CN116096298A

CN116096298A - Strain elastic imaging method, device and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN116096298A
Application number: CN202080103721.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周迪; 李双双
Original assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-12-30
Filing date: 2020-12-30
Publication date: 2023-05-09
Also published as: WO2022141257A1

Abstract

A strain elastic imaging method (400), apparatus (10) and storage medium. The method (400) includes: controlling an ultrasonic probe (100) to transmit ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object, receiving echoes of the ultrasonic waves, and acquiring ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves (S410); generating an ultrasound image based on the ultrasound echo data and acquiring a region of interest in the ultrasound image and a target tissue region in the region of interest (S420); calculating strain of the target tissue region and strain of the region of interest based on the ultrasound echo data (S430); the strain of the region of interest is image feature mapped based on the strain of the target tissue region to generate and display a strain elastic image of the region of interest (S440). The method (400) generates the strain elasticity image by taking the strain value of the target tissue area as a reference, and can improve the quality and the reliability of the strain elasticity imaging.

Description

Strain elastic imaging method, device and storage medium

Description

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of ultrasound imaging technology, and more particularly, to a strain elastography method, apparatus, and storage medium.

Background

Strain elastography has been widely used in clinical research and diagnosis in recent years. Strain elastography compresses tissue by a probe and calculates displacement and strain of the tissue in real time to reflect elastography related parameters of the tissue in the imaged region and image. It can qualitatively reflect the degree of softness of the focus relative to surrounding tissues, and is currently generally applied to clinic in aspects of thyroid, mammary gland, musculoskeletal and the like. The judgment of the degree of hardness of the tissue can effectively assist in diagnosis and evaluation of cancer lesions, benign and malignant tumors, postoperative recovery and the like.

Strain elasticity images generally represent different hardness or strain values of tissue by different colors, and current strain elasticity algorithms color map and convert the imaged region by taking the strain average value of the entire imaged region as a reference. However, when strain elastic imaging is performed on tissues such as thyroid gland and mammary gland, blood vessels, dark areas and other tissues exist in an imaging area except for target tissues such as thyroid gland and mammary gland, strain values of the tissue areas often differ from those of the target tissues greatly, the tissue areas are displayed as extremely soft or extremely hard in a strain image, so that a strain mean value of the whole imaging area is shifted, color mapping is performed on the strain mean value, normal target tissues in the strain image are displayed as hard or soft, image reliability is reduced, and image quality is seriously affected.

Disclosure of Invention

In one aspect of the present application, a strain elastic imaging method is provided, the method comprising: controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object, receiving echo waves of the ultrasonic waves, and acquiring ultrasonic echo data based on the echo waves of the ultrasonic waves; generating an ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a region of interest in the ultrasonic image and a target tissue region in the region of interest; calculating a strain of the target tissue region and a strain of the region of interest based on the ultrasound echo data; image feature mapping of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain of the target tissue region to generate and display a strain elasticity image of the region of interest.

In another aspect of the present application, there is provided a strain elastic imaging method comprising: controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit first ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object, receiving echo waves of the first ultrasonic waves, and acquiring first ultrasonic echo data based on the echo waves of the first ultrasonic waves; generating an ultrasonic image based on the first ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a region of interest in the ultrasonic image and a target tissue region in the region of interest; controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit second ultrasonic waves to at least sub-tissues corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be detected, receiving echoes of the second ultrasonic waves, and acquiring second ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the second ultrasonic waves; calculating a strain of the target tissue region and a strain of the region of interest based on the second ultrasound echo data; image feature mapping of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain of the target tissue region to generate and display a strain elasticity image of the region of interest.

In yet another aspect of the present application, a strain elastic imaging method is provided, the method comprising: providing a mode of selecting a strain elastic imaging mode; controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode, receiving echoes of the ultrasonic waves, and acquiring ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves; generating an ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a target tissue region in the ultrasonic image; calculating strain of the target tissue region based on the ultrasound echo data; a strain elastic image of the target tissue region is generated and displayed based on the strain of the target tissue region.

In yet another aspect of the present application, a strain elastic imaging method is provided, the method comprising: providing a selection mode of an ultrasonic imaging mode and a selection mode of a strain elastography mode; controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object based on selection of the ultrasonic imaging mode, receiving echoes of the ultrasonic waves, and acquiring ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves; generating an ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a target tissue region in the ultrasonic image; switching the ultrasonic imaging mode to the strain elastic imaging mode based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode, controlling an ultrasonic probe to at least emit second ultrasonic waves to sub-tissues corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be detected, receiving echoes of the second ultrasonic waves, and acquiring second ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the second ultrasonic waves; calculating strain of the target tissue region based on the second ultrasound echo data; a strain elastic image of the target tissue region is generated and displayed based on the strain of the target tissue region.

