Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B6/00—Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis; Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis combined with radiation therapy equipment
  • A61B6/12—Arrangements for detecting or locating foreign bodies
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B6/00—Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis; Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis combined with radiation therapy equipment
  • A61B6/46—Arrangements for interfacing with the operator or the patient
  • A61B6/461—Displaying means of special interest
  • A61B6/466—Displaying means of special interest adapted to display 3D data
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/08—Clinical applications
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/08—Clinical applications
  • A61B8/0883—Clinical applications for diagnosis of the heart
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/12—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves in body cavities or body tracts, e.g. by using catheters
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/42—Details of probe positioning or probe attachment to the patient
  • A61B8/4245—Details of probe positioning or probe attachment to the patient involving determining the position of the probe, e.g. with respect to an external reference frame or to the patient
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/48—Diagnostic techniques
  • A61B8/483—Diagnostic techniques involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/52—Devices using data or image processing specially adapted for diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/5215—Devices using data or image processing specially adapted for diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves involving processing of medical diagnostic data
  • A61B8/523—Devices using data or image processing specially adapted for diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves involving processing of medical diagnostic data for generating planar views from image data in a user selectable plane not corresponding to the acquisition plane
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06T—IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
  • G06T7/00—Image analysis
  • G06T7/0002—Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection
  • G06T7/0012—Biomedical image inspection
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/08—Clinical applications
  • A61B8/0833—Clinical applications involving detecting or locating foreign bodies or organic structures
  • A61B8/085—Clinical applications involving detecting or locating foreign bodies or organic structures for locating body or organic structures, e.g. tumours, calculi, blood vessels, nodules
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
  • A61B8/46—Ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic diagnostic devices with special arrangements for interfacing with the operator or the patient
  • A61B8/467—Ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic diagnostic devices with special arrangements for interfacing with the operator or the patient characterised by special input means

