CN115886876A

CN115886876A - Fetal posture evaluation method, ultrasonic imaging method and ultrasonic imaging system

Info

Publication number: CN115886876A
Application number: CN202110988545.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 林穆清; 梁天柱; 龚闻达
Original assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-26
Filing date: 2021-08-26
Publication date: 2023-04-04

Abstract

The application provides an assessment method of a fetal posture, an ultrasonic imaging method and an ultrasonic imaging system, wherein the assessment method of the fetal posture comprises the following steps: acquiring three-dimensional ultrasonic data of a fetus in an early pregnancy period; acquiring a head region and a body region of the early pregnancy fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasound data; evaluating the posture of the early pregnancy fetus based on the relative position relation of the head area and the body area of the early pregnancy fetus to obtain a posture evaluation result; and displaying the attitude evaluation result. The method can facilitate the observation of the posture of the fetus by a doctor, and quickly know whether the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage is in a natural posture.

Description

Fetal posture evaluation method, ultrasonic imaging method and ultrasonic imaging system

Technical Field

The present invention generally relates to the technical field of medical equipment, and more particularly to a fetal posture assessment method, an ultrasound imaging method, and an ultrasound imaging system.

Background

Ultrasonic examination has wide application in clinical examination due to its advantages of safety, convenience, no radiation, low cost, etc., and becomes one of the main auxiliary means for doctors to diagnose diseases. In practical clinical application, the development of fetal structural examination and malformation screening in the early pregnancy stage is a current development trend and research hotspot in clinical practice. The fetal structure screening can be carried out in the early pregnancy to discover lethal deformity as early as possible, so that the pregnant woman is provided with the chance of terminating pregnancy as early as possible, the physical health and mental injury are reduced to the greatest extent, and the method has very important clinical significance and value.

The standard section of early pregnancy is one of the main means for observing whether the fetal structure is abnormal. The section number for screening the structural abnormality of the fetus in the early pregnancy is large, such as a top-hip radial section, a lateral ventricle horizontal cross section, a double-top radial section, a ventral circumference section and the like, and whether the structure abnormality exists in the fetus is judged by systematically observing the sections. In addition, the head and body of the patient in early pregnancy often have unnatural postures (head-up, head-down, neck-bending, etc.), which causes that part of the standard sections do not meet the clinical quality control requirements (such as NT section, hip-up radial section).

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention has been made to solve at least one of the above problems. Specifically, the first aspect of the present invention provides a method for evaluating fetal posture, the method comprising:

acquiring three-dimensional ultrasonic data of a fetus in an early pregnancy period;

acquiring a head region and a body region of the early pregnancy fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasound data;

evaluating the posture of the early pregnancy fetus based on the relative position relation of the head area and the body area of the early pregnancy fetus to obtain a posture evaluation result;

and displaying the posture evaluation result.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a method for assessing fetal posture, the method comprising: acquiring three-dimensional ultrasonic data of a fetus in an early pregnancy period;

registering the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage with the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a registered public model of the fetus corresponding to the posture of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage;

evaluating the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy period based on the registered posture of the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a posture evaluation result;

and displaying the posture evaluation result.

A third aspect of the present invention provides an ultrasound imaging method comprising:

acquiring at least one standard section of the early pregnancy fetus based on the three-dimensional ultrasonic data;

registering the three-dimensional ultrasound data with a three-dimensional model of the fetus;

determining a spatial position of the at least one standard cut in the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on a result of the registration and position information of the at least one standard cut in the three-dimensional ultrasound data;

and displaying the space positions of the three-dimensional fetal model and the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional fetal model.

A fourth aspect of the present invention provides an ultrasound imaging system comprising:

an ultrasonic probe;

the transmitting/receiving sequence controller is used for controlling the ultrasonic probe to transmit ultrasonic waves to the fetus in the early pregnancy stage and receiving an ultrasonic echo based on the ultrasonic waves returned from the fetus in the early pregnancy stage to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal;

the processor is used for acquiring three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period according to the ultrasonic echo signals;

a memory for storing executable program instructions;

the processor is further configured to execute the program instructions stored in the memory to cause the processor to perform the aforementioned method of assessing fetal posture or, alternatively, perform the aforementioned method of ultrasound imaging;

and the display device is used for displaying the visual information.

According to the assessment method of the fetal postures of the first aspect and the second aspect of the application, the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy can be assessed, and the posture assessment result is output and displayed, so that a doctor can conveniently observe the posture of the fetus, whether the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy is in a natural posture or not can be rapidly known, the doctor can be assisted to rapidly judge whether part of standard sections do not accord with the clinical quality control requirement or not based on the posture assessment result, the doctor can obtain the standard sections which accord with the clinical quality control requirement according to the posture assessment result, and the efficiency and the accuracy of the examination of abnormal structures of the fetus based on the standard sections are improved.

According to the ultrasonic imaging method of the third aspect of the application, the positions of the standard tangent planes of the early pregnant fetus can be displayed more intuitively, so that a doctor can quickly judge the accuracy of the tangent planes and can assist in adjusting the positions of the tangent planes, and the efficiency and the accuracy of examining abnormal structures of the fetus according to the standard tangent planes are improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without inventive labor.

Fig. 1 shows a flow chart of a method of assessment of fetal posture in one embodiment of the invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional ultrasound image of a fetus in a skewed head posture in one embodiment of the invention;

fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a method of assessing fetal posture in another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of an ultrasound imaging method in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating matching of a standard slice of the heart to a common model in one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 shows a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system in an embodiment of the invention;

figure 7 shows a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system in another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, exemplary embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the described embodiments are merely a subset of embodiments of the invention and not all embodiments of the invention, with the understanding that the invention 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 herein without inventive step, shall fall within the scope of protection of the invention.

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

It is to be understood that the present invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being 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 invention to those skilled in the art.

In order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, a detailed structure will be set forth in the following description in order to explain the present invention. Alternative embodiments of the invention are described in detail below, however, the invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details.

In order to facilitate the doctor to visually know the posture of the early pregnancy fetus, the application provides an evaluation method of the posture of the fetus, and the evaluation method further comprises the following steps: acquiring three-dimensional ultrasonic data of a fetus in an early pregnancy period; acquiring a head region and a body region of a fetus in an early pregnancy period in three-dimensional ultrasonic data; estimating the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage based on the relative position relation between the head area and the body area of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage to obtain a posture estimation result; and displaying the posture evaluation result. According to the assessment method, the gesture of the fetus in the early pregnancy period can be assessed, and the gesture assessment result is output and displayed, so that a doctor can conveniently observe the gesture of the fetus, whether the gesture of the fetus in the early pregnancy period is in a natural gesture or not can be rapidly known, the doctor can be assisted to rapidly judge whether part of standard tangent planes do not meet the clinical quality control requirement or not based on the gesture assessment result, the doctor can obtain the standard tangent planes meeting the clinical quality control requirement according to the gesture assessment result, and the efficiency and the accuracy of examining the abnormal structure of the fetus based on the standard tangent planes are improved.

