CN114569153A

CN114569153A - Elasticity measurement method, matching method based on elastic image and ultrasonic imaging system

Info

Publication number: CN114569153A
Application number: CN202011379952.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李双双; 兰帮鑫
Original assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-30
Filing date: 2020-11-30
Publication date: 2022-06-03

Abstract

An elasticity measurement method, an elasticity image-based matching method and an ultrasonic imaging system, the elasticity measurement method comprising: acquiring at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images of a target tissue based on shear wave elasticity imaging; selecting at least one frame of a first shear wave elastic image from the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images; determining a first target area in at least one frame of first shear wave elastic image, and obtaining a first elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the first target area; based on the first target area, a second target area in at least one second shear wave elasticity image of the at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images except the first shear wave elasticity image is determined, and a second elasticity measurement result is obtained according to an elasticity measurement value of the second target area. According to the method and the device, automatic measurement can be realized on the multi-frame shear wave elastic image without determining the target area frame by a user, and the operation flow is simplified.

Description

Elasticity measurement method, matching method based on elastic image and ultrasonic imaging system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of ultrasound imaging technologies, and in particular, to an elasticity measurement method, an elasticity image-based matching method, and an ultrasound imaging system.

Background

Ultrasound elastography is one of the hot spots concerned by clinical research in recent years, mainly reflects elasticity or hardness of tissues, and is increasingly applied to the aspects of auxiliary detection of tissue cancer lesions, benign and malignant discrimination, prognosis recovery evaluation and the like.

Ultrasound elastography mainly images elasticity-related parameters in a region of interest, reflecting the softness and hardness of tissues. Over the last two decades, a number of different elastography methods have emerged, such as quasi-static elastography based on strain caused by the probe pressing against the tissue, shear wave elastography or elastometry based on acoustic radiation force to generate shear waves, transient elastography based on external vibrations to generate shear waves, etc.

The shear wave elastography is used for exciting focused ultrasonic beams through an ultrasonic probe to form acoustic radiation force, forming a shear wave source in tissues and generating shear waves which transversely propagate, and the shear waves generated in the tissues and propagation parameters thereof are identified and detected and imaged, so that the hardness difference of the tissues is obtained quantitatively and visually. Shear wave elastography is improved in stability and repeatability compared to conventional elastography because excitation of the shear wave is from the acoustic radiation force generated by the focused ultrasound beam and is no longer dependent on pressure applied by the operator. Moreover, the quantitative measurement result of the shear wave also enables the diagnosis of doctors to be more objective, and is an elastography method which is used by more doctors at present.

Generally, after performing shear wave elastography, a doctor measures a target region on a certain frame of shear wave elastography image by using a shear wave elastography measuring tool, so as to obtain an elasticity measurement result of the region. However, the current measurement tool can only measure a certain frame of shear wave elastic image, and if the measurement tool measures multiple frames of shear wave elastic images, a target area needs to be drawn for many times, which is time-consuming and labor-consuming.

Disclosure of Invention

In this summary, concepts in a simplified form are introduced that are further described in the detailed description. This summary of the application is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

An aspect of an embodiment of the present invention provides an elasticity measurement method, where the method includes:

acquiring at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images of a target tissue based on shear wave elasticity imaging;

selecting at least one frame of a first shear wave elastic image among the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images;

determining a first target area in the at least one frame of first shear wave elasticity image, and obtaining a first elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the first target area;

and determining a second target area in at least one second shear wave elasticity image of the at least two shear wave elasticity images except the first shear wave elasticity image based on the first target area, and obtaining a second elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the second target area.

A second aspect of an embodiment of the present invention provides an elasticity measurement method, where the method includes:

acquiring at least two frames of elastic images of a target tissue;

selecting at least one frame of first elastic image from the at least two frames of elastic images;

determining a first target area in the at least one frame of first elastic image, and obtaining a first elastic measurement result according to an elastic measurement value of the first target area;

and determining a second target area in at least one second elastic image of the at least two frames of elastic images except the first elastic image based on the first target area, and obtaining a second elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the second target area.

In one embodiment, the elastic image comprises a strain elastic image or a shear wave elastic image.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a matching method based on an elastic image, where the method includes:

acquiring at least two frames of elastic images of a target tissue;

determining a first target area in the at least one frame of first elastic image;

and automatically matching out a second target area in at least one second elastic image except the first elastic image in the at least two elastic images based on the first target area.

A fourth aspect of embodiments of the present invention provides an ultrasound imaging system comprising an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity measurement method of the first aspect of embodiments of the present invention.

A fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides an ultrasound imaging system comprising an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity measurement method of the second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention.

A sixth aspect of embodiments of the present invention provides an ultrasound imaging system comprising an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity image-based matching method of the third aspect of embodiments of the present invention.

According to the elasticity measurement method and the ultrasonic imaging system, after the first target area is determined in the first shear wave elasticity image, the second target area is automatically determined in at least one frame of the second shear wave elasticity image based on the first target area, a user does not need to determine the target area frame by frame, and the operation flow is simplified.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present application will become more apparent by describing in more detail embodiments of the present invention with reference to the attached drawings. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention and not to limit the invention. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally represent like parts or steps.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic flow diagram of an elasticity measurement method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate schematic views of a first target area and a second target area having the same shape, size and location, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of moving a third target area to obtain a fourth target area, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a fourth target area derived from the location of the matched pixel points according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate schematic views of identifying a fourth target area around a target measurement location according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a schematic diagram of determining a fourth target region based on similarity to a third target region, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a display interface according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic flow diagram of an elasticity measurement method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic flow diagram of an elastic image-based matching method according to one embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, exemplary embodiments according to the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be apparent that the described embodiments are only a few embodiments of the present application, and not all embodiments of the present application, and it should be understood that the present application is not limited to the example embodiments described herein. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the invention described in the present application without inventive step, shall fall within the scope of protection of the present application.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present application. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present application may be practiced without one or more of these specific details. In other instances, well-known features of the art have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the present application.

It is to be understood that the present application is capable of implementation in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the application to those skilled in the art.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of the associated listed items.

In order to provide a thorough understanding of the present application, a detailed structure will be presented in the following description in order to explain the technical solutions presented in the present application. Alternative embodiments of the present application are described in detail below, however, the present application may have other implementations in addition to these detailed descriptions.

