear in the first RF frame and the second RF frame.

Claims

1. A method of generating a diagnostic image with respect to a first direction and a second direction of a subject, the method comprising:

transmitting a transmission signal in the first direction to the subject;

acquiring at least two radio frequency (RF) frames including a first RF frame and a second RF frame from an echo signal reflected from the subject;

estimating a second directional displacement indicating a degree of movement of a first point of the subject appearing in the first RF frame in a second direction in the second RF frame;

generating an ultrasonic image corresponding to the second RF frame; and

correcting an error of the generated ultrasonic image using the estimated second directional displacement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subject comprises a treatment part to which heat is applied.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the generating of the ultrasonic image comprises generating a temperature image corresponding to the second RF frame; and

the correcting of the error comprises correcting an error of the temperature image using a temperature of the first point in the temperature image and a temperature of a point neighboring the first point in the second direction in the temperature image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the generating of the ultrasonic image comprises generating a brightness (B)-mode image corresponding to the second RF frame; and

the correcting of the error comprises correcting an error of the B-mode image using brightness of a first point in the B-mode image and brightness of a point neighboring the first point in the second direction in the B-mode image.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating of the second directional displacement comprises comparing a second directional line including the first point in the first RF frame and a second directional line including the first point in the second RF frame and estimating the second directional displacement according to a result of comparison.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating of the second directional displacement comprises calculating cross-correlation between the first RF frame and the second RF frame and estimating the second directional displacement using the calculated cross-correlation.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the estimating of the second directional displacement comprises estimating the directional second displacement using the calculated cross-correlation by using a second directional analytic signal from which a negative frequency component with respect to the second direction is removed.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the estimating of the second directional displacement comprises:

determining a predetermined region including the first point of the subject in the first RF frame;

detecting a point having the greatest cross-correlation between the first RF frame and the second RF frame from the determined region; and

estimating the second directional displacement using a position of the detected point having the greatest cross-correlation in the second direction.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the estimating of the second directional displacement comprises:

determining a predetermined region including the first point of the subject in the first RF frame, detecting a point having the greatest cross-correlation between the first RF frame and the second RF frame from the determined region;

detecting a point at which a phase of cross-correlation is zero-crossing with respect to a second direction line including the detected point having the greatest cross-correlation; and

estimating the second directional displacement by calculating a degree of delay of the detected zero-crossing point in the second direction.

10. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon computer readable instructions that control at least one processor to implement the method of claim 1.

11. An apparatus for generating an ultrasonic a diagnostic image with respect to a first direction and a second direction of a subject, the apparatus comprising:

at least one transducer to transmit a transmission signal in the first direction to the subject and receiving an echo signal reflected from the subject;

a radio frequency (RF) frame acquisition unit to acquire at least two RF frames including a first RF frame and a second RF frame from the echo signal;

a displacement estimation unit to estimate a second directional displacement indicating a degree of movement of a first point of the subject appearing in the first RF frame in a second direction in the second RF frame;

an image generation unit to generate an ultrasonic image corresponding to the second RF frame; and

an error correction unit to correct an error of the generated ultrasonic image using the estimated second directional displacement.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a treatment ultrasonic apparatus to apply heat to a treatment part of the subject.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image generation unit generates a temperature image corresponding to the second RF frame, and the error correction unit corrects an error of the temperature image using a temperature of the first point in the temperature image and a temperature of a point neighboring the first point in the second direction in the temperature image.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the displacement estimation unit calculates cross-correlation between the first RF frame and the second RF frame and estimates the second directional displacement using the calculated cross-correlation.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the displacement estimation unit determines a predetermined region including the first point of the subject in the first RF frame, detects a point having the greatest cross-correlation between the first RF frame and the second RF frame from the determined region, and estimates the second directional displacement using a position of the detected point having the greatest cross-correlation in the second direction.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the displacement estimation unit determines a predetermined region including the first point of the subject in the first RF frame, detects a point having the greatest cross-correlation between the first RF frame and the second RF frame from the determined region, detects a point at which a phase of cross-correlation is zero-crossing with respect to a second direction line including the detected point having the greatest cross-correlation, and estimates the second directional displacement by calculating a degree of delay of the detected zero-crossing point in the second direction.

17. A medical image system comprising:

an apparatus to generate a diagnostic image by transmitting a transmission signal in a first direction to a subject, to acquire a first radio frequency (RF) frame and a second RF frame from an echo signal reflected from the subject, to estimate a directional displacement indicating a degree of movement of a first point of the subject appearing in the first RF frame in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction in the second RF frame, and to generate an error corrected ultrasonic image using the estimated directional displacement; and

a display unit to display the generated error corrected ultrasonic image.

18. The medical image system of claim 17, further comprising:

a treatment ultrasonic apparatus to apply heat to a treatment part of the subject.

19. The medical image system of claim 17, wherein the apparatus to generate the diagnostic image generates a temperature image corresponding to the second RF frame, and generates the error corrected ultrasonic image using a temperature of the first point in the temperature image and a temperature of a point neighboring the first point in the second direction in the temperature image.

20. The medical image system of claim 17, wherein the apparatus to transmit the diagnostic image determines a predetermined region including the first point of the subject in the first RF frame, to detect a point having the greatest cross-correlation between the first RF frame and the second RF frame from the determined region, to detect a point at which a phase of cross-correlation is zero-crossing with respect to a second direction line including the detected point having the greatest cross-correlation, and to estimate the second directional displacement by calculating a degree of delay of the detected zero-crossing point in the second direction.