Specifically, the evaluation method of fetal posture, the ultrasonic imaging method, and the ultrasonic imaging system according to the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The features of the following examples and embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict.

First, a fetal posture assessment method, an ultrasonic imaging method and an ultrasonic imaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention are described with reference to fig. 1 to 7, wherein fig. 1 shows a flowchart of the fetal posture assessment method according to an embodiment of the present invention; fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional ultrasound image of a fetus in a skewed head posture in one embodiment of the invention; fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a method of assessing fetal posture in another embodiment of the invention; FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of an ultrasound imaging method in an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating matching of a standard slice of the heart to a common model in one embodiment of the invention; FIG. 6 shows a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system in an embodiment of the invention; figure 7 shows a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system in another embodiment of the invention.

First, a method of evaluating a fetal posture in one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 1.

As an example, as shown in fig. 1, the fetal posture assessment method of the present application includes the following steps:

specifically, in step S110, three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in the early pregnancy is acquired; in step S120, a head region and a body region of the early pregnancy fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasound data are acquired; in step S130, estimating the posture of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage based on the relative position relationship between the head region and the body region of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage to obtain a posture estimation result; in step S140, the posture evaluation result is displayed.

In step S110, three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in early pregnancy can be obtained based on any suitable method known to those skilled in the art, for example, three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in early pregnancy can be obtained based on ultrasound video data of the fetus in early pregnancy obtained by an ultrasound imaging system, wherein the ultrasound video data can include consecutive frames of two-dimensional ultrasound images, and in this embodiment, the two-dimensional ultrasound images include, but are not limited to, B-ultrasound images and other images in any mode. As shown in fig. 6, the ultrasound imaging system may include a probe 1, a transmitting/receiving module 2, a beam forming module 3, a signal processing module 4, a three-dimensional imaging module 5, an image processing module 6, etc., where a doctor moves the probe 1 to select a suitable position and angle, a transmitting circuit in the transmitting/receiving module 2 transmits a set of delay focused pulses to the probe 1, the probe 1 transmits a corresponding ultrasound waveform to a body tissue to be measured along a corresponding two-dimensional (2D) scanning plane, and after a certain delay, a receiving circuit receives the reflected ultrasound waveform and converts the ultrasound waveform into an electrical signal. The beam synthesis module 3 performs corresponding delay and weighted summation processing on signals obtained by multiple times of transmission/reception to realize beam synthesis, and then performs signal processing through the signal processing module 4. Meanwhile, the probe 1 transmits and receives ultrasonic waveforms in a series of scanning planes, and the three-dimensional imaging module 5 integrates according to the three-dimensional spatial relationship thereof, so that the scanning of the whole fetus in the three-dimensional space and the reconstruction of a 3D image are realized in three dimensions. And finally, the image post-processing module 6 obtains the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy after partial or all image processing steps such as denoising, smoothing, enhancing and the like.

In step S120, the head region and the body region of the early pregnancy fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasound data may be acquired based on any suitable method, for example, the method of acquiring the head region and the body region includes segmentation, detection, and the like. The segmentation method comprises the steps of firstly sampling and taking a surface of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data, namely taking the surface according to a preset rule, and taking the surface every other preset distance if the three-dimensional ultrasonic data rotates for one circle by a preset angle or along the depth. After the face is taken out, the face is divided, and a head area and a body area are obtained by three-dimensional interpolation of a division result; the head area and the body area of the fetus in the early pregnancy can be directly segmented by directly adopting a three-dimensional segmentation algorithm on the three-dimensional ultrasonic data. Wherein the two-dimensional and three-dimensional segmentation algorithms comprise a deep learning method such as FCN, deep Lab, PSPnet and the like and a traditional segmentation method such as threshold segmentation, watershed and the like; the method for acquiring the head region and the body region of the early pregnancy fetus comprises a two-dimensional and three-dimensional detection method, and after the head region or the body region of the early pregnancy fetus is detected, the boundary information of the head region and the body region is taken out and acquired (can be segmented by adopting deep learning or a traditional method). Or directly detecting and extracting boundary information, and common methods comprise deep learning methods such as MaskRcnn and YoLact.

In step S130, the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage may be evaluated based on any suitable method, for example, the orientation of the head region is obtained based on the spatial position information of the head region of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage; acquiring the orientation of a body area based on the spatial position information of the body area of the fetus in the early pregnancy period; the posture of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage is evaluated based on the angle between the orientation of the head region and the orientation of the body region to obtain a posture evaluation result. Optionally, the posture evaluation result includes a posture and/or posture parameters of the early pregnancy fetus, wherein the posture of the early pregnancy fetus includes a head posture of the early pregnancy fetus, the posture parameters include head posture parameters of the early pregnancy fetus, the head posture includes an abnormal posture and a standard posture, and the abnormal posture includes at least one of the following postures: a head-tilted posture, a head-lowered posture, a head-tilted posture, or other abnormal posture. The head posture parameter of the fetus during the early pregnancy can be an angle formed by the orientation of the head region and the orientation of the body region of the fetus, for example, when the posture of the head of the fetus is a head-bending posture, the posture parameter includes a head-bending degree; when the posture of the fetal head is the head deviation posture, the posture parameters comprise head deviation degrees; when the posture of the fetal head is a head lowering posture, the posture parameter comprises a head lowering degree, and when the posture of the fetal head is a head raising posture, the posture parameter comprises a head raising degree.

It should be noted that the head bending degree refers to an angle between the orientation of the fetal head region and the orientation of the body region (for example, an angle at which the head tilts left or right with respect to the body) when the fetal head is in the head bending posture, the head bending degree refers to an angle between the orientation of the fetal head region and the orientation of the body region (for example, a rotation angle of the head with respect to the body) when the head is in the head bending posture, the low head degree refers to an angle between the orientation of the fetal head region and the orientation of the body region when the fetal head is in the low head posture, and the head bending degree refers to an angle between the orientation of the fetal head region and the orientation of the body region when the fetal head is in the head bending posture.

The orientation of the fetal head region may be determined based on the orientation of the fetal face, e.g., facing upwards, upwards-left, upwards-right, left, right, downwards-left, downwards-right, or facing other directions, etc., or based on other landmark structures of the head region. The fetal position is determined based on the angle between the orientation of the head region and the orientation of the body region, usually the orientation of the head region can be represented by a vector, and the orientation of the body region can also be represented by a vector, and the angle is determined based on the relative relationship between the two vectors.