In yet another aspect of the present application, a strain elastic imaging device is provided, the device comprising an ultrasound probe, a transmit circuit, a receive circuit, and a processor, wherein: the transmitting circuit is used for exciting the ultrasonic probe to transmit ultrasonic waves to the tissue to be tested of the target object; the receiving circuit is used for controlling the ultrasonic probe to receive ultrasonic echo returned from the tissue to be detected so as to acquire an ultrasonic echo signal; the processor is used for generating ultrasonic image data according to the ultrasonic echo signals; the processor is also configured to perform the strain elastic imaging method described above.

In yet another aspect of the present application, a storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program performing the strain elastography method described above when run.

According to the strain elasticity imaging method, the strain elasticity imaging device and the storage medium, the strain elasticity image of the target tissue region or the region of interest containing the target tissue region is generated by taking the strain value of the target tissue region as a reference, so that the influence of the strain value of other tissues or regions on the strain image of the target tissue can be reduced or even avoided, and the quality and the reliability of the strain elasticity imaging are improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a strain elastography image obtained by a conventional strain elastography method.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing deviations in a strain elastic image obtained by the conventional strain elastic imaging method.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of an exemplary ultrasound imaging apparatus for implementing a strain elastic imaging method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic flow chart of a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5A and 5B illustrate diagrams of one example of identifying a segmented target region in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram of another example of identifying segmented target regions in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7A, 7B, and 7C illustrate diagrams of yet another example of identifying a segmented target region in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of one example of a color mapping scheme in a strain elastography method according to one embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of another example of a color mapping scheme in a strain elastography method according to one embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of one example of a display scheme in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic flow chart of a strain elastic imaging method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic flow chart of a strain elastic imaging method according to yet another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13A and 13B show exemplary schematic diagrams of display schemes in a strain elastic imaging method according to still another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 14 shows a schematic flow chart of a strain elastography method according to yet another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 15 shows a schematic block diagram of a strain elastic imaging device according to an embodiment of the present application.

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 some of the embodiments of the present application and not all of the embodiments of the present application, and it should be understood that the present application is not limited by the example embodiments described herein. Based on the embodiments of the present application described herein, all other embodiments that may be made by one skilled in the art without the exercise of inventive faculty are intended to 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. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present application may be practiced without one or more of these details. In other instances, some features well known in the art have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the present application.

It should be understood that the present application may be embodied 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.

For a thorough understanding of the present application, detailed steps and detailed structures will be presented in the following description in order to explain the technical solutions presented in the present application. Preferred embodiments of the present application are described in detail below, however, the present application may have other implementations in addition to these detailed descriptions.

The strain elastic image generally represents different hardness or strain values of tissues through different colors, and the existing strain elastic imaging method is used for performing color mapping and conversion on an imaging area by taking the strain average value of the whole imaging area as a reference. Referring now to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a strain elastic image obtained by a strain elastic imaging method, and as shown in fig. 1, the strain elastic image is obtained by performing color mapping and conversion on an imaging region R1 with reference to a strain average value in the imaging region R1 (also referred to as a region of interest). Color 1, color 2 and color 3 in the strain elastic image represent hard, normal and soft tissue respectively (color 1, color 2 and color 3 may correspond to red, green and blue respectively, but because the drawing requirements in the patent application document are gray scale drawings, the color cannot be shown in fig. 1, but the color can be set and seen in practical application), the tissue with the same or close strain value as the mean value in the imaging area represents color 2, the tissue with the strain value larger than the mean value represents color 3, the tissue with the smaller strain value than the mean value represents color 1, and the shade of the color represents the degree of softness or hardness of the tissue.

However, in the case of strain elastography of a tissue such as thyroid gland or breast, there are a blood vessel, a dark area, and some other tissues in addition to a target tissue such as thyroid gland or breast in an imaging region. Referring now to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing deviations in a strain elastic image obtained by the conventional strain elastic imaging method. As shown in the structural image of the tissue on the left side of fig. 2, in addition to the target tissue such as thyroid and breast, blood vessels, dark areas and some other tissues exist in the imaging region R2, and the strain values of these tissue regions often differ greatly from those of the target tissue, and are shown as being extremely soft or hard in the strain image, so that the strain average value of the whole imaging region is shifted. The strain mean value is used for carrying out color mapping to obtain a strain elastic image on the right side of the graph 2, and it can be seen that normal target tissues in the strain elastic image are hard or soft, so that the image reliability is reduced, and the image quality is seriously affected.

Based on this, the present application provides a strain elasticity imaging scheme, which does not perform color mapping based on the strain average value of the whole imaging region (region of interest) during strain elasticity imaging, but generates a strain elasticity image based on the strain value in the target tissue region, so that the problem shown in fig. 2 can be avoided, and the reliability of the strain elasticity image is improved. Described below in connection with fig. 3 to 15.

