Method for renal cell carcinoma diagnosis by means of ultrasonic signals analysis and ultrasound images

An ultrasound device for carrying out a renal diagnostic examination for the diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma, comprising:

• at least one ultrasound probe, comprising a plurality of piezoelectric or CMUT transducers,
• control means configured to drive said probe,
• means for acquiring and storing ultrasonic signals reflected by the tissues, configured to carry out the following acquisition procedure:
• 100) transmitting at least one broadband ultrasonic pulse beam towards the patient's kidney;
• 110) receiving the ultrasonic signals reflected by the renal tissue in response to said pulse beam sent at point (100);
• 120) processing the signals stored at point 110), to obtain a renal B-mode ultrasound image
• characterized in that
• said procedure at point 110) also involves storing raw ultrasonic signals as received by said probe, before the processing steps to obtain the B-mode ultrasound image, and in that said procedure further comprises steps:
• 130) while keeping the probe in the same position, transmitting a narrow band ultrasonic pulse beam towards the patient's kidney;
• 140) receiving and storing the raw ultrasonic signals reflected by the renal tissue in response to the narrow band ultrasonic pulse beam sent at point 130), and further characterized in that it comprises also computing means on which suitable computer programs are loaded, which are configured to carry out the calculation method of a diagnostic parameter, comprising the following steps of:
• 200) analysis of said raw ultrasonic signals reflected in response to said broadband pulse beam, stored at point 110) to individuate one or more suspect regions, by means of the analysis of the statistical distribution of the coefficients of the associated wavelet transform,
• for each suspect region:
• 210) extraction from said raw ultrasonic signals reflected by the renal tissue in response to the narrow band ultrasonic pulse beam, stored at point 140) of the signal relating to at least one segment contained in the suspect region;
• 220) execution of the frequency transform of the signal extracted at point 210), 230) extraction from said spectrum calculated at point 220) of the values relating to a plurality of significant frequencies;
• 240) extraction from said raw ultrasonic signals reflected by the renal tissue in response to broadband signals stored at point 110) of the signal relating to at least one segment contained in the suspect region;
• 250) calculation of the frequency transform of the signal extracted at point 240) to obtain at least one frequency spectrum obtained in response to said at least one broadband ultrasonic pulse;
• 260) calculation of one or more descriptive parameters of the spectrum calculated at point 250),
• 270) calculation of a diagnostic parameter indicating the tumor presence and type as a function of said values extracted at point 230) and of said descriptive parameters calculated at point 260).