Next, an ultrasound imaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention is first described with reference to fig. 1, and fig. 1 shows a schematic structural block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 1, the ultrasound imaging system 100 includes an ultrasound probe 110, transmit circuitry 112, receive circuitry 114, a processor 116, and a display 118. Further, the ultrasound imaging system may further include a transmit/receive selection switch 120 and a beam forming circuit 122, and the transmit circuit 112 and the receive circuit 114 may be connected to the ultrasound probe 110 through the transmit/receive selection switch 120.

The ultrasound probe 110 includes a plurality of transducer elements, which may be arranged in a line to form a linear array, or in a two-dimensional matrix to form an area array, or in a convex array. The transducer is used for transmitting ultrasonic waves according to the excitation electric signals or converting the received ultrasonic waves into the electric signals, so that each array element can be used for realizing the mutual conversion of the electric pulse signals and the ultrasonic waves, thereby realizing the transmission of the ultrasonic waves to tissues of a target area of a measured object and also receiving ultrasonic wave echoes reflected back by the tissues. In ultrasound detection, which transducer elements are used for transmitting ultrasound waves and which transducer elements are used for receiving ultrasound waves can be controlled by a transmitting sequence and a receiving sequence, or the transducer elements are controlled to be time-slotted for transmitting ultrasound waves or receiving echoes of ultrasound waves. The transducer elements participating in the ultrasonic wave transmission can be simultaneously excited by the electric signals, so that the ultrasonic waves are transmitted simultaneously; alternatively, the transducer elements participating in the ultrasound beam transmission may be excited by several electrical signals with a certain time interval, so as to continuously transmit ultrasound waves with a certain time interval.

In one embodiment, the transducers in the ultrasound probe 110 are also used to apply acoustic radiation force pulses to a target region of a measurand to generate shear waves. Specifically, in a shear wave elastography process, a transducer in an ultrasonic probe applies an acoustic radiation force pulse to a target area of a measured object to generate a shear wave; the transmission circuit 112 transmits the delay-focused transmission pulse to the ultrasonic probe 110 through the transmission/reception selection switch 120, and the ultrasonic probe 110 is excited by the transmission pulse to transmit an ultrasonic beam to the tissue of the target region of the object to be measured so as to track the shear wave; after a certain delay, the ultrasound probe 110 receives the ultrasound echo with tissue information reflected from the tissue in the target region and converts the ultrasound echo back into an electrical signal. The receiving circuit 114 receives the electrical signals generated by the conversion of the ultrasonic probe 110, obtains ultrasonic echo signals, and sends the ultrasonic echo signals to the beam forming circuit 122, the beam forming circuit 122 performs processing such as focusing delay, weighting, channel summation and the like on the ultrasonic echo data, and then sends the ultrasonic echo signals to the processor 116, and the processor 116 performs elastography processing on the ultrasonic echo signals, calculates elastic parameters for generating elastic images, and generates corresponding shear wave elastic images according to the elastic parameters. The processor 116 may also perform conventional B-mode ultrasound image processing on the ultrasound echo signals to generate a B-mode ultrasound image. The shear wave elasticity image or the B-mode ultrasound image obtained by the processor 116 may be displayed on the display 118 or may be stored in the memory 124.

Alternatively, the processor 116 may be implemented as software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof, and may use single or multiple Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), single or multiple general purpose Integrated circuits, single or multiple microprocessors, single or multiple programmable logic devices, or any combination of the preceding, or other suitable circuits or devices. Also, the processor 116 may control other components in the ultrasound imaging system 100 to perform the respective steps of the methods in the various embodiments herein.

The display 118 is connected with the processor 116, and the display 118 may be a touch display screen, a liquid crystal display screen, or the like; alternatively, the display 118 may be a separate display, such as a liquid crystal display, a television, or the like, separate from the ultrasound imaging system 100; alternatively, the display 118 may be a display screen of an electronic device such as a smartphone, tablet, etc. The number of the displays 118 may be one or more. For example, the display 118 may include a home screen for displaying ultrasound images and a touch screen for human-computer interaction.

The display 118 may display the ultrasound image obtained by the processor 116. In addition, the display 118 can provide a graphical interface for human-computer interaction for the user while displaying the ultrasound image, and one or more controlled objects are arranged on the graphical interface, so that the user can input operation instructions by using the human-computer interaction device to control the controlled objects, thereby executing corresponding control operation. For example, an icon is displayed on the graphical interface, and the icon can be operated by the man-machine interaction device to execute a specific function, such as drawing a region-of-interest box on the ultrasonic image.

Optionally, the ultrasound imaging system 100 may further include a human-computer interaction device other than the display 118, which is connected to the processor 116, for example, the processor 116 may be connected to the human-computer interaction device through an external input/output port, which may be a wireless communication module, a wired communication module, or a combination thereof. The external input/output port may also be implemented based on USB, bus protocols such as CAN, and/or wired network protocols, etc.

The human-computer interaction device may include an input device for detecting input information of a user, where the input information may be, for example, a control instruction for the transmission/reception timing of the ultrasound wave, an operation input instruction for drawing a point, a line, a frame, or the like on the ultrasound wave, or may further include other instruction types. The input device may include one or more of a keyboard, mouse, scroll wheel, trackball, mobile input device (such as a mobile device with a touch screen display, cell phone, etc.), multi-function knob, and the like. The human-computer interaction device may also include an output device such as a printer.

The ultrasound imaging system 100 may also include a memory 124 for storing instructions executed by the processor, storing received ultrasound echoes, storing ultrasound images, and so forth. The memory may be a flash memory card, solid state memory, hard disk, etc. Which may be volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory, removable memory and/or non-removable memory, etc.

It should be understood that the components included in the ultrasound imaging system 100 shown in fig. 1 are merely illustrative and that more or fewer components may be included. This is not limited by the present application.

The elasticity measurement method, the matching method based on the elasticity image and the ultrasonic imaging system can be suitable for a human body and can also be suitable for various animals; the target tissue may be a target tissue of a human body or a target tissue of various animals.

Next, an elasticity measurement method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 2, and fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of an elasticity measurement method 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 2, the elasticity measurement method 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of:

in step S210, at least two frames of shear wave elastography images of the target tissue obtained based on shear wave elastography are acquired;

at step S220, selecting at least one frame of a first shear wave elastic image among the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images;

in step S230, a first target area in the at least one frame of first shear wave elastic image is determined, and a first elasticity measurement result is obtained according to an elasticity measurement value of the first target area;

in step S240, a second target region in at least one second shear wave elastic image of the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images other than the first shear wave elastic image is determined based on the first target region, and a second elasticity measurement result is obtained according to an elasticity measurement value of the second target region.