Fig. 3 shows a block diagram schematic of an exemplary ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 for implementing a strain elastic imaging method of an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 may include an ultrasound probe 100, a transmit/receive selection switch 101, a transmit/receive sequence controller 102, a processor 103, a display 104, and a memory 105. The transmit/receive sequence controller 102 may excite the ultrasound probe 100 to transmit ultrasound waves to a target object (target object), and may also control the ultrasound probe 100 to receive ultrasound echoes returned from the target object, thereby obtaining ultrasound echo signals/data. The processor 103 processes the ultrasound echo signals/data to obtain tissue related parameters and ultrasound images of the target object. Ultrasound images obtained by the processor 103 may be stored in the memory 105 and these ultrasound images may be displayed on the display 104.

In this embodiment, the display 104 of the ultrasonic imaging device 10 may be a touch display screen, a liquid crystal display screen, or the like, or may be an independent display device such as a liquid crystal display, a television, or the like, which is independent of the ultrasonic imaging device 10, or may be a display screen on an electronic device such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, or the like.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 105 of the ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 may be a flash memory card, a solid state memory, a hard disk, or the like.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable storage medium storing a plurality of program instructions that, when invoked by the processor 103 for execution, may perform some or all or any combination of the steps in the strain elastic imaging methods of the various embodiments of the present application.

In one embodiment, the computer readable storage medium may be memory 105, which may be a non-volatile storage medium such as a flash memory card, solid state memory, hard disk, or the like.

In this embodiment, the processor 103 of the ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof, and may use a circuit, a single or multiple application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuits, ASIC), 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 circuits or devices, or other suitable circuits or devices, so that the processor 103 may perform the corresponding steps of the strain elastic imaging method in the various embodiments.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic flow chart of a strain elastography method 400 according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the strain elastography method 400 includes the steps of:

in step S410, the ultrasonic probe is controlled to emit ultrasonic waves to the tissue to be measured of the target object, the echoes of the ultrasonic waves are received, and ultrasonic echo data are acquired based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves.

In step S420, an ultrasound image is generated based on the ultrasound echo data, and a region of interest in the ultrasound image and a target tissue region in the region of interest are acquired.

In step S430, the strain of the target tissue region and the strain of the region of interest are calculated based on the ultrasound echo data.

In step S440, the strain of the region of interest is image-feature mapped based on the strain of the target tissue region to generate and display a strain elasticity image of the region of interest.

In embodiments of the present application, the ultrasound probe is controlled to emit ultrasound waves to the tissue to be measured of the target object (i.e., the tissue subjected to strain elastography) in order to acquire ultrasound images (such as tissue structure images, etc.). From which a region of interest (similar to the imaging region described above, which may generally be selected by a user) for strain elastography may be acquired, and a target tissue region in the region of interest is acquired. Wherein the target tissue region is different based on the tissue to be measured. For example, when the tissue to be measured is thyroid, the target tissue region is the region where thyroid tissue is located; when the tissue to be measured is breast, the target tissue region is the region where the breast tissue is located, and the like. Since the region of interest may include some non-target tissue regions (such as the blood vessels, dark regions, and some other tissues) in addition to the target tissue region, the target tissue region in the region of interest may be acquired, so as to obtain strain values of the target tissue region for image feature mapping (such as color mapping, etc.) to obtain a strain elastic image with higher reliability.

In one embodiment of the present application, acquiring a target tissue region in a region of interest in the ultrasound image may include: and automatically identifying and dividing a target tissue region corresponding to the tissue to be detected in the ultrasonic image. Described below in connection with fig. 5A, 5B, and 6.

Fig. 5A and 5B illustrate diagrams of one example of identifying a segmented target region in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application. In fig. 5A to 5B, the identification and segmentation of a target tissue region in an ultrasound image based on an image segmentation method of edge detection is shown. As shown in fig. 5A, the discontinuity in the ultrasound image due to the abrupt change of the gray level or structure is an edge, and the discontinuity of the gray level or structure in the ultrasound image is detected by using the target tissue and other tissue regions, and the edge detection algorithm including but not limited to a differential operator and the like, so that the identification and segmentation of the target tissue and other tissue regions in the region of interest can be realized, and the segmentation result is shown in fig. 5B. In fig. 5B, the region T1 is the segmented target tissue region.

FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram of another example of identifying segmented target regions in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application. In fig. 6, the identification and segmentation of a target tissue region in an ultrasound image based on a machine learning approach is shown. The machine learning method includes, but is not limited to, pattern recognition, deep learning, and the like, and is used for recognizing and segmenting a target tissue region in an ultrasonic image, and the segmentation result is shown in fig. 6, wherein a region T2 is the segmented target tissue region.

In another embodiment of the present application, acquiring a target tissue region in a region of interest in the ultrasound image may include: and semiautomatically identifying and dividing a target tissue region corresponding to the tissue to be detected in the ultrasonic image. Semi-automatic is understood to mean, among other things, a combination of automatic and manual means, which also facilitates the accurate recognition of the segmentation result. Illustratively, semi-automatically identifying and segmenting the target tissue region in the ultrasound image corresponding to the tissue to be measured may include: displaying the ultrasonic image and acquiring a reference area selected by a user in the ultrasonic image; calculating and extracting the characteristics of the reference area; and identifying and dividing a target tissue region corresponding to the tissue to be detected in the ultrasonic image according to a feature consistency principle or a feature similarity principle. Described below in connection with fig. 7A, 7B, and 7C.

