System and Methods for Performing Biomechanically Driven Image Registration Using Ultrasound Elastography

An apparatus for registering a pre-operative 3D medical image volume of a target organ to intra-operative ultrasound images, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing computer program instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• acquiring an intra-operative 3D B-mode ultrasound volume and an intra-operative 3D ultrasound elastography volume;
• determining patient-specific boundary conditions for a biomechanical tissue model of a target organ using the intra-operative 3D B-mode volume;
• determining patient-specific material properties for the biomechanical tissue model of the target organ using the 3D ultrasound elastography volume;
• and
• deforming the target organ in the pre-operative 3D medical image volume using the biomechanical tissue model with the patient-specific material properties with the deformation of the target organ in the pre-operative 3D medical image volume constrained by the patient-specific boundary conditions.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions for registering a pre-operative 3D medical image volume of a target organ to intra-operative ultrasound images, the computer program instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• acquiring an intra-operative 3D B-mode ultrasound volume and an intra-operative 3D ultrasound elastography volume;
• determining patient-specific boundary conditions for a biomechanical tissue model of a target organ using the intra-operative 3D B-mode volume;
• determining patient-specific material properties for the biomechanical tissue model of the target organ using the 3D ultrasound elastography volume;
• and
• deforming the target organ in the pre-operative 3D medical image volume using the biomechanical tissue model with the patient-specific material properties with the deformation of the target organ in the pre-operative 3D medical image volume constrained by the patient-specific boundary conditions.