According to the elasticity measurement method 200 of the embodiment of the invention, a user does not need to draw a target area for multiple times, after a first target area in a first shear wave elastic image is determined, second target areas in at least two other frames of second shear wave elastic images are automatically determined according to the first target area, so that the target areas on the multi-frame shear wave elastic images are measured to obtain multiple elasticity measurement results, image waste is avoided, and the user does not need to select the target areas for multiple times, so that the operation flow is simplified. The stability of the elasticity measurement result can be observed according to a plurality of elasticity measurement results, and the elasticity measurement results of a plurality of frames of shear wave elasticity images can be integrated to obtain a statistic value, so that the accuracy of shear wave elasticity measurement is improved.

In step S210, acquiring at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images of the target tissue based on the shear wave elasticity imaging may be freezing the images after performing the shear wave elasticity imaging in real time, so as to obtain at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images. Specifically, the real-time shear wave elastography process includes: the method comprises the steps of controlling an ultrasonic probe to generate shear waves propagating in target tissue, emitting ultrasonic waves to the target tissue to track the shear waves propagating in the target tissue, receiving ultrasonic echoes of the ultrasonic waves to obtain ultrasonic echo signals, and obtaining at least two frames of shear wave elastic images of the target tissue based on the ultrasonic echo signals.

Alternatively, the acquisition of at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images of the target tissue obtained by shear wave elasticity imaging may be reading at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images of the target tissue obtained by shear wave elasticity imaging that have been stored, for example, a video image composed of consecutive frames of shear wave elasticity images.

In one embodiment, in addition to the at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images, at least two frames of B-mode ultrasound images of the target tissue obtained based on shear wave elasticity imaging may be acquired, where the at least two frames of B-mode ultrasound images correspond to the at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images one to one, and specifically, the at least two frames of B-mode ultrasound images include a first B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the first shear wave elasticity image and a second B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the second shear wave elasticity image.

Illustratively, in a shear wave elastography process, a region of interest for shear wave elastography is first determined based on a B-mode ultrasound image. Specifically, an electrical signal which is subjected to proper time delay is sent to a transducer in the ultrasonic probe by a transmitting circuit, and the transducer converts the electrical signal into ultrasonic waves to be transmitted to target tissues of a measured object; an energy converter in the ultrasonic probe receives ultrasonic echoes returned by a target area and converts the ultrasonic echoes into electric signals to obtain ultrasonic echo signals, the ultrasonic echo signals are transmitted to a beam synthesis circuit for beam synthesis processing after signal amplification, analog-to-digital conversion and the like, then the ultrasonic echo signals after beam synthesis are transmitted to a processor, and the processor performs logarithmic compression, dynamic range adjustment, digital scanning conversion and the like on the ultrasonic echo signals to form a B-type ultrasonic image for reflecting the morphological structure of target tissues. The processor may output the B-mode ultrasound image to a display for display to facilitate determination of a region of interest in the B-mode ultrasound image for generating a shear wave elasticity image.

Wherein, the interested area box on the B-type ultrasonic image can be selected by the manual box of the user, and the processor determines the position of the interested area according to the detected input instruction of the user. Alternatively, the position of the region of interest on the B-mode ultrasound image may be automatically determined based on an associated machine recognition algorithm, i.e., a region of interest box is automatically generated. In other examples, the region of interest may also be obtained by semi-automatic detection, for example, first automatically detecting the position of the region of interest on the B-mode ultrasound image based on a machine recognition algorithm, and displaying an editable region of interest box on the B-mode ultrasound image, allowing the user to adjust the height, width and position thereof by mouse, touch screen or the like to determine the specific position of the region of interest.

And then, the display transmits the determined coordinate information of the region of interest to the processor, and the processor determines the corresponding position of the region of interest in the tissue according to the coordinate information of the region of interest, so that shear wave elastography is performed. In particular, a series of ultrasonic push pulses may be transmitted by an ultrasonic probe to tissue of a region of interest to generate a propagation of shear waves in the tissue based on acoustic radiation forces. Then, the transmitting circuit excites the ultrasonic probe to transmit an ultrasonic wave tracking shear wave to the determined region of interest and receive an ultrasonic echo to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal. The processor calculates an elasticity measurement, such as at least one of shear wave velocity, young's modulus or shear modulus, of the region of interest from the ultrasound echo signals. And then, generating a shear wave elastic image based on the distribution of the elastic measured values, wherein tissues with different properties and hardness can be identified in the shear wave elastic image through different colors, gray scales or filling modes. For example, a pseudo color mapping can be performed according to elasticity measurement values at a plurality of positions of the region of interest and superimposed in a region of interest frame of the B-mode ultrasound image, so that a shear wave elasticity image of the region of interest can be formed.

For example, the elasticity measurement value can be calculated by the following method: the displacement of a certain point on the propagation path of the shear wave is calculated according to the received ultrasonic echo signals, and when the displacement of the point is maximum, the shear wave is considered to reach the point. The propagation path or propagation track of the shear wave can be positioned through the time of the shear wave reaching each point, so that a shear wave track graph can be drawn, the slope of each point on the shear wave propagation path can be obtained according to the shear wave track line, and the slope is the shear wave speed. From the relationship between the shear wave velocity and the young's modulus and shear modulus, when the shear wave velocity is obtained, other measured values of elasticity, such as young's modulus, shear modulus, etc., can be further calculated.

In step S220, at least one frame of the first shear wave elastic image may be selected by the user from among the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images, that is, a selection instruction for the first shear wave elastic image may be received by the processor, and the first shear wave elastic image may be selected from among the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images according to the received selection instruction. Alternatively, the processor may automatically select at least one first shear wave elastic image from the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images according to a preset criterion, for example, the first shear wave elastic image may include a first frame, a last frame, a frame satisfying a preset requirement, or any frame of the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images. After the determination of the first shear wave elasticity image, the first shear wave elasticity image may be displayed by a display on a display interface in order to determine a first target region of the shear wave elasticity measurement therein.

In step S230, the first target area may be designated by the user or determined automatically by the processor. The first target region may be a lesion region or other feature region. When a first target area is designated by a user, the user may determine the first target area in the first shear wave elastic image through an input device such as a mouse or a touch screen, and the processor receives a determination instruction for the first target area and determines the first target area in at least one frame of the first shear wave elastic image according to the received determination instruction. The first target region may be determined in the first shear wave elasticity image by tracing a lesion region or other feature region in the first shear wave elasticity image, forming a closed contour line to define the target region, or drawing a conventional elliptical or circular frame to define the first target region. The embodiment of the present invention does not limit the shape, size, position, etc. of the first target region. When the processor automatically determines the target area, the processor may determine the target area according to the elasticity measurement value of each pixel point in the first shear wave elasticity image; the processor may also perform image recognition based on the first B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the first shear wave elasticity image to identify a lesion region or other feature region therein, and set a region of the identified lesion region or other feature region in the first shear wave elasticity image as the first target region.