Fig. 7A, 7B, and 7C illustrate diagrams of yet another example of identifying a segmented target region in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 7A and 7B, a user may first manually select or trace any target tissue in the ultrasound image, where the selection manner may include, but is not limited to, clicking, tracing, circle, box, etc., where fig. 7A illustrates a target tissue T3 obtained by clicking the selected circle by the user, and fig. 7B illustrates a target tissue T4 obtained by manually tracing by the user. Next, the system may automatically calculate and extract relevant features (including but not limited to gray scale, texture, variance, etc.) of the user-selected region in fig. 7A (or fig. 7B), and automatically identify and segment the tissue region consistent with or close to the user-selected region feature according to the principle of consistent or close feature, as the target tissue region, as shown in fig. 7C, the region T5 in fig. 7C is the identified and segmented target tissue region, and it can be seen that the user-selected region T3 is included therein.

In yet another embodiment of the present application, acquiring a target tissue region in a region of interest in the ultrasound image may include: and displaying the ultrasonic image, and acquiring a target tissue region which is selected by a user in the ultrasonic image and corresponds to the tissue to be detected. In this embodiment, the target tissue region corresponding to the tissue to be measured is determined entirely manually by the user, and acquisition of the target tissue region based on user input may be achieved.

After acquiring the target tissue region, strain within the target tissue region may be calculated (such as based on Radio Frequency (RF) data or quadrature modulation (IQ) data within the target tissue region); in addition, strain in regions other than the target tissue region in the region of interest may also be obtained due to strain elastography of the region of interest. In the embodiments of the present application, the strain generated by the tissue may be generated by pressing the probe, or may be generated by the movement of the tissue itself, for example, the movement of the small organs such as musculoskeletal, thyroid, uterus, blood vessels, etc. Then, based on the strain in the target tissue region, an image feature map (such as a color map) is performed on the strain in the region of interest to obtain a strain elastic image of the region of interest.

In an embodiment of the present application, mapping the image features of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain of the target tissue region may include: and generating a strain reference value based on the strain of the target tissue region, and performing image feature mapping on the strain of the region of interest by taking the strain reference value as a reference. The strain reference value may be, for example, a mean value of the strain of the target tissue region, or any other value that reflects characteristics of the strain of the target tissue region. The image feature map of the strain of the region of interest with respect to the strain reference value may be a color map, or other map capable of representing different strain values in the image, for example.

In an embodiment of the present application, mapping the image feature of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain reference value may include: determining a strain range according to the strain reference value, wherein two boundary values of the strain range are respectively smaller than and larger than the strain reference value; mapping the strain of the region of interest into a gray value according to the strain range in a linear mapping relation; converting the gray value into a corresponding color. Illustratively, the location within the region of interest where the strain lies within the strain range may be mapped to a gray value within a preset range; mapping the position of the strain exceeding the strain range in the region of interest to the boundary value of the preset range. Described below in connection with fig. 8.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of one example of a color mapping scheme in a strain elastography method according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, after the strain average value of the target tissue region (target region) is calculated, a certain strain range smaller than and larger than the strain average value is selected, the positions of the strain in the region of interest in the strain range are mapped into gray values of 0-255 in a linear relation, the strain values exceeding the range are mapped into 0 or 255, and finally the gray values are converted into corresponding colors displayed in the strain image, wherein the mapping relation is shown in fig. 8.

In an embodiment of the present application, mapping the image feature of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain reference value may include: determining a strain range according to the strain reference value, wherein two boundary values of the strain range are respectively smaller than and larger than the strain reference value; mapping the strain of the region of interest into a gray value according to the nonlinear mapping relation of the strain range; converting the gray value into a corresponding color. Illustratively, the location within the region of interest where the strain lies within the strain range may be mapped to a gray value within a preset range; mapping the position of the strain exceeding the strain range in the region of interest to the boundary value of the preset range. Described below in connection with fig. 9.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of another example of a color mapping scheme in a strain elastography method according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, after the strain average value of the target tissue region (target region) is calculated, a certain strain range smaller than and larger than the strain average value is selected, the position of the strain in the region of interest in the strain range is mapped into a gray value of 0-255 in a nonlinear relation, the strain values exceeding the range are mapped into 0 or 255, and finally the gray value is converted into the corresponding color displayed in the strain image, wherein the mapping relation is shown in fig. 9.

In the embodiment of the application, after the strain value of each place in the region of interest is mapped into the gray value and the corresponding color, a strain elastic image of the region of interest can be generated and displayed. Described below in connection with fig. 10. Fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of one example of a display scheme in a strain elastic imaging method according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 10, after identifying and dividing the target tissue region T in the region of interest R, calculating a strain average value of the target tissue region T according to the identification result, and performing color mapping and strain imaging on the whole region of interest R with the strain average value as a reference to obtain a strain elastic image M of the region of interest shown on the right side of fig. 10. As shown in fig. 10, since the strain elastic image M of the region of interest R is mapped based on the strain average value in the target tissue region T, the influence of the strain values of other tissues or regions in the region of interest on the display of the strain image of the target tissue can be reduced or even avoided, thereby improving the quality and reliability of the strain elastic imaging.

