Pressure control in medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorJeffrey Stoll
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Contact pressure from a transducer is controlled in medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging. Rather than measuring pressure directly using a pressure sensor on the transducer, the compression of tissue within the patient may be measured using ultrasound scanning. The desired amount of compression in the region of interest for diagnosis may be obtained. For example in breast imaging, the desired compression for imaging a portion of the breast is compared to compression measured from ultrasound data. Once the desired tissue compression is achieved, the pressure applied by the transducer is maintained while the diagnosis scan occurs. For example, a robotic arm locks or otherwise maintains the pressure during scanning.
Claims18
A method for controlling transducer contact pressure in medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging, the method comprising:
- placing an ultrasound transducer against a patient's breast;
- adjusting the amount of contact pressure applied by the ultrasound transducer against the breast;
- ultrasonically scanning, with the ultrasound transducer, a scan region of the breast, the scan region including a diagnosis region of interest and a near field region outside of the diagnosis region of interest;
- measuring, with ultrasound data received by the transducer due to the scanning, compression of body tissue caused by the pressure, the compression measured as a thickness of a skin layer or whether the skin layer is detectable, the skin layer being between the ultrasound transducer and the diagnosis region of interest, the skin layer in the near field region of interest and outside the diagnosis region of interest;
- and
- controlling the transducer contact pressure as a function of the measured compression of the body tissue.
In a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for controlling transducer contact pressure in medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging, the storage medium comprising instructions for:
- measuring compression, at a skin layer outside a diagnosis region of interest, caused by an ultrasound transducer with ultrasound data from an ultrasound scan of a scan region, the compression measured as a thickness of a skin layer or whether the skin layer is detectable, the skin layer being in a near field of the scan region and outside the diagnosis region of interest;
- regulating an amount of pressure applied by the transducer as a function of the compression;
- and
- scanning, in addition to the ultrasound scan, the diagnosis region of interest with the ultrasound transducer with the amount of pressure regulated.
A system for determining contact force in medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging, the system comprising:
- a transducer;
- a support arm operable to hold the transducer;
- an ultrasound imaging apparatus connected with the transducer, the ultrasound imaging apparatus configured to acquire, with the transducer, ultrasound data for a scan region including a diagnosis region of interest and a near field region outside of the diagnosis region of interest representing a patient;
- and
- a processor configured to determine an amount of the contact force applied by the transducer against a patient, the processor determining the amount of contact force from a thickness of a skin layer or whether the skin layer is detectable, the skin layer being between the transducer and the diagnosis region of interest, the skin layer in the near field region of interest and outside the diagnosis region of interest, from the ultrasound data representing the skin layer, the processor configured to determine when the amount is sufficient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.