In one example, the method of the present application further comprises: and outputting prompt information when the posture evaluation result indicates that the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy is an abnormal posture. Optionally, the prompt information includes abnormal posture information and/or tangent plane information of a standard tangent plane affected by the abnormal posture information. The abnormal pose information may include abnormal pose information including at least one of the following poses: the standard section influenced by the abnormal attitude information may result in a section which does not meet the preset requirements of the standard section, and the section information includes but is not limited to character information used for representing the section type and the like. In the present application, the standard cut plane includes at least one of the following cut planes: hip-top radial section, lateral ventricle horizontal cross section, double-top radial section, NT standard section, chest radial section, abdominal circumference section, abdominal wall umbilical cord insertion section, bladder section, spine longitudinal axis section, and trunk long axis section.

The method can also display the prompt information to display and prompt that some standard sections cut out by the user under the current fetal posture do not meet the requirements of the standard sections.

Generally, a slight abnormality of the posture may not affect the image and measurement of the standard section, but when the degree of the abnormality of the posture is more serious, for example, when the posture parameter is greater than the preset value, it is likely that some standard sections do not meet the clinical quality control requirement (that is, do not meet the preset requirement of the standard section), exemplarily, when the head-bending angle is greater than the first preset angle value, or the head-bending angle is greater than the second preset angle value, or the head-bending angle is greater than the third preset angle value, or the head-bending angle is greater than the fourth preset angle value, it is likely that some standard sections (for example, NT standard section, top hip diameter section) do not meet the clinical quality control requirement, the value of the first preset angle value, the second preset angle value, the third preset angle value, and the fourth preset angle value may be reasonably set according to actual situations, which may be a priori experience values, for example, the value of the first preset angle value, the second preset angle value, the third preset angle value, and the fourth preset angle value may be between 5 ° and 15 °, the value of the first preset angle value, the fourth preset angle value may be a preset angle value, the fourth angle value, and the like.

In a specific example, for example, when the fetus is in a head-skewed posture in the early pregnancy and the head-skewed angle is greater than 15 °, the standard section such as the NT standard section or the hip-top diameter section may not meet the requirement of the standard section, and a prompt message may be output to prompt the doctor to scan again to obtain a section that meets the requirement, so as to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the examination of the abnormal structure of the fetus based on the standard sections. In a specific example, as shown in fig. 2, if the early pregnancy fetus is in a skewed head posture, a message may be provided to prompt the user that the tip-hip radial section of the early pregnancy fetus in the current posture is not available.

In one example, the evaluation method of the present application further includes: acquiring a three-dimensional ultrasonic image of the fetus in the early pregnancy period based on the three-dimensional ultrasonic data; a three-dimensional ultrasound image (shown in fig. 2 as a schematic view of a fetus in a skewed head posture) is displayed, which may also be a rendered three-dimensional ultrasound image, which may be a representation of the three-dimensional ultrasound image, in order to facilitate presentation of a subsequent three-dimensional ultrasound image, for example, on a display device. When the rendered three-dimensional ultrasound image is displayed on the display device, the user can observe the same visual effect as the three-dimensional ultrasound image. The user can visually acquire the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy by observing the three-dimensional ultrasonic image, or the posture, the posture parameters and the like of the fetus in the early pregnancy in the posture evaluation result described by characters and the like can be displayed on one side of the displayed three-dimensional ultrasonic image.

In addition to the above described assessment method, the present application provides another assessment method of fetal posture, and the assessment method in another embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to fig. 3. It is worth mentioning that some details of the present embodiment have been described in the foregoing, and will not be repeated here.

In another embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the fetal posture assessment method of the present application further comprises the steps of: in step S310, acquiring three-dimensional ultrasound data of a fetus in an early pregnancy period; in step S320, registering the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage with the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a registered common model of the fetus corresponding to the posture of the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage; in step S330, estimating the pose of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage based on the pose of the registered three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a pose estimation result; in step S340, the posture evaluation result is displayed.

The detailed description of step S310 in the present embodiment may refer to step S110 in the foregoing, and is not repeated here.

In one example, in step S320, the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the early pregnancy fetus and the three-dimensional fetal model may be registered based on any suitable method known to those skilled in the art to obtain a registered three-dimensional fetal model, for example, the registration may be performed based on the following illustrated method.

The first registering method is that the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage is directly registered with the three-dimensional model of the fetus, the three-dimensional ultrasonic data is matched with the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain space transformation quantity, and the space coordinate of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data is mapped into the space coordinate of the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the space transformation quantity. Among them, the spatial transformation amount can be obtained based on the following method. In one embodiment, the spatial transformation may be a transformation matrix, for example, in one example, an optimal three-dimensional spatial transformation (also referred to as a transformation matrix) is obtained, which makes the three-dimensional ultrasound data (e.g., voxel values of the three-dimensional ultrasound data) of the fetus in the early pregnancy most similar to or least different from the three-dimensional model (e.g., voxel values of the three-dimensional model) of the fetus. Or, in another example, the three-dimensional ultrasound data and the image features of the fetus three-dimensional model, including but not limited to the gradient feature, texture feature such as LBP, harr feature, HOG/LOG feature, etc., may be extracted first, and then an optimal three-dimensional spatial transformation (which may also be a transformation matrix) is obtained, so that the obtained three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage has the highest similarity or the smallest difference with the image features extracted by the fetus three-dimensional model. In another embodiment, the spatial transformation may be a rotation axis (euler angle) about which the fetal three-dimensional ultrasound data may be rotated to map the spatial coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasound data into the spatial coordinates of the fetal three-dimensional model to achieve registration of the fetal three-dimensional ultrasound data and the fetal three-dimensional model. The relevant description of the spatial transformation quantities in this application can be understood with reference to the above description.

In step S320, a three-dimensional model of the fetus may be directly matched according to the spatial positions of the head and the body of the fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period by segmenting the position information of the head and the body area of the fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period, and specifically may include: acquiring a head region and a body region of a fetus in an early pregnancy stage in three-dimensional ultrasonic data; and respectively registering the head area and the body area of the fetus in the early pregnancy with the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain the registered three-dimensional model of the fetus corresponding to the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy. Wherein, the positions of the head and the body can be directly segmented and positioned by adopting a deep learning method and a traditional image method. Directly training a segmentation network model based on a deep learning method, wherein the network model can comprise a two-dimensional convolution network or a three-dimensional convolution network, and directly segmenting and positioning the positions of the head and the body based on the trained segmentation network model; algorithms such as threshold segmentation and edge extraction realized by canny operators are included on the basis of traditional methods.

