US 5,787,889 AGranted

Ultrasound imaging with real time 3D image reconstruction and visualization

AssigneeUniversity of Washington

InventorsWarren Edwards, Christian Deforge, Yongmin Kim

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A 3D image is generated in real-time on an ultrasound medical imaging system which performs acquisition, volume reconstruction, and image visualization tasks using multiple processors. The acquisition task includes deriving position and orientation indicators for each gathered image frame. Volume reconstruction includes defining a reference coordinate system within which each image frame in a sequence of image frames is registered. The reference coordinate system is the coordinate system for a 3D volume encompassing the image planes to be used in the 3D image. The first image frame is used to define the reference coordinate system. As each image plane is registered, a 2D projection of the incremental volume is displayed. A shear-warp factorization process is used to derive a 2D projection for a rotated volume. A viewing transformation matrix is factorized into a 3D shear which is parallel to slices of the reference volume. A 2D warp then is implemented to produce the projection of the rotated volume.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A method of generating an ultrasound image of a three-dimensional target volume from a plurality of ultrasound data frames corresponding to a scan of the target volume, each frame comprising data for a plurality of sample points within an ultrasound image plane encompassing said plurality of sample points, the method comprising the steps of:

for a first frame of the plurality of frames and a corresponding first image plane, defining a first image plane coordinate system for the sample points of said first frame, the first image plane coordinate system having a first axis and a second axis orthogonal to the first axis;
defining a reference coordinate system having three orthogonal axes, in which a first reference coordinate system axis is parallel to the first axis of the first image plane coordinate system, a second reference coordinate system axis is parallel to the second axis of the first image plane coordinate system, and a third reference coordinate system axis is perpendicular to the first image plane, and wherein the first image plane occurs where a coordinate of the third reference coordinate system axis is zero;
for each i-th frame of the plurality of ultrasound data frames after the first frame,
(i) identifying an i-th image plane coordinate system for the sample points of said i-th frame;
(ii) transposing i-th image plane coordinate system coordinates of each sample point in the i-th image plane into real-valued coordinates within the reference coordinate system;
(iii) for each one of a plurality of sample points within the i-th image plane interpolating a data value for the sample point to achieve an interpolated value for a discrete-valued coordinate of the reference coordinate system nearest to said sample point's real-valued reference coordinate system coordinate, and
(iv) storing the achieved interpolated value in a memory location corresponding to the reference coordinate system discrete-valued coordinate;
and
outputting memory contents for the reference coordinate system discrete-valued coordinates to generate a display image projection of at least a three dimensional portion of the target volume.

6 more elements

A method of incrementally generating an ultrasound image of a three-dimensional target volume in real time from a sequence of ultrasound data frames corresponding to a scan of the target volume, each frame comprising data for a plurality of sample points within an ultrasound image plane encompassing said plurality of sample points, the method comprising the steps of:

for a first frame of the plurality of frames and a corresponding first image plane, defining a first image plane coordinate system for the sample points of said first frame, the first image plane coordinate system having a first axis and a second axis orthogonal to the first axis;
defining a reference coordinate system having three orthogonal axes, in which a first reference coordinate system axis is parallel to the first axis of the first image plane coordinate system, a second reference coordinate system axis is parallel to the second axis of the first image plane coordinate system, and a third reference coordinate system axis is perpendicular to the first image plane, and wherein the first image plane occurs where a coordinate of the third reference coordinate system axis is zero;
for each i-th frame of the plurality of ultrasound data frames after the first frame,
(i) identifying an i-th image plane coordinate system for the sample points of said i-th frame,
(ii) transposing i-th image plane coordinate system coordinates of each sample point in the i-th image plane into real-valued coordinates within the reference coordinate system,
(iii) for each one of a plurality of sample points within the i-th image plane interpolating a data value for the sample point to achieve an interpolated value for a discrete-valued coordinate of the reference coordinate system nearest to said sample points real-valued reference coordinate system coordinate,
(iv) storing the achieved interpolated value in a memory location corresponding to the reference coordinate system discrete-valued coordinate;
and
(v) outputting memory contents for the reference coordinate system discrete-valued coordinates to generate a display image projection of at least a three dimensional portion of the target volume.

6 more elements

An ultrasound system for generating an ultrasound image of a three-dimensional target volume in real time from a plurality of ultrasound data frames corresponding to a scan of the target volume, each frame comprising data for a plurality of sample points within an ultrasound image plane encompassing said plurality of sample points, the system comprising:

a transducer array for transmitting ultrasound energy into a patient in the vicinity of the target volume and for receiving echoes of the ultrasound energy, the received echoes being transformed into the frames of ultrasound data;
a processing apparatus for processing the frames of ultrasound data to generate image data;
and
a display device for displaying an image projection of at least a three dimensional portion of the target volume, wherein the image projection is derived from the image data;
wherein for a first frame of the plurality of frames and a corresponding first image plane, the processing apparatus defines a first image plane coordinate system for the sample points of said first frame, the first image plane coordinate system having a first axis and a second axis orthogonal to the first axis;
wherein the processing apparatus defines a reference coordinate system having three orthogonal axes, in which a first reference coordinate system axis is parallel to the first axis of the first image plane coordinate system, a second reference coordinate system axis is parallel to the second axis of the first image plane coordinate system, and a third reference coordinate system axis is perpendicular to the first image plane, and wherein the first image plane occurs where a coordinate of the third reference coordinate system axis is zero;
wherein for each i-th frame of the plurality of ultrasound data frames after the first frame, the processing apparatus
(i) identifies an i-th image plane coordinate system for the sample points of said i-th frame,
(ii) transposes i-th image plane coordinate system coordinates of each sample point in the i-th image plane into real-valued coordinates within the reference coordinate system,
(iii) for each one of a plurality of sample points within the i-th image plane, interpolates a data value for the sample point to achieve an interpolated value for a discrete-valued coordinate of the reference coordinate system nearest to said sample point's real-valued reference coordinate system coordinate,
(iv) and stores the achieved interpolated value in a memory location corresponding to the reference coordinate system discrete-valued coordinate as image data.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.