Methods and systems for 3D topographic pleural display

A system, comprising:

• a display device;
• and
• a processor configured with instructions in non-transitory memory that, when executed, cause the processor to:
• generate a three-dimensional (3D) pleural surface volume including a pleural surface of a lung from a volume of ultrasound data, wherein each voxel of the pleural surface in the 3D pleural surface volume is colored based on an orthogonal deviation of that voxel relative to an expected pleural line and has a transparency value of 0;
• and
• output an image rendered from the 3D pleural surface volume for display on the display device.

A method, comprising:

• acquiring volumetric ultrasound data of a lung of a patient over time;
• generating a first topographic image from a first volume of the volumetric ultrasound data, the first topographic image depicting a pleural surface viewed from an inside of the lung and looking outward with one or more pixels of the pleural surface colored based on an orthogonal deviation of the pleural surface from an expected pleural line;
• displaying the first topographic image while the volumetric ultrasound data continues to be acquired;
• generating a second topographic image from a second volume of the volumetric ultrasound data, the second topographic image depicting the pleural surface viewed from the inside of the lung and looking outward with one or more pixels of the pleural surface colored based on the orthogonal deviation of the pleural surface from the expected pleural line;
• and
• displaying the second topographic image.