The head region and body region of the fetus at the early stage of pregnancy can be registered with the three-dimensional model of the fetus, respectively, by any suitable method known to those skilled in the art, for example, the head region and the three-dimensional model of the fetus at the early stage of pregnancy can be registered first, and then the body region and the three-dimensional model of the fetus at the early stage of pregnancy can be registered, or the body region can be registered first, and then the head region can be registered.

In a second registration method: matching a two-dimensional section of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy with a section of a three-dimensional model of the fetus, and registering the three-dimensional ultrasonic data with the three-dimensional model of the fetus, wherein the two-dimensional section of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy comprises the following steps: acquiring a plurality of two-dimensional sections from the three-dimensional ultrasonic data, wherein the two-dimensional sections can be standard sections or any sections of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy; matching each two-dimensional section with two-dimensional standard section template data in a three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain an optimal two-dimensional section with the highest similarity to the two-dimensional standard section template data; determining the space transformation amount between the three-dimensional ultrasonic data and the fetus three-dimensional model based on the mapping relation between the position information of the optimal two-dimensional section and the position information of the two-dimensional standard section template data; and mapping the space coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data into the space coordinates of the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the space transformation amount.

Matching each two-dimensional section with two-dimensional standard section template data in a fetus three-dimensional model to obtain an optimal two-dimensional section with the highest similarity to the two-dimensional standard section template data, for example, obtaining an optimal two-dimensional section from the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of a fetus in the early pregnancy period, so that the optimal two-dimensional section has the highest similarity or the smallest difference to the section of the fetus three-dimensional model, for example, so that the pixel information of the optimal two-dimensional section has the highest similarity or the smallest difference to the section of the fetus three-dimensional model, or so that the optimal two-dimensional section has the highest similarity or the smallest difference to the image characteristics (such as gradient characteristics, texture characteristics such as LBP, harr characteristics, HOG/LOG characteristics and the like) extracted from the section of the fetus three-dimensional model, and then determining the space transformation amount between the three-dimensional ultrasonic data and the fetus three-dimensional model based on the mapping relationship between the position information of the optimal two-dimensional section and the position information of the section of the fetus three-dimensional model; and mapping the space coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data into the space coordinates of the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the space transformation amount.

In a third registration method: it is also possible to match key anatomical structures in the three-dimensional ultrasound data with corresponding anatomical structures in the three-dimensional model of the fetus, including, for example: respectively matching a plurality of image areas in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data with key anatomical structure standard data in a three-dimensional model of a fetus to obtain a target image area with the highest similarity to the key anatomical structure standard data; determining a space transformation amount between the three-dimensional ultrasonic data and the fetus three-dimensional model based on a mapping relation between the position information of the target image area and the position information of the key anatomical structure standard data; and mapping the space coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data into the space coordinates of the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the space transformation amount.

Respectively matching a plurality of image areas in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data with the key anatomical structure standard data in the fetus three-dimensional model to obtain a target image area with the highest similarity with the key anatomical structure standard data, for example, obtaining an optimal image block from the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period, and enabling the optimal image block to have the highest similarity or the smallest difference with the early pregnancy key anatomical structure standard data of the fetus three-dimensional model, or have the highest similarity or the smallest difference with the image characteristics; for another example, the method also includes detecting candidate early pregnancy critical anatomical structure regions in the acquired three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage by using target detection methods such as fast RCNN, mask RCNN, SSD, YOLO, retinet, efficientnet, cornernet, cenet, FCOS and the like, and then matching the candidate early pregnancy critical anatomical structure regions with the early pregnancy critical anatomical structure standard data in the three-dimensional model of the fetus. The matching method comprises the steps of searching an optimal candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure, and enabling the optimal candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure to have the highest similarity or the smallest difference with the standard data of the early pregnancy key anatomical structure in the fetus three-dimensional model; extracting the image characteristics of the candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure and the standard data of the early pregnancy key anatomical structure, and searching an optimal candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure to ensure that the similarity or difference between the image characteristics of the candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure and the image characteristics of the standard data of the early pregnancy key anatomical structure is highest or minimum; the method also comprises the step of finding the optimal candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure and an optimal spatial transformation, so that the difference between the candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure and the spatial position of the early pregnancy key anatomical structure standard data is minimized. Optionally, the critical anatomical structures include, but are not limited to: one or more of kidney, liver, heart, etc.

Alternatively, the spatial transformation amount between the three-dimensional ultrasound data and the fetal three-dimensional model may be determined based on a mapping relationship between the position information of the optimal candidate early pregnancy key anatomical structure and the position information of the early pregnancy key anatomical structure standard data. And then mapping the space coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data to the space coordinates of the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the space transformation amount.

In a fourth registration method: the method is also used for matching key points of three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage with the middle points of the three-dimensional model of the fetus, and comprises the following steps: matching the three-dimensional ultrasonic data with corresponding key point standard data in a three-dimensional model of the fetus to acquire a target key point matched with the key point standard data in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data; determining a space transformation quantity between the three-dimensional ultrasonic data and the fetal three-dimensional model based on the mapping relation between the position information of the target key point and the position information of the key anatomical structure standard data; and mapping the space coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data into the space coordinates of the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the space transformation amount.

Matching the three-dimensional ultrasound data with corresponding keypoint standard data in the three-dimensional model of the fetus to acquire a target keypoint in the three-dimensional ultrasound data, which matches with the keypoint standard data, for example, including: an optimal point (namely a target key point) is searched in the obtained three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period, and the similarity or difference between the image characteristics near the optimal point and the image characteristics of the standard data of the early pregnancy key point in the three-dimensional model of the fetus is the highest or the smallest. The method also comprises the steps of predicting coordinates of points or areas where the points are located by using a characteristic point extraction method (such as an SIFT method), a corner point detection method (such as a Harris method) or a neural network method, detecting candidate key points in the obtained three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage, and then matching the candidate key points with the standard data of the key points in the early pregnancy. The matching method comprises the steps of searching an optimal candidate key point (namely a target key point) to enable the similarity between the image features nearby the optimal candidate key point and the image features of the early pregnancy key point standard data to be highest or the difference between the image features and the image features of the early pregnancy key point standard data to be minimum; the method also comprises the steps of searching an optimal candidate early pregnancy key point (namely a target key point) and an optimal spatial transformation, so that the difference between the candidate early pregnancy key point and the spatial position of the early pregnancy key point standard data is minimized. Optionally, the keypoints include, but are not limited to, one or more of the crown, chin, neck, abdomen, etc.