Based on the above description, the strain elasticity imaging method 400 according to the embodiment of the present application generates the strain elasticity image of the region of interest including the target tissue region based on the strain value of the target tissue region, so that the influence of the strain value of other tissues or regions in the region of interest on the strain image of the target tissue can be reduced or even avoided, thereby improving the quality and reliability of the strain elasticity imaging.

A schematic flow chart diagram of another strain elastography method 1100 according to the present application is described below in connection with fig. 11. As shown in fig. 11, the strain elastic imaging method 1100 may include the steps of:

in step S1110, an ultrasonic probe is controlled to transmit a first ultrasonic wave to a tissue to be measured of a target object, an echo of the first ultrasonic wave is received, and first ultrasonic echo data is acquired based on the echo of the first ultrasonic wave.

In step S1120, an ultrasound image is generated based on the first ultrasound echo data, and a region of interest in the ultrasound image and a target tissue region in the region of interest are acquired.

In step S1130, the ultrasound probe is controlled to transmit a second ultrasound wave to at least a sub-tissue corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be measured, receive an echo of the second ultrasound wave, and acquire second ultrasound echo data based on the echo of the second ultrasound wave.

In step S1140, the strain of the target tissue region and the strain of the region of interest are calculated based on the second ultrasound echo data.

In step S1150, the strain of the region of interest is image-feature mapped based on the strain of the target tissue region to generate and display a strain elasticity image of the region of interest.

The strain elastography method 1100 according to the embodiments of the present application is substantially similar to the strain elastography method 400 according to the embodiments of the present application described above, and for brevity, similar details of the strain elastography method 1100 and the strain elastography method 400 will not be described here again, and only the differences will be described. The difference between the two is that the data source generating the ultrasound image and the data source calculating the strain in the strain elastic imaging method 400 according to the embodiment of the present application are the same data source, whereas the data source generating the ultrasound image and the data source calculating the strain in the strain elastic imaging method 1100 according to the embodiment of the present application are not the same data source.

Thus, in the strain elastic imaging method 1100 according to the embodiment of the present application, the ultrasound probe is controlled to emit ultrasound twice and acquire corresponding echo data: transmitting ultrasonic waves to the tissue to be detected of the target object at one time, generating an ultrasonic image of the tissue to be detected of the target object according to the corresponding echo signals, and acquiring an interested region and a target tissue region in the ultrasonic image; and transmitting ultrasonic waves to sub-tissues corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be detected at one time, and acquiring the strains of the target tissue region and the region of interest according to the corresponding echo signals.

In the embodiment of the present application, the data source for generating the ultrasound image and the data source for calculating the strain are not the same data source, and thus two imaging modes, that is, the ultrasound imaging mode and the strain elastography mode may be provided, wherein the ultrasound imaging mode corresponds to the aforementioned first emission of ultrasound and the subsequent operation thereof (corresponds to step S1110 to step S1120), and the strain elastography mode corresponds to the aforementioned second emission of ultrasound and the subsequent operation thereof (corresponds to step S1130 to step S1150). Thus, in one embodiment, before step S1130, a selection of a strain elastography mode may be provided (to a user) and strain elastography of sub-tissues corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue under test may be triggered based on the selection of the strain elastography mode by the user. Similarly, in one embodiment, prior to step S1110, a selection of an ultrasound imaging mode may be provided (to a user), the ultrasound imaging of the tissue under test being triggered based on the selection of the ultrasound imaging mode by the user; then, after step S1120 is completed, the ultrasound imaging mode may be switched to the strain elastography mode, and subsequent steps S1130 to S1150 are performed.

Based on such a concept, in the strain elastography method 400, before step S410, a selection mode of a strain elastography mode may be provided (to a user), and strain elastography may be performed on the tissue to be measured based on a selection trigger of the strain elastography mode by the user.

Based on the above description, the strain elasticity imaging method 1100 according to the embodiment of the present application may also obtain the same effect as the strain elasticity imaging method 400, that is, the strain elasticity image of the region of interest including the target tissue region is generated based on the strain value of the target tissue region, so that the influence of the strain value of other tissues or regions in the region of interest on the strain image of the target tissue can be reduced or even avoided, thereby improving the quality and reliability of the strain elasticity imaging. In addition, the use of the same data source for the strain elastography method 400 may simplify the overall process flow, while the use of different data sources for the strain elastography method 1100 may result in more accurate strain calculations and thus more accurate strain elastography.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic flow chart of a strain elastic imaging method 1200 according to yet another embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 12, the strain elastography method 1200 may include the steps of:

In step S1210, a selection of a strain elastic imaging mode is provided.