After the first target area is determined, a first elasticity measurement result can be obtained according to the elasticity measurement value of the first target area. As described above, the shear wave elasticity image is generated from elasticity measurement values, and each pixel corresponds to one elasticity measurement value, such as young's modulus, shear wave velocity, and the like. After the first target area is determined, the elasticity measurement values corresponding to all the pixel points in the first target area can be obtained, and the statistical results of the average value, the minimum value, the maximum value, the quartile value or the standard deviation of all the elasticity measurement values are calculated to be used as the first elasticity measurement result.

In step S240, a second target region in at least one frame of the second shear wave elasticity image other than the first shear wave elasticity image is determined based on the first target region, and a second elasticity measurement result is obtained according to an elasticity measurement value of the second target region. Wherein the second target region is determined based on the first target region, corresponding to the same or similar location in the tissue. The user need only determine a first target region in the first shear wave elasticity image, i.e. at least one second target region can be determined from the first target region, thereby obtaining at least two elasticity measurements without selecting the target region on a frame-by-frame basis. The method for obtaining the second elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the second target area is similar to the method for obtaining the first elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the first target area, that is, the elasticity measurement value of each pixel point in the second target area is obtained, and the statistical value of all the elasticity measurement values is calculated to serve as the second elasticity measurement result.

There may be various methods of determining the second target area based on the first target area. In one embodiment, for successive shear wave elasticity images, a region having the same shape, size and position as the first target region may be determined directly in the second shear wave elasticity image as the second target region. For example, referring to fig. 3A and 3B, fig. 3A shows a first target region in a first shear wave elasticity image and a corresponding third target region in a first B-mode ultrasound image, and fig. 3B shows a second target region in a second shear wave elasticity image and a corresponding fourth target region in a second B-mode ultrasound image. The first target area and the second target area have the same shape, size and position. When the lesion area or other characteristic areas have almost no displacement or only slight displacement in the multi-frame shear wave elastic image, the measurement frames of the same shape, size and position can be used for measuring the multi-frame shear wave elastic images except the first shear wave elastic image, so that the automatic measurement of the multi-frame shear wave elastic image can be realized with only a small amount of calculation.

In another embodiment, since the shear wave elasticity image corresponds to a B-mode ultrasound image representing the morphological structure of the target tissue, the target region of the elasticity measurement can be determined based on the B-mode ultrasound image. Specifically, a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the second shear wave elasticity image may be determined from the third target region in the first B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the first shear wave elasticity image, and the second target region in the second shear wave elasticity image may be determined from the position of the fourth target region. The third target area and the first target area correspond to the same position, and the fourth target area and the second target area correspond to the same position.

In one implementation, referring to FIG. 4, a method of target tracking may be employed to determine a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasound image from the third target region in the first B-mode ultrasound image. Specifically, a first B-mode ultrasonic image in a third target area is extracted as a target image; tracking the position change of the target image between the first B-mode ultrasonic image and the second B-mode ultrasonic image; and moving the position of the third target area according to the position change to obtain the position of the fourth target area. Illustratively, the change in position includes at least one of translation and rotation, and the translation may be a translation in any direction. Any suitable target tracking method may be used to track the position change of the target image, such as feature recognition, machine learning, or block matching.

The second target region determined according to the method described with reference to fig. 3A, 3B and 4 has the same shape and size as the first target region. However, the shape and size of the lesion or other feature may also change during the shear wave elastography process. Since the multi-frame shear wave elastic images are continuously acquired, even though the shape and size of the lesion area or other feature area may be slightly changed, the change is usually within a certain range. Therefore, the new target area boundary can be determined by tracking the displacement of the pixel point at the boundary of the third target area, so that the fourth target area and the third target area can have different shapes, sizes and positions, and automatic measurement of multi-frame shear wave elastic images can be performed when the focus area or other characteristic areas slightly change.

Specifically, pixel points at the boundary of the third target region are extracted as target pixel points, and matching pixel points matched with the target pixel points are searched in the second B-type ultrasonic image. And then, determining the position of the boundary of the fourth target area according to the positions of the matching pixel points in the second B-type ultrasonic image so as to obtain the fourth target area. The method for searching the matching pixel point matched with the target pixel point can include a method of feature recognition, machine learning or block matching and the like. As shown in fig. 5, the fourth target region and the third target region thus determined may have different shapes and sizes, and accordingly, the second target region and the first target region may also have different shapes and sizes.

In another embodiment, a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasound image may be determined from the third target region in an automatic tracing manner. Specifically, when the first target region is determined, a determination instruction of the target measurement position may be received based on the first B-mode ultrasound image, the target measurement position may be determined according to the determination instruction of the target measurement position, and a region satisfying a preset requirement identified around the target measurement position may be used as the third target region. According to the corresponding relation between the first B-mode ultrasonic image and the first shear wave elasticity image and the position of the third target region, the first target region in the first shear wave elasticity image can be obtained. Since the displacement of the lesion area or other feature areas in the continuously acquired multi-frame shear wave elastic images is generally small, the target measurement position selected in the first B-mode ultrasonic image can be directly used as the target measurement position in the rest at least one frame of second B-mode ultrasonic image, and an area which meets the preset requirement around the target measurement position is identified in the second B-mode ultrasonic image to be used as a fourth target area. For example, the user may select the target measurement position at the center position of the third target region so that the target measurement position is located inside the target region even if the target region is displaced in the multi-frame shear wave elastic image.

For example, refer to fig. 6A and 6B, wherein fig. 6A shows a target measurement position selected by a user in a first B-mode ultrasound image. The user may draw a box containing the lesion area such that the center of the box (i.e., the cross in fig. 6A) is located inside the lesion area, and take the position of the cross as the target measurement position. The processor performs automatic tracing around the target measurement position to obtain a lesion area, and takes the lesion area as a third target area. From the correspondence of the first shear wave elasticity image and the first B-mode ultrasound image, a first target region in the first shear wave elasticity image can be determined, the first target region having the same position, size and shape as the third target region. The first shear wave elasticity image and the first B-mode ultrasound image may be displayed in parallel on a display interface, and an outline of the first target region is displayed in the first shear wave elasticity image and an outline of the third target region is displayed on the first B-mode ultrasound image, respectively, so that a user can view the tissue structure characteristics and the elasticity characteristics of the target region.

