IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD PROVIDING SCALABLE RESOLUTION IN MULTI-DIMENSIONAL IMAGE DATA

• US 20200005452A1
• Filed: 06/27/2018
• Published: 01/02/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Schroecker, Gerald, Brandl, Helmut, Fosodeder, Erwin
• Granted Patent: US 10,685,439 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0866 involving foetal diagnosis; pre-natal or peri-natal diagnosis of the baby
• 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 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5207 involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image reconstruction G06T11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/10 Geometric effects
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10076 4D tomography; Time-sequential 3D tomography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10132 Ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10136 3D ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20028 Bilateral filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30044 Fetus; Embryo
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

An imaging system and method acquire first ultrasound image data of a body at a first acquisition quality level, display one or more two-dimensional images of the body using the image data at the first acquisition quality level, and create second ultrasound image data at a reduced, second acquisition quality level. The second ultrasound image data is created from the first ultrasound image data that was acquired at the first acquisition quality level. The system and method also display a rendered multi-dimensional image of the body using the second ultrasound image data at the reduced, second acquisition quality level.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

acquiring first ultrasound image data of a body at a first acquisition quality level;

displaying one or more two-dimensional images of the body using the image data at the first acquisition quality level;

creating second ultrasound image data at a reduced, second acquisition quality level, the second ultrasound image data created from the first ultrasound image data that was acquired at the first acquisition quality level; and

displaying a rendered multi-dimensional image of the body using the second ultrasound image data at the reduced, second acquisition quality level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first acquisition quality level is a first spatial resolution of the first ultrasound image data and the second acquisition quality level is a reduced, second spatial resolution of the first ultrasound image data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the second ultrasound image data includes reducing a spatial resolution of the first ultrasound image data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the second ultrasound image data includes downsampling the first ultrasound image data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the second ultrasound image data includes averaging values of one or more of pixels or voxels in the first ultrasound image data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the second ultrasound image data includes applying a low-pass kernel filter to the first ultrasound image data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second ultrasound image data is obtained without exposing the body to additional ultrasound pulses following acquisition of the first ultrasound image data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendered multi-dimensional image of the body that is displayed is a rendered three-dimensional image of the body.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more two-dimensional images represent two-dimensional slices through the body.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first ultrasound image data is three-dimensional ultrasound image data.

11. A system comprising:

one or more processors configured to receive first ultrasound image data of a body that was obtained at a first acquisition quality level, the one or more processors configured to direct display of one or more two-dimensional images of the body using the ultrasound image data at the first acquisition quality level,

wherein the one or more processors also are configured to create second ultrasound image data at a reduced, second acquisition quality level from the first ultrasound image data that was acquired at the first acquisition quality level,

wherein the one or more processors also are configured to direct display of a rendered multi-dimensional image of the body using the second ultrasound image data at the reduced, second acquisition quality level.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first acquisition quality level is a first spatial resolution of the first ultrasound image data and the second acquisition quality level is a reduced, second spatial resolution of the first ultrasound image data.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to create the second ultrasound image data by reducing a spatial resolution of the first ultrasound image data.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to create the second ultrasound image data by averaging values of one or more of pixels or voxels in the first ultrasound image data.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to create the second ultrasound image data by downsampling the first ultrasound image data.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to create the second ultrasound image data without the body being exposed to additional ultrasound pulses following acquisition of the first ultrasound image data.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to direct display of a rendered three-dimensional image of the body as the multi-dimensional image.

18. A method comprising:

acquiring first ultrasound image data of a body at a first spatial resolution;

displaying two-dimensional image slices of the body using the ultrasound image data at the first spatial resolution;

modifying the first ultrasound image data into second ultrasound image data by reducing the first spatial resolution of the first ultrasound image data to a second spatial resolution; and

displaying a rendered three-dimensional image of the body using the second ultrasound image data at the reduced, second spatial resolution.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein modifying the first ultrasound image data includes averaging values of one or more of pixels or voxels in the first ultrasound image data.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein modifying the first ultrasound image data includes downsampling the first ultrasound image data.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the first ultrasound image data is three-dimensional ultrasound image data or four-dimensional ultrasound image data.