Automated breast ultrasound equipment and methods using enhanced navigator aids

A system for automated ultrasound examination of one or both patient's breasts, comprising:

• a source of a sonographic response acquired by compressing one or both of the patient's breast with a scanning pod chestwardly and scanning the compressed breast tissue with ultrasound;
• a programmed computer processor configured to apply computer image processing algorithms to the sonographic response producing a whole-breast navigator overview image representing a three-dimensional breast volume;
• said processor being configured to segment out influences on the whole-breast navigator overview image of non-breast tissue interactions with ultrasound in said scanning to thereby produce an enhanced, whole-breast navigator overview image and apply filtering algorithms finding and enhancing representations of suspected abnormalities;
• and
• a computerized display configured to display the enhanced, whole-breast navigator overview image in association with selected other images automatically selected and generated from the sonographic response that include representations of at least one abnormality found in the navigator overview image.

A method of ultrasound examination of a patient's breast, comprising:

• compressing an upwardly facing patient's breast chestwardly down and scanning the breast through a gel-impregnated membrane in a scanning motion relative to the breast while sending ultrasound energy into the breast and receiving ultrasound energy from scanned tissue thereby producing ultrasound responses for breast slices that conform to planes extending down in chestward directions;
• applying computer processing to the ultrasound responses thereby producing a three-dimensional (3D) structure representing sonographic response characteristics of volume elements (voxels) of scanned tissue;
• applying further computer processing algorithms to the 3D structure thereby segmenting out influences of selected scanned tissue and finding tissue abnormalities in the remaining 3D structure;
• applying further computer processing algorithms to the remaining 3D structure thereby producing enhancements of at least some of the found tissue abnormalities;
• applying further computer processing to the 3D structure thereby producing an enhanced whole-breast navigator structure depicting the scanned breast and abnormalities therein that have been enhanced;
• producing and displaying a depiction of the enhanced whole-breast navigator structure with abnormalities therein;
• and
• respond to user input regarding an abnormality in the whole-breast navigator structure by producing and concurrently displaying pop-up depictions of the abnormality as it appears in a coronal thick-slice image of the scanned tissue that has a selected thickness and in at least one thin-slice chestwardly oriented image.