Fig. 6B shows a fourth target region determined in the second B-mode ultrasound image and a second target region determined in the second shear wave elasticity image. The shape and position of the lesion area in fig. 6B are changed, but the target measurement position is still inside the lesion area, and the processor may perform image recognition around the target measurement position to automatically trace the lesion area and use the lesion area as a fourth target area. After the fourth target region is determined, a second target region in the second shear wave elasticity image may be determined based on a correspondence between the second B-mode ultrasound image and the second shear wave elasticity image.

In the example described with reference to fig. 6A and 6B, the target measurement position is located inside the first target area and the second target area. In other examples, the target measurement location may also be outside the first target region, e.g. may encompass the first target region, and for the second shear wave elasticity image, the processor may perform image recognition inside the target measurement location to obtain the second target region.

By means of image recognition, a lesion region or other characteristic region may be identified in the B-mode ultrasound image, but a plurality of lesion regions or other characteristic regions may be included in the B-mode ultrasound image at the same time. Therefore, in an embodiment, at least two regions to be measured may be identified in the second B-mode ultrasound image, the identified at least two regions to be measured are compared with the third target region in the first B-mode ultrasound image to obtain the similarity between the third target region and each region to be measured, and a fourth target region is selected from the regions to be measured according to the similarity. For example, the region to be measured having the greatest similarity to the third target region may be set as the fourth target region. Thus, repeated measurements of the same target area can be achieved.

Alternatively, in selecting the first target region, a similar approach may be used, i.e., a plurality of regions to be measured are automatically identified in the first B-mode ultrasound image by the processor, and a third target region is selected by the user from the plurality of regions to be measured. Referring to fig. 7A and 7B, fig. 7A illustrates a plurality of regions under test identified in the first B-mode ultrasound image, and a third target region selected from the plurality of regions under test. Fig. 7B shows a fourth target area selected according to similarity to the third target area.

By performing steps S210 to S240, a first elasticity measurement result is obtained according to the elasticity measurement value of the first target area, and a second elasticity measurement result is obtained according to the elasticity measurement value of the second target area. After obtaining the first elasticity measurement result and the second elasticity measurement result, at least one of the first elasticity measurement result and the second elasticity measurement result may be displayed, for example, the first elasticity measurement result and the second elasticity measurement result may be directly displayed in a form, an image, or the like, or a statistical value of the first elasticity measurement result and the second elasticity measurement result, for example, a mean value, a variance, or the like, may be displayed.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 8, at least two of the first elasticity measurement and the second elasticity measurement may be displayed in a trend chart. The horizontal axis of the trend graph represents the imaging time of each frame of shear wave elasticity image, the vertical axis represents the elasticity measurement result obtained by measuring each frame of shear wave elasticity image, and the elasticity measurement result used in the trend graph of fig. 8 is young's modulus, but it may be shear modulus, shear wave velocity, or the like. The trend chart reflects the variation trend of the elasticity measurement result of the same target area in the multi-frame shear wave elasticity image, so that the stability of the shear wave elasticity measurement is reflected.

In one embodiment, the trend chart may also be used for human interaction with the user. The user can select a target position on the trend chart, the processor receives a selection instruction of the target position of the trend chart, and controls the display to display a first elasticity measurement result or a second elasticity measurement result corresponding to the target position, namely, if the target position corresponds to a first shear wave elasticity image, the first elasticity measurement result is displayed, and if the target position corresponds to a second shear wave elasticity image, the second elasticity measurement result is displayed. With continued reference to fig. 8, when a selection command for the thirteenth frame of all sixteen shear wave elasticity images is received through the trend chart, the average (Mean), the maximum (Max), the minimum (Min), and the variance (SD) of the elasticity measurement values corresponding to each pixel point in the target area in the shear wave elasticity image of the thirteenth frame are displayed numerically on one side of the trend chart, thereby comprehensively reflecting the relevant information about the elasticity measurement values in the target area.

In one embodiment, upon receiving a selection instruction of a target position of the trend graph, a first shear wave elastic image or a second shear wave elastic image corresponding to the target position may also be displayed, that is, if the target position corresponds to the first shear wave elastic image, the first shear wave elastic image is displayed; if the target position corresponds to the second shear wave elasticity image, the second shear wave elasticity image is displayed. With continued reference to fig. 8, in addition to the shear wave elasticity image, a B-mode ultrasound image corresponding thereto may be displayed, and a position where the target region is located, for example, an outline of the target region may be displayed in the shear wave elasticity image and the B-mode ultrasound image.

In another embodiment, displaying at least one of the first elasticity measurement and the second elasticity measurement comprises: receiving a selection instruction of a target shear wave elastic image in the first shear wave elastic image and the second shear wave elastic image; and displaying the first elasticity measurement result or the second elasticity measurement result corresponding to the target shear wave elasticity image. For example, the user may select and browse the obtained at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images, displaying the corresponding elasticity measurement results while displaying each frame of shear wave elasticity image.

Based on the above description, the elasticity measurement method 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention automatically determines the second target region in at least one frame of the second shear wave elasticity image based on the first target region after determining the first target region in the first shear wave elasticity image, without the need for the user to determine the target region frame by frame, which simplifies the operation flow.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide an ultrasound imaging system comprising an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity measurement method 200. Referring to fig. 1, the ultrasound imaging system 100 may include the ultrasound probe 110, the transmitting circuit 112, the receiving circuit 114, the processor 116, the display 118, the transmit/receive selection switch 120, the beam forming circuit 122, and some or all of the components in the ultrasound imaging system 100 described with reference to fig. 1, and the relevant description of each component may refer to the above. Only the main functions of the ultrasound imaging system 100 will be described below, and details that have been described above will be omitted.

Specifically, the processor 116 is configured to acquire at least two frames of shear wave elastic images of a target tissue of the measured object; selecting at least one frame of a first shear wave elastic image from the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images; determining a first target area in at least one frame of first shear wave elastic image, and obtaining a first elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the first target area; based on the first target region, a second target region in at least one second shear wave elasticity image of the at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images other than the first shear wave elasticity image is determined, and a second elasticity measurement result is obtained from elasticity measurement values of the second target region.

For other specific details of the ultrasound imaging system according to the embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the above description of the elasticity measurement method 200, which is not described herein again.