In step S1220, the ultrasonic probe is controlled to emit ultrasonic waves to the tissue to be measured of the target object based on the selection of the strain elastography mode, the echoes of the ultrasonic waves are received, and ultrasonic echo data are acquired based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves.

In step S1230, an ultrasound image is generated based on the ultrasound echo data, and a target tissue region in the ultrasound image is acquired.

In step S1240, strain of the target tissue region is calculated based on the ultrasound echo data.

In step S1250, a strain elastic image of the target tissue region is generated and displayed based on the strain of the target tissue region.

The strain elastography method 1200 according to the embodiments of the present application is substantially similar to the strain elastography method 400 according to the embodiments of the present application described above, and for brevity, similar details of the strain elastography method 1200 and the strain elastography method 400 are not described here again, and only the differences between them are described. The difference between the two is that the strain elastography method 400 is to acquire a region of interest in an ultrasound image and a target tissue region in the region of interest, and then generate a strain elastography of the region of interest according to the strain of the target tissue region; the strain elasticity imaging method 1200 is to directly acquire a target tissue region in an ultrasonic image, and then generate a strain elasticity image of the target tissue region according to the strain of the target tissue region; in addition, similar to the strain elastography method 1100 described above, the strain elastography method 1200 may also provide a strain elastography mode in which a user may choose to perform strain elastography.

In the strain elastic imaging method 1200 according to the embodiment of the present application, a strain elastic image of a target tissue region is generated according to the strain of the target tissue region, so that the influence of the strain value of other non-target tissue regions on the target tissue strain image can be reduced or even avoided, thereby improving the quality and reliability of strain elastic imaging; in addition, because strain elastography is not directly carried out on the area except the target tissue area, the calculated amount can be further reduced, and doctors directly pay attention to the elasticity condition of the target tissue area, so that the pertinence is stronger.

Fig. 13A and 13B show exemplary schematic diagrams of display schemes in a strain elastic imaging method according to still another embodiment of the present application. After the target tissue region is identified and segmented, as shown in fig. 13A, a strain average value of the target tissue region is calculated according to the identification result, and based on the strain average value, only the target tissue region is subjected to color mapping and strain imaging, and other regions do not display strain images, as shown in fig. 13A. As shown in fig. 13B, after the target tissue region is identified and segmented, a strain average value of the target tissue region is calculated according to the identification result, and based on the strain average value, only the target tissue region is subjected to color mapping and strain imaging, and other regions are directly displayed as colors corresponding to normal tissue (with the hardness being centered), as shown in fig. 13B.

Fig. 14 shows a schematic flow chart of a strain elastography method 1400 according to yet another embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 14, the strain elastic imaging method 1400 may include the steps of:

in step S1410, a selection mode of an ultrasound imaging mode and a selection mode of a strain elastography mode are provided.

In step S1420, the ultrasonic probe is controlled to transmit ultrasonic waves to the tissue to be measured of the target object based on the selection of the ultrasonic imaging mode, the echoes of the ultrasonic waves are received, and ultrasonic echo data is acquired based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves.

In step S1430, an ultrasound image is generated based on the ultrasound echo data and a target tissue region in the ultrasound image is acquired.

In step S1440, the ultrasound imaging mode is switched to the strain elastic imaging mode based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode, and the ultrasound probe is controlled to transmit a second ultrasound wave to at least a sub-tissue corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be measured, receive an echo of the second ultrasound wave, and acquire second ultrasound echo data based on the echo of the second ultrasound wave.

In step S1450, the strain of the target tissue region is calculated based on the second ultrasound echo data.

In step S1460, a strain elastic image of the target tissue region is generated and displayed based on the strain of the target tissue region.

The strain elastography method 1400 according to embodiments of the present application is substantially similar to the strain elastography method 1200 according to embodiments of the present application described above, and for brevity, similar details of the strain elastography method 1400 and the strain elastography method 1200 will not be described here again, only the differences will be described. The difference between them is that the data source generating the ultrasound image and the data source calculating the strain in the strain elastic imaging method 1200 according to the embodiment of the present application are the same data source, whereas the data source generating the ultrasound image and the data source calculating the strain in the strain elastic imaging method 1400 according to the embodiment of the present application are not the same data source. This is similar to the differences between the strain elastography method 1100 and the strain elastography method 400 described above, and will not be described again here.

Based on the above description, the strain

elasticity imaging methods

1200 and 1400 according to the embodiments of the present application generate a strain elasticity image of a target tissue region according to the strain of the target tissue region, so that the influence of the strain value of other non-target tissue regions on the target tissue strain image can be reduced or even avoided, thereby improving the quality and reliability of the strain elasticity imaging; in addition, because strain elastography is not directly carried out on the area except the target tissue area, the calculated amount can be further reduced, and doctors directly pay attention to the elasticity condition of the target tissue area, so that the pertinence is stronger. In addition, the use of the same data source for the strain elastography method 1200 may simplify the overall process flow, while the use of different data sources for the strain elastography method 1400 may result in more accurate strain calculations and thus more accurate strain elastography.

