Methods and systems for segmenting a structure in medical images

A method for segmenting a structure comprising:

• driving a plurality of transducer elements;
• collecting receive signals from the transducer array at a receive beamformer to form beam summed signals;
• generating a first ultrasound image of a region of interest (ROI) having tissue elements and blood elements, wherein the tissue elements of the first ultrasound image have a higher intensity than the blood elements of the first ultrasound image;
• generating a second ultrasound image of the ROI having tissue elements and blood elements, wherein the blood elements of the second ultrasound image have a higher intensity than the tissue elements of the second ultrasound image;
• determining a first set of intensity gradients from the first ultrasound image and a second set of intensity gradients from the second ultrasound image;
• applying an energy function to the first and second sets of intensity gradients to locate an edge of the ROI;
• and
• performing segmentation on the ROI from one or more of the first ultrasound image or the second ultrasound image based on the edge of the ROI.

A tangible and non-transitory computer readable medium comprising one or more computer software modules configured to direct one or more processors to:

• drive a plurality of transducer element;
• collect receive signals from the transducer array at a receive beamformer to form beam summed signals;
• generate a first ultrasound image of a region of interest (ROI) having tissue elements and blood elements, wherein the tissue elements of the first ultrasound image have a higher intensity than the blood elements of the first ultrasound image;
• generate a second ultrasound image of the ROI having tissue elements and blood elements, wherein the blood elements of the second ultrasound image have a higher intensity than the tissue elements of the second ultrasound image;
• determine a first set of intensity gradients from the first ultrasound image and a second set of intensity gradients from the second ultrasound image;
• locate an edge of the ROI using the first and second sets of intensity gradients;
• and
• perform segmentation on the ROI from one or more of the first ultrasound image or the second ultrasound image based on the edge of the ROI.