Based on the above description, the ultrasound imaging system according to the embodiment of the present invention automatically determines the second target region in at least one frame of the second shear wave elasticity image based on the first target region after determining the first target region in the first shear wave elasticity image, and the user does not need to determine the target region frame by frame, which simplifies the operation flow.

Next, an elasticity measurement method according to another embodiment of the present application will be described with reference to fig. 9, and fig. 9 is a schematic flowchart of an elasticity measurement method 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 9, the elasticity measurement method 900 includes the steps of:

in step S910, at least two frames of elastic images of the target tissue are acquired;

in step S920, selecting at least one frame of a first elastic image from the at least two frames of elastic images;

in step S930, determining a first target area in the at least one first elasticity image, and obtaining a first elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the first target area;

in step S940, a second target region in at least one second elasticity image of the at least one frame of the elasticity image except the first elasticity image is determined based on the first target region, and a second elasticity measurement result is obtained according to an elasticity measurement value of the second target region.

The elasticity measurement method 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention is substantially similar to the elasticity measurement method 200 described above, and differs therefrom mainly in that the elasticity image acquired in step S910 is not limited to a shear wave elasticity image, for example, the elasticity image may be either a shear wave elasticity image or a strain elasticity image as described above. Implementations of the shear wave elastic image may be understood with reference to the foregoing description; the strain elastic image is realized through pressure elastic imaging, and the specific imaging mode mainly comprises the steps of applying pressure to a target tissue through an ultrasonic probe, obtaining two frames of ultrasonic echo information before and after the target tissue is compressed, calculating displacement of corresponding positions before and after the compression through the ultrasonic echo information, namely space position change information of the target tissue at two different moments, obtaining axial gradient through the displacement, further obtaining strain values of all points in a target tissue area, and expressing the strain values of all points in the target tissue area in an image form according to the strain values, namely the strain elastic image. The strain elastic image can visually reflect the difference between hardness and softness or the difference between elasticity of different tissues, under the compression of the same external force, the larger the strain is, the softer the tissue is, and the smaller the strain is, the harder the tissue is.

Therefore, the elasticity measurement method 900 according to the embodiment of the present invention can realize not only automatic measurement of multi-frame shear wave elastic images but also automatic measurement of multi-frame strain elastic images. In addition, the elasticity measurement method 900 is substantially similar to the elasticity measurement method 200, and reference may be made to the related description above, and for brevity, the same details are not repeated here.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide an ultrasound imaging system comprising an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity measurement method 900. Referring to fig. 1, the ultrasound imaging system 100 may include the ultrasound probe 110, the transmitting circuit 112, the receiving circuit 114, the processor 116, the display 118, the transmit/receive selection switch 120, the beam forming circuit 122, and some or all of the components in the ultrasound imaging system 100 described with reference to fig. 1, and the relevant description of each component may refer to the above. Only the main functions of the ultrasound imaging system 100 will be described below, and details that have been described above will be omitted.

Specifically, the processor 116 is configured to acquire at least two frames of elastic images of the target tissue, the elastic images including shear wave elastic images or strain elastic images; selecting at least one frame of first elastic image from at least two frames of elastic images; determining a first target area in at least one frame of first elastic image, and obtaining a first elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the first target area; and determining a second target area in at least one second elastic image of the at least two frames of elastic images except the first elastic image based on the first target area, and obtaining a second elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the second target area.

Based on the above description, after the elasticity measurement method 900 and the ultrasonic imaging system according to the embodiment of the invention determine the first target region in the first elasticity image, the second target region is automatically determined in at least one frame of the second elasticity image based on the first target region, and the user does not need to determine the target region frame by frame, thereby simplifying the operation flow.

Next, an elastic image-based matching method according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 10, and fig. 10 is a schematic flowchart of an elastic image-based matching method 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 10, the matching method 1000 based on elastic image includes the following steps:

in step S1010, at least two frames of elastic images of the target tissue are acquired;

in step S1020, at least one frame of a first elastic image is selected from the at least two frames of elastic images;

in step S1030, determining a first target region in the at least one frame of the first elastic image;

in step S1040, a second target area in at least one frame of a second elastic image of the elastic image other than the first elastic image is determined based on the first target area.

According to the matching method 1000 based on the elastic images, after the first target area in the first elastic image is determined, the second target area in the rest at least two frames of second elastic images is automatically determined according to the first target area, and a user does not need to select the target area for multiple times, so that the operation flow is simplified.

In step S1010, the at least two frames of elastic images may be strain elastic images or shear wave elastic images. The acquiring of the at least two frames of elastic images may be freezing the images after performing shear wave elastic imaging or strain elastic imaging in real time, thereby obtaining the at least two frames of elastic images of the target tissue. Alternatively, the acquiring of the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images may be reading at least two frames of stored elastic images of the target tissue based on shear wave elastic imaging or strain elastic imaging.

In one embodiment, in addition to the at least two frames of elastic images, at least two frames of B-mode ultrasound images of the target tissue may be acquired based on shear wave elastic imaging or strain elastic imaging, and the at least two frames of B-mode ultrasound images correspond to the at least two frames of elastic images one to one. Specifically, the at least two frames of B-mode ultrasound images include a first B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the first elastic image and a second B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the second elastic image.

In step S1020, at least one frame of a first elastic image may be selected by a user from among at least two frames of elastic images, and the processor receives a selection instruction for the first elastic image and selects the first elastic image from among the at least two frames of elastic images according to the received selection instruction. Alternatively, the processor may automatically select at least one first elastic image from the at least two elastic images according to a predetermined criterion.

In step S1030, the first target area may be designated by the user or determined automatically by the processor. The first target region may be a lesion region or other feature region. When a first target area is designated by a user, the processor receives a determination instruction of the first target area, and determines the first target area in at least one frame of first elastic image according to the received determination instruction. When the processor automatically determines the target area, the processor may determine the target area according to the elasticity measurement value of each pixel point in the first elasticity image, or may determine the first target area according to the first B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the first elasticity image.

In step S1040, a second target region in at least one frame of the second elastic image other than the first elastic image is determined based on the first target region. The determined second target area may then be displayed in the second elasticity image for reference by the user or for measurement or analysis of the second elasticity image according to the second target area without requiring the user to select the target area on a frame-by-frame basis.

In one embodiment, for a continuous elasticity image, a region having the same shape, size and position as the first target region may be determined directly in the second elasticity image as the second target region. When the focus area or other characteristic areas have little displacement or very slight displacement in the multi-frame elastic images, the second target area can be drawn in the multi-frame second elastic images except the first elastic image by adopting the measuring frames with the same shape, size and position, so that the target area of the multi-frame elastic images can be automatically determined by only small calculation amount.