After the registration, the postures of the head and the body of the fetus can be evaluated according to the postures of the three-dimensional common model, for example, whether head bending, head tilting, head lowering and the like exist is judged, in step S230, the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage is evaluated based on the postures of the three-dimensional registered fetus, so as to obtain a posture evaluation result, which includes: acquiring the orientation of a head region and the orientation of a body region in the registered three-dimensional model of the fetus; the posture of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage is evaluated based on the angle between the orientation of the head region and the orientation of the body region to obtain a posture evaluation result. Specifically, reference may be made to the related description of step S130 in the foregoing.

The posture evaluation result comprises the posture and/or posture parameters of the fetus in the early pregnancy. Optionally, the posture of the early pregnancy fetus comprises a head posture of the early pregnancy fetus, the posture parameters comprise head posture parameters of the early pregnancy fetus, the head posture comprises an abnormal posture and a standard posture, and the abnormal posture comprises at least one of the following postures: head-tilted attitude, head-lowered attitude, head-tilted attitude.

Optionally, when the posture of the fetal head is a head-bending posture, the posture parameter comprises a head-bending degree; when the posture of the fetal head is the head deviation posture, the posture parameters comprise head deviation degrees; when the posture of the fetal head is a head lowering posture, the posture parameter comprises a head lowering degree, and when the posture of the fetal head is a head raising posture, the posture parameter comprises a head raising degree.

The evaluation method of the application can further include displaying the three-dimensional common model so that a user can visually observe the posture of the fetus, the three-dimensional common model displayed through the display device can be the rendered three-dimensional common model, and when the rendered three-dimensional common model is displayed through the display device, a three-dimensional stereoscopic effect can be presented to the user.

In the evaluation method of the application, the posture parameters and the like of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage in the posture evaluation result described by, for example, characters and the like can be displayed on one side of the displayed three-dimensional common model.

In one example, when the posture evaluation result indicates that the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage is an abnormal posture, the prompt message is output. The prompt information comprises abnormal posture information and/or tangent plane information of a standard tangent plane influenced by the abnormal posture information. In the method of the application, prompt information can also be displayed. For details of the hint information, reference may be made to the related description above.

In conclusion, according to the fetal posture evaluation method, the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy period can be evaluated, and the posture evaluation result is output and displayed, so that a doctor can conveniently observe the posture of the fetus, can rapidly know whether the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy period is in a natural posture, and can assist the doctor to rapidly judge whether part of standard sections do not meet the clinical quality control requirement or not based on the posture evaluation result, and therefore the doctor can obtain the standard sections meeting the clinical quality control requirement according to the posture evaluation result, and the efficiency and accuracy of the examination of abnormal structures of the fetus based on the standard sections are improved.

Further, the present application also provides an ultrasound imaging method, which will be described below with reference to fig. 4 and 5.

As an example, as shown in fig. 4, the ultrasound imaging method of the present application includes the steps of: an ultrasound imaging method, characterized in that the ultrasound imaging method comprises: in step S410, acquiring three-dimensional ultrasound data of a fetus in an early pregnancy period; in step S420, acquiring at least one standard section of the fetus during early pregnancy based on the three-dimensional ultrasound data; in step S430, registering the three-dimensional ultrasound data with the fetal three-dimensional model; in step S440, determining a spatial position of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the result of the registration and the position information of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional ultrasound data; in step S450, the three-dimensional model of the fetus and the spatial position of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional model of the fetus are displayed.

The method for acquiring three-dimensional ultrasound data of a fetus in an early pregnancy stage in step S410 can refer to the description of step S110 in the foregoing, and is not repeated here.

Next, in step S420, optionally, the standard section includes at least one of the following sections: hip-top radial section, lateral ventricle horizontal cross section, double-top radial section, NT standard section, chest radial section, abdominal circumference section, abdominal wall umbilical cord insertion section, bladder section, spine longitudinal axis section, trunk long axis section, heart standard section, or other suitable sections.

The at least one standard cut of the early pregnancy fetus may be obtained by any suitable method known to those skilled in the art based on the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the early pregnancy fetus, for example, the at least one standard cut of the early pregnancy fetus is obtained based on the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the early pregnancy fetus, including: acquiring key anatomical structure information of a fetus in an early pregnancy stage related to a standard section in three-dimensional ultrasonic data, such as a lateral ventricle or choroid plexus of a lateral ventricle cross section, a thalamus of a double apical diametric section, a cerebellum of a cerebellum cross section and the like; and acquiring a standard tangent plane corresponding to the key anatomical structure information from the three-dimensional ultrasonic data based on the key anatomical structure information.

The method for obtaining the standard tangent plane comprises the following steps: automatic, semi-automatic or manual methods. For example, a standard section may be automatically obtained, and the method for automatically obtaining the standard section includes: the method can be used for automatically acquiring the key anatomical structure information of the tested fetus, which is related to the standard section, in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data, for example, the lateral ventricle or choroid plexus of the lateral ventricle cross section, the thalamus of the double apical diametric section, the cerebellum of the cerebellum cross section and the like. The intelligent recognition algorithm includes, but is not limited to, a traditional image processing method or a deep learning method, wherein the traditional image processing method includes extraction of image features, such as texture features like a Sift feature, a gradient feature, an LBP (local binary pattern) feature, a PCA (principal component analysis), an LDA (latent dir) feature, a HOG (histogram of oriented gradient) feature, a LOG (LOG) feature and the like, and also includes extraction of image edges, such as edge extraction realized by a canny operator; the deep learning method can be used, for example, as a segmentation network (FCN, unet, etc.), a detection network (fast RCNN, mask RCNN, etc.), a localization (Hourglass, centrnet, etc.), and the like. After the information of the anatomical structure is obtained by the method, the standard tangent plane corresponding to the key anatomical structure information is automatically obtained from the three-dimensional ultrasonic data based on the key anatomical structure information. For example, an abdominal standard section, a four-chamber heart standard section and the like are obtained according to the information of the gastric bleb and the heart.

For another example, the standard section of the fetus in the early pregnancy period can be obtained by a semi-automatic method, and the required standard section can be obtained by a manual intervention mode. In a first example, the respective key anatomical structures of the standard cut plane are acquired by deep learning or conventional image algorithm, and the key anatomical structures are correspondingly marked on the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage. The user can acquire the standard section of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage by the information of the key anatomical structures. The semi-automatic mode can assist the user in acquiring the standard section and accurately positioning the tissue structure and the position information contained in the section. Secondly, a rough position or an initial position of a standard tangent plane can be obtained through a deep learning or traditional algorithm according to the positioned anatomical structure, and a proper standard tangent plane is obtained through adjustment of translation or angle (namely rotation) based on a user instruction.

