ULTRASOUND IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATEING A BLENDED CINE LOOP

• US 20150164330A1
• Filed: 12/16/2013
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company, N22 E.U.
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company, N22 E.U.
• Inventors: Perrey, Christian, Buckton, Daniel, Hoenigmann, Dieter
• Granted Patent: US 9,480,403 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0044 for the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7425 Displaying combinations of multiple images regardless of image source, e.g. displaying a reference anatomical image with a live image geometric transforms for image registration G06T3/14; enhancement using image fusion G06T5/50; algorithms for registration of images G06T7/30
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/503 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0866 involving foetal diagnosis; pre-natal or peri-natal diagnosis of the baby
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display composite display in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52074
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/481 involving the use of contrast agent, e.g. microbubbles introduced into the bloodstream analysis of echo signal exploiting properties of a contrast enhancer in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52039
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5284 involving retrospective matching to a physiological signal

Abstract

An medical imaging system and method for generating and displaying a blended cine loop. The system and method include acquiring image data and identifying a base image sequence in the image data. The system and method include identifying at least one non-base image in the image data acquired from outside of the base image sequence and generating a blended image sequence from the base image sequence and the at least one non-base image. The system and method include displaying the blended image sequence as a blended cine loop on a display device.

Claims

1. A method of medical imaging comprising:

acquiring image data of a periodically moving structure over more than a single physiological cycle, the image data comprising a plurality of images;

associating phase information from the physiological cycle with the image data;

identifying a base image sequence from the image data based on the phase information, the base image sequence corresponding to an integral number of cycles;

identifying at least one non-base image in the data acquired from outside the base image sequence;

generating a blended image sequence from the base image sequence and the at least one non-base image;

wherein the blended image sequence corresponds to the integral number of physiological cycles, and wherein the blended image sequence exhibits at least one of a reduced phase discontinuity and a reduced spatial discontinuity when displayed as a blended cine loop compared to a non-blended cine loop based on only the base image sequence; and

displaying the blended image sequence as a blended cine loop on a display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the image data comprises ultrasound data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the image data comprises X-ray data or computed tomography data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the image data comprises magnetic resonance imaging data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the structure comprises either at least a portion of a heart or a carotid artery.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the physiological cycle comprises a cardiac cycle and the phase information comprises cardiac phase information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising acquiring the cardiac phase information with an ECG machine during the process of said acquiring the ultrasound data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one non-base image comprises identifying a non-base image sequence acquired before the base image sequence.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising identifying a second non-base image sequence acquired after the base image sequence and wherein generating the blended image sequence further comprises blending the base image sequence with both the first non-base image sequence and the second non-base image sequence.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the value for the first weighting function comprises selecting the value that emphasizes the base image more strongly if the level of similarity between the first non-base image and the first base image is high.

10. A method of medical imaging comprising:

acquiring image data of a periodically moving structure over more than a single physiological cycle, the image data comprising a plurality of images;

associating phase information from the physiological cycle with the image data;

identifying a base image sequence from the image data corresponding to an integral number of physiological cycles, the base image sequence including first and second base images with associated first and second phases;

identifying first and second non-base images acquired from outside the base image sequence in the image data, the first non-base image representing the first phase and the second non-base image representing the second phase;

blending the first and second non-base images with the base image sequence using a first weighting function for combining the first base image with the first non-base image and a second weighting function for combining the second base image with the second non-base image in order to generate a blended image sequence corresponding to the integral number of cycles; and

displaying the blended image sequence as a blended cine loop on a display device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first weighting function is the same as the second weighting function.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first weighting function is different from the second weighting function.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the weighting functions are selected based on a distance of a resulting blended image from a seam in the blended cine loop.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a first blended image based on the first base image and the first non-base image is closer to a seam in the blended cine loop than a second blended image based on the second base image and the second non-base image, and wherein the first weighting function emphasizes the first non-base image more strongly than the second weighting function emphasizes the second non-base image.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising selecting a value for the first weighting function based on a level of similarity between the first non-base image and the first base image.

17. An medical imaging system comprising:

an acquisition device;

a display device; and

a processor in electronic communication with the acquisition device and the display device, wherein the processor is configured to;

control the acquisition device to acquire image data of a periodically moving structure over more than a single physiological cycle;

associate phase information from the physiological cycle with the image data;

identify a base image sequence from the image data based on the phase information, the base image sequence corresponding to an integral number of cycles;

identify at least one non-base image in the image data acquired from outside the base image sequence;

generate a blended image sequence corresponding to the integral number of physiological cycles from the base image sequence and the at least one non-base image, the blended image sequence exhibiting at least one of a reduced phase discontinuity and a reduced spatial discontinuity when displayed as a blended cine loop compared to a non-blended cine loop based on only the base image sequence; and

displaying the blended image sequence as a blended cine loop on the display device.

18. The medical imaging system of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to automatically identify the base image sequence.

19. The medical imaging system of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to acquire the image data as part of a partial volume acquisition.

20. The medical imaging system of claim 17, wherein the at least one non-base image comprises a non-base image sequence and wherein the processor is configured to generate the blended image sequence by blending the non-base image sequence with corresponding images from the base image sequence based on phase.

21. The medical imaging system of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to use at least two different weighting functions during the process of generating the blended image sequence.

22. The medical imaging system of claim 21, wherein the processor is configured to use a unique weighting function when blending each image of the non-base image sequence with the corresponding image from the base image sequence.

23. The medical imaging system of claim 22, wherein the processor is configured to select the unique weighting function based on a distance of a corresponding image pair from a seam in the blended cine loop.

24. The medical imaging system of claim 17, wherein the medical imaging system comprises an ultrasound imaging system, and wherein the acquisition device comprises a probe.