In another embodiment, the target region may be determined based on the B-mode ultrasound image, since the elasticity image corresponds to the B-mode ultrasound image, which embodies the morphological structure of the target tissue. Specifically, a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the second elasticity image may be determined according to the third target region in the first B-mode ultrasound image corresponding to the first elasticity image, and the second target region in the second elasticity image may be determined according to the position of the fourth target region. The third target area and the first target area correspond to the same position, and the fourth target area and the second target area correspond to the same position.

As one implementation, a method of target tracking may be employed to determine a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasound image from the third target region in the first B-mode ultrasound image. Specifically, a first B-mode ultrasonic image in a third target area is extracted as a target image; tracking the position change of the target image between the first B-mode ultrasonic image and the second B-mode ultrasonic image; and moving the position of the third target area according to the position change to obtain the position of the fourth target area.

In another embodiment, since the shape and size of the lesion area or other feature areas may also change during the elastography, the new target area boundary may be determined by tracking the displacement of the pixel points at the boundary of the third target area, so that the fourth target area and the third target area may have different shapes, sizes and positions, thereby implementing automatic measurement of multi-frame elastography also when the lesion area or other feature areas slightly change. Specifically, pixel points at the boundary of the third target region are extracted as target pixel points, and matching pixel points matched with the target pixel points are searched in the second B-type ultrasonic image. And then, determining the position of the boundary of the fourth target area according to the position of the matching pixel point in the second B-type ultrasonic image so as to obtain the fourth target area.

In another embodiment, a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasound image may be determined from the third target region in an automatic tracing manner. Specifically, when the first target region is determined, a determination instruction of the target position may be received based on the first B-mode ultrasound image, the target position may be determined according to the determination instruction of the target position, and a region satisfying a preset requirement identified around the target position may be used as the third target region. According to the corresponding relation between the first B-mode ultrasonic image and the first elastic image and the position of the third target area, the first target area in the first elastic image can be obtained. Since the displacement of the lesion area or other characteristic areas in the continuously acquired multi-frame elastic images is generally small, the target position selected in the first B-mode ultrasound image may be directly used as the target position in the remaining at least one second B-mode ultrasound image, and an area around the target position that meets the preset requirement is identified in the second B-mode ultrasound image as a fourth target area. After the fourth target region is determined, a second target region in the second elastic image may be determined according to the correspondence between the second B-mode ultrasound image and the second elastic image.

In yet another embodiment, at least two regions to be measured may be identified in the second B-mode ultrasound image, the identified at least two regions to be measured are compared with the third target region in the first B-mode ultrasound image to obtain the similarity between the third target region and each region to be measured, and a fourth target region is selected from the regions to be measured according to the similarity. Optionally, when the first target region is selected, a plurality of regions to be measured may also be automatically identified in the first B-mode ultrasound image by the processor, and a third target region may be selected by the user among the plurality of regions to be measured.

Based on the above description, the elastic image-based matching method 1000 according to the embodiment of the present invention automatically determines the second target region in at least one frame of the second elastic image based on the first target region after determining the first target region in the first elastic image, without the user determining the target region frame by frame. The determined first target area and the second target area can be displayed in the first elastic image and the second elastic image through a region-of-interest box or other suitable forms for reference of a user; alternatively, after determining the first and second target regions, the first and second elasticity images may be measured or analyzed based on the first and second target regions. In addition, there are many contents that are the same or similar to the elastic image-based matching method 1000, the elastic measurement method 200 and the elastic measurement method 900, and reference may be made to the related description above specifically, and for brevity, the same details are not repeated here.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides an ultrasound imaging system, which includes an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program executed by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity image based matching method 1000. Referring to fig. 1, the ultrasound imaging system 100 may include the ultrasound probe 110, the transmitting circuit 112, the receiving circuit 114, the processor 116, the display 118, the transmit/receive selection switch 120, the beam forming circuit 122, and some or all of the components in the ultrasound imaging system 100 described with reference to fig. 1, and the relevant description of each component may refer to the above. Only the main functions of the ultrasound imaging system 100 will be described below, and details that have been described above will be omitted.

Specifically, the processor 116 is configured to: acquiring at least two frames of elastic images of a target tissue; selecting at least one frame of first elastic image from at least two frames of elastic images; determining a first target area in at least one frame of first elastic image; and determining a second target area in at least one second elastic image of the at least two frames of elastic images except the first elastic image based on the first target area. Wherein the elastic image comprises a shear wave elastic image or a strain elastic image.

Based on the above description, after the elastic image-based matching method 1000 and the ultrasound imaging system according to the embodiment of the invention determine the first target region in the first elastic image, the second target region is automatically determined in at least one frame of the second elastic image based on the first target region, and the user is not required to determine the target region frame by frame, thereby simplifying the operation flow.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a computer storage medium on which program instructions are stored, which when executed by a computer or a processor, are used to execute the respective steps of the elasticity measurement method 200, the elasticity measurement method 900 or the elasticity image-based matching method 1000 of an embodiment of the present invention. The storage medium may include, for example, a memory card of a smart phone, a storage component of a tablet computer, a hard disk of a personal computer, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a USB memory, or any combination of the above storage media. The computer-readable storage medium may be any combination of one or more computer-readable storage media.

In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, a computer program is also provided, and the computer program may be stored on a storage medium in the cloud or in the local. When being executed by a computer or processor, for performing the respective steps of the elasticity measurement method of an embodiment of the present invention.

Although the example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the above-described example embodiments are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application thereto. Various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one of ordinary skill in the pertinent art without departing from the scope or spirit of the present application. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present application as claimed in the appended claims.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one type of logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another device, or some features may be omitted, or not executed.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the application may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the description of exemplary embodiments of the present application, various features of the present application are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the application and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. However, the method of the present application should not be construed to reflect the intent: this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this application.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and all of the processes or elements of any method or apparatus so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where such features are mutually exclusive. Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise.

Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that while some embodiments described herein include some features included in other embodiments, rather than other features, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the application and form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

The various component embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP) may be used in practice to implement some or all of the functionality of some of the modules according to embodiments of the present invention. The present application may also be embodied as apparatus programs (e.g., computer programs and computer program products) for performing a portion or all of the methods described herein. Such programs implementing the present application may be stored on a computer readable medium or may be in the form of one or more signals. Such a signal may be downloaded from an internet website or provided on a carrier signal or in any other form.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the application, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The application may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In the unit claims enumerating several means, several of these means can be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The usage of the words first, second and third, etcetera do not indicate any ordering. These words may be interpreted as names.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application or the description thereof, and the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application, and shall be covered by the protection scope of the present application. The protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. An elasticity measurement method, characterized in that the method comprises:

acquiring at least two frames of shear wave elasticity images of a target tissue obtained based on shear wave elasticity imaging;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring at least two frames of shear wave elastography images of the target tissue based on shear wave elastography comprises:

generating shear waves propagating in the target tissue, transmitting ultrasonic waves to the target tissue to track the shear waves propagating in the target tissue, receiving ultrasonic echoes of the ultrasonic waves to obtain ultrasonic echo signals, and obtaining at least two frames of shear wave elastic images of the target tissue based on the ultrasonic echo signals; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

reading at least two stored shear wave elastography images of the target tissue based on shear wave elastography.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said selecting at least one frame of a first shear wave elastic image among said at least two frames of shear wave elastic images comprises:

receiving a selection instruction of the first shear wave elastic image, and selecting the first shear wave elastic image from the at least two frames of shear wave elastic images according to the received selection instruction.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining a first target region in said at least one frame of a first shear wave elastic image comprises:

receiving a determination instruction of the first target area, and determining the first target area in the at least one frame of the first shear wave elastic image according to the received determination instruction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second target region comprises:

determining a region having the same shape, size, and position as the first target region in the second shear wave elastic image as the second target region.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring at least two frames of B-mode ultrasonic images of the target tissue obtained based on shear wave elastography, wherein the at least two frames of B-mode ultrasonic images comprise a first B-mode ultrasonic image corresponding to the first shear wave elastography image and a second B-mode ultrasonic image corresponding to the second shear wave elastography image;

said determining a second target region in at least one frame of a second shear wave elasticity image of the shear wave elasticity image other than the first shear wave elasticity image based on the first target region comprises:

determining a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasonic image according to a third target region in the first B-mode ultrasonic image, wherein the third target region corresponds to the same position as the first target region, and the fourth target region corresponds to the same position as the second target region;

determining the second target region in the second shear wave elasticity image from the location of the fourth target region.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said determining a fourth target region in the second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in the first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

extracting the first B-mode ultrasonic image in the third target area as a target image;

tracking a change in position of the target image between the first B-mode ultrasound image and the second B-mode ultrasound image;

and moving the position of the third target area according to the position change to obtain the position of the fourth target area.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the change in position comprises translation and/or rotation.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said determining a fourth target region in said second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in said first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

extracting pixel points at the boundary of the third target area to serve as target pixel points;

searching a matching pixel point matched with the target pixel point in the second B-type ultrasonic image;

and determining the position of the boundary of the fourth target area according to the position of the matching pixel point in the second B-type ultrasonic image so as to obtain the fourth target area.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein said determining a fourth target region in said second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in said first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

receiving a determination instruction of a target measurement position based on the first B-mode ultrasonic image, and determining the target measurement position according to the determination instruction of the target measurement position, wherein the third target area is an area which is identified around the target measurement position and meets a preset requirement;

and identifying a region which meets the preset requirement around the target measurement position in the second B-mode ultrasonic image as the fourth target region.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein said determining a fourth target region in said second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in said first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

identifying at least two regions to be measured in the second B-mode ultrasonic image;

comparing the at least two regions to be detected with the third target region to obtain the similarity between the third target region and each region to be detected;

and selecting the fourth target area in the area to be detected according to the similarity.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying at least one of the first elasticity measurement and the second elasticity measurement and/or displaying statistics of the first elasticity measurement and the second elasticity measurement.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the displaying at least one of the first elasticity measurement and the second elasticity measurement comprises:

displaying at least two of the first elasticity measurement and the second elasticity measurement in a trend chart.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: receiving a selection instruction of a target position of the trend chart;

and displaying the first elasticity measurement result or the second elasticity measurement result corresponding to the target position.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: displaying the first shear wave elastic image or the second shear wave elastic image corresponding to the target position.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the displaying at least one of the first elasticity measurement and the second elasticity measurement comprises:

receiving a selection instruction of a target shear wave elastic image of the first shear wave elastic image and the second shear wave elastic image;

and displaying the first elasticity measurement result or the second elasticity measurement result corresponding to the target shear wave elasticity image.

17. An elasticity measurement method, characterized in that the method comprises:

acquiring at least two frames of elastic images of a target tissue;

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the elastic image comprises a strain elastic image or a shear wave elastic image.

19. An elastic image-based matching method, characterized in that the method comprises:

acquiring at least two frames of elastic images of a target tissue;

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the elastic image comprises a strain elastic image or a shear wave elastic image.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the second target region comprises:

determining a region having the same shape, size and position as the first target region in the second elasticity image as the second target region.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

acquiring at least two frames of B-mode ultrasonic images of the target tissue obtained based on elastography, wherein the at least two frames of B-mode ultrasonic images comprise a first B-mode ultrasonic image corresponding to the first elastic image and a second B-mode ultrasonic image corresponding to the second elastic image;

the automatically matching out a second target region in at least one frame of second elastic image except the first elastic image in the at least two frames of elastic images based on the first target region comprises:

determining a fourth target area in the second B-mode ultrasonic image according to a third target area in the first B-mode ultrasonic image, wherein the third target area corresponds to the same position as the first target area, and the fourth target area corresponds to the same position as the second target area;

determining the second target area in the second elastic image according to the position of the fourth target area.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said determining a fourth target region in said second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in said first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

24. The method of claim 22, wherein said determining a fourth target region in said second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in said first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

25. The method of claim 22, wherein said determining a fourth target region in said second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in said first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

receiving a determination instruction of a target position based on the first B-mode ultrasonic image, determining the target position according to the determination instruction of the target position, wherein the third target area is an area which is identified around the target position and meets a preset requirement;

and identifying a region which meets the preset requirement around the target position in the second B-mode ultrasonic image as the fourth target region.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein said determining a fourth target region in said second B-mode ultrasound image from a third target region in said first B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

27. An ultrasound imaging system, characterized in that the ultrasound imaging system comprises an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity measurement method of any one of claims 1-16.

28. An ultrasound imaging system, characterized in that it comprises an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, performing the steps of the elasticity measurement method of claim 17 or 18.

29. An ultrasound imaging system, characterized in that it comprises an ultrasound probe, a processor, a memory and a display, said memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution by said processor, said computer program, when executed by said processor, performing the steps of the elasticity image based matching method of any one of claims 19-26.