In a second example of a method for obtaining a standard section of a fetus at an early stage of pregnancy by a semi-automatic method: the method comprises the steps of firstly automatically righting a fetus in the early pregnancy period to obtain the spatial position (the spatial position comprises the position of a head and a body) of the fetus in the early pregnancy period, wherein the righting refers to adjusting the position of the fetus in the early pregnancy period to a desired position through rotation, translation, spatial transformation and the like, the desired position can be a position which is convenient for a user to view, for example, the neck and the hip of the fetus are in a horizontal direction, the spine and the horizontal direction are approximately parallel, the fetus is in a lying state and the like, or other suitable positions, giving the rough position of each standard tangent plane according to the spatial position of the fetus, and then finely adjusting the position of the tangent plane to obtain a final standard tangent plane based on a user instruction. The method for acquiring the spatial position can adopt a deep learning method and a traditional method, and the method based on the deep learning can directly regress the angle of a body and a head which need to rotate at a certain point, or divide or position a certain anatomical structure (such as a body spine, a lateral ventricle of the head and the like) through the deep learning, and carry out rectification and the like by utilizing the symmetry and the position information of the anatomical structure; the method for correcting based on the traditional method can extract traditional image characteristics such as texture characteristics including Sift characteristics, gradient characteristics, LBP and the like, PCA, LDA, harr characteristics, HOG, LOG characteristics and the like from the early pregnancy ultrasonic data. And positioning spatial structure information of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data by using the characteristics, and finally performing rectification by using the information. And finally, fine adjustment (such as translation and/or rotation) of the section can be performed based on a user instruction to obtain a final standard section position, or the position of a key anatomical structure can be selected from the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period based on the user instruction, the user instruction can be input by clicking a mouse, edge tracing and the like, and the corresponding standard section is automatically determined according to the position of the key anatomical structure.

The standard tangent plane can also be obtained in a full-manual mode, and the user obtains the required standard tangent plane in full-manual modes such as translation, rotation and the like.

The three-dimensional ultrasound data is registered with the fetal three-dimensional model in step S430, and the details of the registration may refer to the description related to step S320 in the foregoing, and will not be repeated here.

Further, in step S440, the spatial position of the at least one standard slice in the three-dimensional model of the fetus is determined based on the result of the pre-registration and the position information of the at least one standard slice in the three-dimensional ultrasound data. For example, according to the configuration result, a spatial transformation amount can be obtained, so that the position information of the corresponding standard tangent plane in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data can be mapped into the fetal three-dimensional model according to the spatial transformation amount, and the spatial position of the standard tangent plane in the fetal three-dimensional model can be obtained.

Further, in step S450, the fetal three-dimensional model and the spatial position of the at least one standard section in the fetal three-dimensional model are displayed, for example, the fetal three-dimensional model and a position indication graphic for representing the spatial position of the at least one standard section in the fetal three-dimensional model are displayed, wherein the position indication graphic includes at least one of the following graphics: the frame-shaped graph is used for representing the spatial position of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional model of the fetus, such as a square frame, a parallelogram, a rhombus and the like, the linear indication graph is used for representing the spatial position of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional model of the fetus, or other indication graphs can facilitate the user to visually know the position of the standard section in the three-dimensional model of the fetus. In a specific example, as shown in fig. 5, a standard section of the early pregnancy heart is displayed on the left side, a three-dimensional model 510 of the fetus and a position indication graphic 520 of the standard section in the three-dimensional model of the fetus are displayed on the right side, the indication graphic 520 is in a square frame shape, and can also be a line shape graphic, for example, indicated by two vertically intersecting straight lines, or indicated by a straight line with directionality, etc.

By the method, the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy can be registered with the three-dimensional model of the fetus, and the position of the standard tangent plane acquired according to the three-dimensional ultrasonic data can be displayed in the three-dimensional model of the fetus after registration, so that the spatial position of the tangent plane can be visually displayed, the accuracy of the tangent plane can be rapidly judged by a user, the position of the tangent plane can be adjusted by the user, for example, when the user finds that the position of the standard tangent plane does not meet the requirement, the scanning position can be adjusted according to the displayed position of the tangent plane, and the like, so that the standard tangent plane meeting the requirement can be scanned again and acquired.

Optionally, the ultrasound imaging method further comprises: acquiring the head and body of a fetus in an early pregnancy stage in three-dimensional ultrasonic data; estimating the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage based on the spatial position information of the head and the spatial position information of the body of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage to obtain a posture estimation result; and displaying the attitude evaluation result. Optionally, the posture assessment result comprises the posture and/or posture parameters of the fetus during the early pregnancy. Optionally, when the posture evaluation result indicates that the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage is an abnormal posture, outputting prompt information, wherein the prompt information includes abnormal posture information and/or section information of a standard section affected by the abnormal posture. Details regarding pose estimation may be found in relation to the preceding description and are not repeated here.

In conclusion, according to the ultrasonic imaging method, the positions of the standard sections of the early pregnant fetus can be displayed more intuitively, so that a doctor can quickly judge the section accuracy, can assist in adjusting the position of the section, and further improve the efficiency and accuracy of examining abnormal structures of the fetus according to the standard sections.

The embodiment of the present application further provides an ultrasound imaging system, and referring to fig. 7, the ultrasound imaging system 10 may include: an ultrasound probe 100, a transmit/receive selection switch 101, a transmit/receive sequence controller 102, a processor 103, an output device 104, and a memory 105. The transmitting/receiving sequence controller 102 is configured to control the ultrasonic probe to transmit ultrasonic waves to the fetus in the early pregnancy, and receive an ultrasonic echo based on the ultrasonic waves returned from the fetus in the early pregnancy to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal.

The doctor moves the ultrasonic probe 100 to select a proper position and angle, the transmit/receive sequence controller 102 (which may be part or all of the transmit circuit in the foregoing description) sends a set of delay-focused pulses to the ultrasonic probe 100 through the transmit/receive selection switch 101, the ultrasonic probe 100 transmits a corresponding ultrasonic waveform to the body tissue to be tested, such as the fetus in the early pregnancy period, along a corresponding two-dimensional (2D) scanning plane, and after a certain delay, the transmit/receive sequence controller 102 (which may be part or all of the receive circuit in the foregoing description) receives the reflected ultrasonic waveform and converts the ultrasonic waveform into an electrical signal. The beam forming module performs corresponding delay and weighted summation on signals obtained by multiple times of transmission/reception to realize beam forming, and then performs signal processing through the processor 103, for example, a signal processing module of the processor. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic probe 100 performs three-dimensional scanning of the whole fetus in three dimensions and 3D image reconstruction by emitting and receiving ultrasonic waveforms in a series of scanning planes, and integrating three-dimensional imaging modules of the processor 103, such as the processor 103, according to three-dimensional spatial relationships thereof. Finally, the image post-processing module of the processor 103 performs partial or all image processing steps such as denoising, smoothing, enhancing and the like to obtain the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy.