The strain elastic imaging method according to the embodiment of the present application is exemplarily described above. A strain-elastography device provided according to another aspect of the present application, which may be used to implement the strain-elastography method according to embodiments of the present application described above, is described below in connection with fig. 15. Those skilled in the art can understand the structure and operation of the components of the strain elastic imaging device according to the embodiments of the present application in conjunction with the foregoing description, and for brevity, the description is omitted herein.

Fig. 15 shows a schematic block diagram of a strain elastography device 1500 according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 15, the strain elastic imaging device 1500 may include an ultrasound probe 1510, a transmit circuit 1520, a receive circuit 1530, and a processor 1540. Wherein the transmitting circuit 1520 is used for exciting the ultrasonic probe 1510 to transmit ultrasonic waves to the tissue to be measured of the target object; the receiving circuit 1530 is used for controlling the ultrasonic probe 1510 to receive the ultrasonic echo returned from the tissue to be tested so as to acquire an ultrasonic echo signal; processor 1540 is configured to generate ultrasound image data from the ultrasound echo signals and to perform the strain elastic imaging method according to embodiments of the present application as described hereinabove.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a storage medium on which program instructions are stored for performing the respective steps of the strain elastic imaging method of the embodiments of the present application when the program instructions are executed by a computer or a processor. The storage medium may include, for example, a memory card of a smart phone, a memory component of a tablet computer, a hard disk of a personal computer, read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), USB memory, or any combination of the foregoing storage media. The computer-readable storage medium may be any combination of one or more computer-readable storage media.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a computer program, which may be stored on a cloud or local storage medium. Which when executed by a computer or processor is adapted to carry out the respective steps of the strain elastic imaging method of the embodiments of the present application.

Based on the above description, according to the strain elasticity imaging method, device and storage medium of the embodiment of the application, the strain elasticity image of the target tissue region or the region of interest containing the target tissue region is generated by taking the strain value of the target tissue region as a reference, so that the influence of the strain value of other tissues or regions on the strain image of the target tissue can be reduced or even avoided, and the quality and the reliability of the strain elasticity imaging are improved.

Although the illustrative embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the above illustrative embodiments are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application thereto. Various changes and modifications may be made therein by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present application. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present application 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 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 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 manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of elements is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions in actual implementation, e.g., multiple elements or components may be combined or integrated into another apparatus, or some features may be omitted, or not performed.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the present 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 order to streamline the application and aid in understanding one or more of the various inventive aspects, various features of the application are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof in the description of exemplary embodiments of the application. However, the method of this application should not be construed to reflect the following intent: i.e., the claimed application 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 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 units of any method or apparatus so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where the 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 herein include some features but not others included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the present application and form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

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 some or all of the functions of some of the modules according to embodiments of the present application may be implemented in practice using a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The present application may also be embodied as device programs (e.g., computer programs and computer program products) for performing part or all of the methods described herein. Such a program embodying the present application may be stored on a computer readable medium, or may have the form of one or more signals. Such signals may be downloaded from an internet website, provided on a carrier signal, or provided 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 may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The use of the words first, second, third, etc. do not denote any order. These words may be interpreted as names.

The above description is merely illustrative of specific embodiments of the present application or the descriptions of specific embodiments, the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and the changes or substitutions are covered in 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

A method of strain elastic imaging, the method comprising:

Controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object, receiving echo waves of the ultrasonic waves, and acquiring ultrasonic echo data based on the echo waves of the ultrasonic waves;

generating an ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a region of interest in the ultrasonic image and a target tissue region in the region of interest;

calculating a strain of the target tissue region and a strain of the region of interest based on the ultrasound echo data;

image feature mapping of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain of the target tissue region to generate and display a strain elasticity image of the region of interest.
A method of strain elastic imaging, the method comprising:

controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit first ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object, receiving echo waves of the first ultrasonic waves, and acquiring first ultrasonic echo data based on the echo waves of the first ultrasonic waves;

generating an ultrasonic image based on the first ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a region of interest in the ultrasonic image and a target tissue region in the region of interest;

controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit second ultrasonic waves to at least sub-tissues corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be detected, receiving echoes of the second ultrasonic waves, and acquiring second ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the second ultrasonic waves;

Calculating a strain of the target tissue region and a strain of the region of interest based on the second ultrasound echo data;

image feature mapping of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain of the target tissue region to generate and display a strain elasticity image of the region of interest.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the image feature mapping of the strain of the region of interest based on the strain of the target tissue region comprises:

and generating a strain reference value based on the strain of the target tissue region, and performing image feature mapping on the strain of the region of interest by taking the strain reference value as a reference.
The method of claim 3, wherein the generating a strain reference based on the strain of the target tissue region comprises:

and calculating the average value of the strain of the target tissue region to serve as a strain reference value.
A method according to claim 3, wherein the image feature map comprises a color map.
The method of claim 5, wherein the image feature mapping the strain of the region of interest with respect to the strain reference value comprises:

Determining a strain range according to the strain reference value, wherein two boundary values of the strain range are respectively smaller than and larger than the strain reference value;

mapping the strain of the region of interest into a gray value according to the linear or nonlinear mapping relation of the strain range;

converting the gray value into a corresponding color.
The method of claim 6, wherein mapping the strain of the region of interest or the strain of the target tissue region to a gray value comprises:

mapping the position of the strain in the strain range in the region of interest into a gray value in a preset range;

and mapping the position of the strain exceeding the strain range in the region of interest into a boundary value of the preset range.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the acquiring a region of interest in the ultrasound image comprises:

and displaying the ultrasonic image and acquiring a selected region of interest of a user in the ultrasonic image.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the acquiring a target tissue region in a region of interest in the ultrasound image comprises:

Displaying the ultrasonic image and acquiring a target tissue region which is selected by a user in the ultrasonic image and corresponds to the tissue to be detected; or alternatively

And automatically or semi-automatically identifying and dividing a target tissue region corresponding to the tissue to be detected in the ultrasonic image.
The method of claim 9, wherein the automatically identifying and segmenting the target tissue region in the ultrasound image corresponding to the tissue under test is performed based on an edge detection algorithm or machine learning.
The method of claim 9, wherein the semi-automatically identifying and segmenting the target tissue region in the ultrasound image corresponding to the tissue under test comprises:

displaying the ultrasonic image and acquiring a reference area selected by a user in the ultrasonic image;

calculating and extracting the characteristics of the reference area;

and identifying and dividing a target tissue region corresponding to the tissue to be detected in the ultrasonic image according to a feature consistency principle or a feature similarity principle.
The method of claim 1, wherein prior to controlling the ultrasound probe to emit ultrasound waves to the tissue under test of the target object, the method further comprises:

Providing a mode of selecting a strain elastic imaging mode;

and triggering the strain elastic imaging of the tissue to be detected based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode.
The method of claim 2, wherein before the controlling the ultrasound probe to emit the second ultrasound wave at least to the sub-tissue corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be measured, the method further comprises:

providing a mode of selecting a strain elastic imaging mode;

and triggering sub-tissues corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be detected to carry out strain elastic imaging based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode.
The method of claim 13, wherein prior to controlling the ultrasound probe to emit the first ultrasound wave to the tissue under test of the target object, the method further comprises:

providing a selection mode of an ultrasonic imaging mode;

triggering the ultrasonic imaging of the tissue to be detected based on the selection of the ultrasonic imaging mode;

the triggering of the strain elastic imaging on the sub-tissue corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be detected based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode comprises the following steps:

switching the ultrasound imaging mode to the strain elastography mode.
A method of strain elastic imaging, the method comprising:

providing a mode of selecting a strain elastic imaging mode;

controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode, receiving echoes of the ultrasonic waves, and acquiring ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves;

generating an ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a target tissue region in the ultrasonic image;

calculating strain of the target tissue region based on the ultrasound echo data;

a strain elastic image of the target tissue region is generated and displayed based on the strain of the target tissue region.
A method of strain elastic imaging, the method comprising:

providing a selection mode of an ultrasonic imaging mode and a selection mode of a strain elastography mode;

controlling an ultrasonic probe to emit ultrasonic waves to a tissue to be detected of a target object based on selection of the ultrasonic imaging mode, receiving echoes of the ultrasonic waves, and acquiring ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves;

generating an ultrasonic image based on the ultrasonic echo data, and acquiring a target tissue region in the ultrasonic image;

Switching the ultrasonic imaging mode to the strain elastic imaging mode based on the selection of the strain elastic imaging mode, controlling an ultrasonic probe to at least emit second ultrasonic waves to sub-tissues corresponding to the target tissue region in the tissue to be detected, receiving echoes of the second ultrasonic waves, and acquiring second ultrasonic echo data based on the echoes of the second ultrasonic waves;

calculating strain of the target tissue region based on the second ultrasound echo data;

a strain elastic image of the target tissue region is generated and displayed based on the strain of the target tissue region.
The method of claim 15 or 16, wherein the generating a strain elastic image of the target tissue region based on the strain of the target tissue region comprises:

image feature mapping is performed based on strain of the target tissue region to generate a strain elastic image of the target tissue region.
A strain elastic imaging device, the device comprising an ultrasound probe, a transmit circuit, a receive circuit, and a processor, wherein:

the transmitting circuit is used for exciting the ultrasonic probe to transmit ultrasonic waves to the tissue to be tested of the target object;

The receiving circuit is used for controlling the ultrasonic probe to receive ultrasonic echo returned from the tissue to be detected so as to acquire an ultrasonic echo signal;

the processor is used for generating ultrasonic image data according to the ultrasonic echo signals;

the processor is further configured to perform the strain elastography method of any of claims 1-17.
A storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when run, performs the strain elastography method of any of claims 1-17.