The ultrasound probe 100 typically includes an array of a plurality of array elements. At each time of transmitting the ultrasonic wave, all or a part of all the elements of the ultrasonic probe 100 participate in the transmission of the ultrasonic wave. At this time, each array element or each part of array elements participating in ultrasonic wave transmission is excited by the transmission pulse and respectively transmits ultrasonic waves, the ultrasonic waves transmitted by the array elements are superposed in the transmission process to form a synthesized ultrasonic wave beam transmitted to a scanning target, and the direction of the synthesized ultrasonic wave beam is the ultrasonic transmission direction.

The processor 103 is used for acquiring three-dimensional ultrasonic volume data of the tested fetus according to the ultrasonic echo signal; for example, the processor 103 is configured to process the ultrasound echo signals/data to obtain a plurality of consecutive two-dimensional ultrasound images of the fetus in the early pregnancy, wherein the ultrasound images may be B images (also referred to as B ultrasound images), C images, and the like, and may also be other types of ultrasound images. The processor 103 is configured to perform different processing on the ultrasound echo signal according to different imaging modes required by a user to obtain image data in different modes, and then perform processing such as logarithmic compression, dynamic range adjustment, digital scan conversion, and the like to form ultrasound images in different modes, such as B images, C images, and the like, the ultrasound probe 100 transmits and receives ultrasound waveforms in a series of scanning planes, and the processor 103 performs integration according to a three-dimensional spatial relationship thereof, thereby realizing scanning of the whole fetus in a three-dimensional space and reconstruction of a 3D image on the basis of a continuous multi-frame two-dimensional ultrasound image in a three-dimensional manner. Finally, the processor 103 performs partial or all image processing steps such as denoising, smoothing, enhancing and the like to acquire the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy.

In one example, the memory 105 of the ultrasound imaging system, which may include one or more computer program products, may include various forms of computer-readable storage media, such as volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. Volatile memory can include, for example, random Access Memory (RAM), cache memory (or the like). The non-volatile memory may include, for example, read Only Memory (ROM), a hard disk, flash memory, and the like. One or more computer program instructions may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium and executed by processor 103 to implement the functions of the embodiments (implemented by processor 103) of the present application and/or other desired functions. Various applications and various data, such as various data used and/or generated by the applications, may also be stored in the computer-readable storage medium.

In one example, the processor 103 of the ultrasound imaging system may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof, and may use circuitry, a single or multiple Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), a single or multiple general purpose integrated circuits, a single or multiple microprocessors, a single or multiple programmable logic devices, or a combination of the foregoing, or other suitable circuitry or devices, to enable the processor 103 to perform the functions required to be implemented thereby and/or other desired functions.

In one example, the ultrasound imaging system may also include an input device (not shown) which may be a device used by a user to input instructions and may include one or more of a keyboard, mouse, microphone, touch screen, and the like.

In one embodiment of the present application, when the program instructions stored in the memory 105 are executed by the processor 103, the processor 103 is configured to perform the above-mentioned fetal posture assessment method and the related steps of the ultrasound imaging method, and the description of the specific steps can be found in the above and will not be repeated here.

The ultrasound imaging system of the present application also includes an output device (not shown) that may output various information (e.g., images or sounds) to an external (e.g., user), and may include one or more of a display device 104, a printer, speakers, and the like. Information such as a three-dimensional ultrasound image, a result of the pose evaluation, a three-dimensional model of the fetus, a slice image, and the like obtained by the processor 103 may be stored in the memory 105, and the information such as the three-dimensional ultrasound image, the result of the pose evaluation, the three-dimensional model of the fetus, the slice image, and the like may be displayed on, for example, the display device 104.

The display device 104 is used for displaying various visual information, including but not limited to a three-dimensional ultrasound image, a posture evaluation result, a fetal three-dimensional model, a section image, a previous prompt message, and the like, in this embodiment of the application, the display device 104 of the ultrasound imaging system may be a touch display screen, a liquid crystal display screen, and the like, or may be an independent display device independent of the ultrasound imaging system, such as a liquid crystal display, a television, and the like, or may be a display screen on an electronic device, such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, and the like. The display device 104 may be used to display information input by or provided to the user as well as various graphical user interfaces of the ultrasound imaging apparatus, which may be made up of graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof.

The ultrasound imaging system of the present application also has the advantages of the foregoing methods because it can implement the foregoing methods of evaluating a fetal posture, ultrasound imaging methods, and the like.

In addition, the embodiment of the invention also provides a computer storage medium, and a computer program is stored on the computer storage medium. One or more computer program instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium, and a processor may execute the program instructions stored by the storage device to implement the functions (implemented by the processor) of the embodiments of the present invention herein and/or other desired functions, such as to execute the corresponding steps of the fetal posture assessment method and the ultrasound imaging method according to the embodiments of the present invention, and various applications and various data, such as various data used and/or generated by the applications, and the like, may also be stored in the computer readable storage medium.

For example, the computer 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.

Although the illustrative embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the foregoing illustrative embodiments are merely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention 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 invention. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention as set forth 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 technical solution. 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 invention.

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 logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of 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 invention 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 invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the invention and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. However, the method of the present invention should not be construed to reflect the intent: that the invention as claimed requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. 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 invention.

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 invention 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 invention 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 invention 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 invention 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 invention, 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 invention 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 may 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.

Claims

1. A method for assessing fetal posture, the method further comprising:

and displaying the attitude evaluation result.

2. The evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluating the posture of the early pregnancy fetus based on the relative position relationship between the head region and the body region of the early pregnancy fetus to obtain a posture evaluation result comprises:

acquiring the orientation of the head region based on the spatial position information of the head region of the fetus in the early pregnancy period;

acquiring the orientation of the body area based on the spatial position information of the body area of the fetus in the early pregnancy;

evaluating the posture of the early pregnancy fetus based on an angle between the orientation of the head region and the orientation of the body region to obtain a posture evaluation result.

3. The evaluation method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring a three-dimensional ultrasonic image of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage based on the three-dimensional ultrasonic data;

and displaying the three-dimensional ultrasonic image.

4. A method for assessing fetal posture, the method comprising:

registering the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period with the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a registered common model of the fetus corresponding to the posture of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period;

estimating the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage based on the registered posture of the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a posture estimation result;

and displaying the attitude evaluation result.

5. The assessment method of claim 4, wherein said assessing the pose of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage based on the pose of the registered three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a pose assessment result comprises:

acquiring the orientation of a head region and the orientation of a body region in the registered three-dimensional model of the fetus;

6. The assessment method of claim 4, wherein said registering the three-dimensional ultrasound data of the early pregnancy fetus with the three-dimensional model of the fetus to obtain a registered three-dimensional model of the fetus comprises:

acquiring a head region and a body region of the early pregnancy fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasound data; respectively registering the head area and the body area of the early pregnancy fetus with the three-dimensional fetus model to obtain the registered three-dimensional fetus model corresponding to the posture of the early pregnancy fetus.

7. The assessment method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein said posture assessment result comprises the posture and/or posture parameters of the fetus at the early pregnancy stage.

8. The assessment method of claim 7, wherein the posture in which the early pregnancy fetus is located comprises a head posture of the early pregnancy fetus, the posture parameters comprise head posture parameters of the early pregnancy fetus, the head posture comprises an abnormal posture and a standard posture, the abnormal posture comprises at least one of: head-tilted, head-biased, head-lowered, head-tilted.

9. The assessment method of claim 8, wherein when the posture of the fetal head is a head-skewed posture, the posture parameter comprises a head-skewed degree; when the posture of the fetal head is the head-off posture, the posture parameters comprise head-off degrees; when the gesture of fetal head is the head lowering gesture, the gesture parameter includes the head lowering degree, works as when the gesture of fetal head is the head raising gesture, the gesture parameter includes the head raising degree.

10. The assessment method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein when the posture assessment result indicates that the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy stage is an abnormal posture, a prompt message is output.

11. The assessment method according to claim 10, wherein the prompt information includes abnormal posture information and/or tangent plane information of a standard tangent plane affected by the abnormal posture information.

12. An ultrasound imaging method, characterized in that it comprises:

13. The ultrasound imaging method of claim 12, wherein said obtaining at least one standard slice of the early pregnancy fetus based on the three-dimensional ultrasound data comprises:

acquiring key anatomical structure information of the early pregnancy fetus related to the standard tangent plane in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data;

and acquiring a standard tangent plane corresponding to the key anatomical structure information from the three-dimensional ultrasonic data based on the key anatomical structure information.

14. The ultrasound imaging method of claim 12 wherein said registering said three-dimensional ultrasound data with a three-dimensional model of a fetus comprises:

matching the three-dimensional ultrasonic data with the fetal three-dimensional model to obtain a space transformation quantity;

and mapping the space coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data into the space coordinates of the three-dimensional model of the fetus based on the space transformation amount.

15. The ultrasound imaging method of claim 12 wherein said registering said three-dimensional ultrasound data with a three-dimensional model of a fetus comprises:

acquiring a plurality of two-dimensional sections in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data;

matching each two-dimensional section with two-dimensional standard section template data in the fetal three-dimensional model to obtain an optimal two-dimensional section with the highest similarity to the two-dimensional standard section template data;

determining a space transformation amount between the three-dimensional ultrasonic data and the three-dimensional volume data of the three-dimensional fetal model based on a mapping relation between the position information of the optimal two-dimensional section and the position information of the two-dimensional standard section template data;

and mapping the space coordinates of the three-dimensional ultrasonic data into the space coordinates of the three-dimensional data of the fetal three-dimensional model based on the space transformation amount.

16. The ultrasound imaging method of claim 12, wherein said registering the three-dimensional ultrasound data with three-dimensional volume data of a three-dimensional model of a fetus comprises:

matching a plurality of image areas in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data with key anatomical structure standard data in the fetal three-dimensional model respectively to obtain a target image area with the highest similarity to the key anatomical structure standard data;

determining a spatial transformation amount between the three-dimensional ultrasound data and the three-dimensional volume data of the fetal three-dimensional model based on a mapping relationship between the position information of the target image region and the position information of the key anatomical structure standard data;

17. The ultrasound imaging method of claim 12, wherein said registering the three-dimensional ultrasound data with a three-dimensional model of a fetus comprises:

matching the three-dimensional ultrasonic data with corresponding key point standard data in a three-dimensional model of the fetus to acquire a target key point matched with the key point standard data in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data;

determining a spatial transformation quantity between the three-dimensional ultrasound data and the fetal three-dimensional model based on a mapping relation between the position information of the target key point and the position information of the key anatomical structure standard data;

18. The ultrasonic imaging method of claim 12, wherein said displaying the fetal three-dimensional model and the spatial location of at least one standard cut plane in the fetal three-dimensional model comprises:

displaying the three-dimensional model of the fetus and a position indication graphic for characterizing a spatial position of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional model of the fetus, wherein the position indication graphic comprises at least one of the following graphics: the frame-shaped graph is used for representing the spatial position of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional fetal model, and the line-shaped indication graph is used for representing the spatial position of the at least one standard section in the three-dimensional fetal model.

19. The ultrasound imaging method of claim 12, further comprising:

acquiring the head and body of the early pregnancy fetus in the three-dimensional ultrasonic data;

evaluating the posture of the early pregnancy fetus based on the spatial position information of the head and the spatial position information of the body of the early pregnancy fetus to obtain a posture evaluation result;

and displaying the attitude evaluation result.

20. The ultrasound imaging method of claim 19, wherein the pose assessment result comprises a pose and/or pose parameters at which the early pregnancy fetus is located.

21. The ultrasound imaging method according to claim 20, wherein when the posture evaluation result indicates that the posture of the fetus in the early pregnancy period is an abnormal posture, a prompt message is output, and the prompt message comprises abnormal posture information and/or section information of a standard section affected by the abnormal posture.

22. The ultrasonic imaging method of any one of claims 12 to 21, wherein the standard slice comprises at least one of the following slices: hip-top radial section, lateral ventricle horizontal cross section, double-top radial section, NT standard section, chest radial section, abdominal circumference section, abdominal wall umbilical cord insertion section, bladder section, spine longitudinal axis section, heart standard section, and trunk long axis section.

23. An ultrasound imaging system, characterized in that the ultrasound imaging system comprises:

an ultrasonic probe;

the processor is used for acquiring three-dimensional ultrasonic data of the fetus in the early pregnancy period according to the ultrasonic echo signal;

a memory for storing executable program instructions;

the processor is further configured to execute the program instructions stored in the memory to cause the processor to perform the method of assessing fetal posture of one of claims 1 to 11 or to perform the method of ultrasound imaging of one of claims 12 to 22;

and the display device is used for displaying the visual information.