Definitions

• the present invention is based on the idea to acquire ultrasound data of a patient by means of an ultrasound acquisition unit and to transform the ultrasound data in the field of view as captured to ultrasound data in a virtual field of view corresponding to a position within the patient's body determined by the position determining unit.
• the virtual field of a view has a virtual viewing direction as seen from the position within the patient's body determined by the position determining unit so that an internal view can be derived from the ultrasound data acquired by the ultrasound acquisition unit.
• the position is a position of a catheter probe within the patient's body determined by the position determining unit.
• the position determining unit is adapted to determine a position of a catheter probe within the patient's body as the position on the basis of which the virtual field of view is determined. This is a possibility to precisely determine a position of interest in the patient's body by means of a catheter, wherein the use of an expensive catheter ultrasound echo probe can be omitted.
• the ultrasound data comprises a plurality of voxels each including an ultrasound measurement value
• the transformation unit is adapted to transform the ultrasound measurement values of the voxels in the field of view to voxels of the virtual field of view.
• the position within the patient's body can be determined in order to define the virtual field of view in order to simulate the acquisition of ultrasound data by means of a catheter ultrasound echo probe.
• the position on the basis of which the virtual field of view is determined can be defined by determining a position of a real catheter probe within the patient's body, e.g. by means of a tracking unit or within the ultrasound image or an X-ray image, the position can be determined on the basis of the anatomical context in the patient's body by segmenting the ultrasound data and by determining organs within the patient's body on the basis of the segmentation data or by means of a combination of the catheter tracking and the anatomical context.
• Fig. 1 shows a schematic illustration of an ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 according to one embodiment.
• the ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 is applied to inspect a volume of an anatomical side, in particular an anatomical side of a patient 12.
• the ultrasound imaging apparatus comprises an ultrasound acquisition unit 14 in particular an ultrasound probe 14 having at least one transducer array including a multitude of transducer elements for transmitting and receiving ultrasound waves.
• the transducer elements are preferably arranged in a 2D array for providing 3D ultrasound image data.
• the ultrasound acquisition unit 14 acquires ultrasound data in a field of view 16 within the patient's body and provides corresponding 3D ultrasound data.
• the ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 comprises in general an image processing apparatus 18 for evaluating the ultrasound data received from the ultrasound acquisition unit 14 and for transforming the ultrasound data in the field of view 16 to a virtual field of view 20 as described in the following.
• the image processing apparatus 18 further comprises a transformation unit 30 for transforming the ultrasound data in the field of view 16 to transformed ultrasound data in the virtual field of view.
• the transformed ultrasound data is provided to a display unit 32 for displaying the transformed ultrasound data in the virtual field of view 20.
• the transformation unit 30 receives the ultrasound data as a 3D array of voxels each including an ultrasound measurement value and transforms the voxels of the field of view 16 to voxels of the virtual field of view 20 in the virtual viewing direction 28 so that the transformed ultrasound data can be provided and displayed on a display unit 32 as if the transformed ultrasound data would have been acquired by an ultrasound probe located at the position 26 and directed in the virtual viewing direction 28.
• the ultrasound imaging apparatus 10 may further comprise a segmentation unit 36 connected to the image evaluation unit 22 and to the position determining unit 24, wherein the segmentation unit 24 provides segmentation data on the basis of the ultrasound data and determines anatomical features within the field of view 16.
• the position determining unit 24 can identify on the basis of the segmentation data different anatomical features and/or organs within the field of view 16 and determines the virtual field of view 20 on the basis of the segmentation data. This is a possibility to automatically define the virtual field of view 20 in the direction of a certain anatomical feature to be examined or which corresponds to a usual field of view of a catheter ultrasound probe during corresponding catheter examinations.
• Fig. 3 shows an embodiment of the determination of the position 26 and the virtual viewing direction 28.
• the segmentation unit 36 segments different organs in the ultrasound data 42 captured by the ultrasound acquisition unit 24 and provides segmentation data 44 of the different organs or anatomical features of the patient 12.
• the position determining unit 24 determines the position 26 and the virtual viewing direction 28 on the basis of the segmentation data 44 and the correspondingly identified organs and/or anatomical features so that the organs or anatomical features of interest are within the virtual field of view 20 or the virtual cone and correspondingly displayed in the transformed ultrasound data on the display unit 32.
• the organs and/or anatomical features of interest can be automatically displayed as if a catheter including an ultrasound echo probe would be located at the position 26 and directed correspondingly in the virtual viewing direction 28 to scan the respective organs and/or anatomical features.
• Fig. 2 and 3 can be combined in one embodiment so that the position and the virtual viewing direction 28 is determined based on the identified position of the catheter probe 40 and on the basis of the segmentation data 44 provided by the segmentation unit 36.
• the position 26 can be determined on the basis of the detected position of the catheter probe 40 and the virtual viewing direction 28 can be determined on the basis of the segmentation data 44 so that the relevant organs and/or anatomical features can be displayed automatically from the position of the catheter probe 40.
• Fig. 4 shows ultrasound data in the field of view 16 and transformed ultrasound data in the virtual field of view 20 transformed by the transformation unit 30.
• Fig. 4a shows the ultrasound data 42 captured by the ultrasound acquisition unit 14 in the field of view 16 including the position 26, the virtual viewing direction 28 and the virtual field of view 20.
• the ultrasound data 42 is transformed to transformed ultrasound data 46 shown in Fig. 4b.
• the transformed ultrasound data 46 is displayed in the virtual field of view 20 seen from the position 26 in the virtual viewing direction 28 as if the transformed ultrasound data 46 would have been captured from the position 26 within the patient's body 12.
• FIG. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging method for providing ultrasound images of the patient 12 generally denoted by 50.
• the method 50 starts with acquiring 3D ultrasound data from the patient 12 by means of the ultrasound acquisition unit 14 as shown at a step 52.
• the ultrasound data 42 may be formed as a transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) or as a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) of the patient 12.
• TTE transthoracic echocardiogram
• TEE transesophageal echocardiogram
• the ultrasound data 42 can be provided to the position determining unit 24 as shown at step 54 additionally or alternatively, the ultrasound data 42 can be provided to the segmentation unit 36 as shown at 56.
• the X-ray unit 34 acquires X-ray data as shown at 58 and provides the X- ray data to the position determining unit 24 as shown at 54.
• a user input is provided by means of the input device 38 as shown at 72 and the position determining unit 24 is adapted to determine the position 26 on the basis of the user input as shown at 74 and the virtual viewing direction on the basis of the user input as shown at 76.
• the transformation unit 30 transforms the ultrasound data 42 in the field of view 16 to the transformed ultrasound data 46 in the virtual field of view 20 as shown at 78 and provides the transformed ultrasound data 46 to the display unit 32 for displaying the transformed ultrasound data 46 in the virtual field of view 20 as if the ultrasound data 46 would have been acquired from the position 26 within the patient's body 12.
• the transformed ultrasound data 46 is provided to the display unit 32 for displaying the transformed ultrasound data as shown at 80.
• a computer program may be stored/distributed on a suitable medium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.
• a suitable medium such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

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• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Medical Informatics (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy & Molecular Imaging (AREA)
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• Radiology & Medical Imaging (AREA)
• Surgery (AREA)
• Biomedical Technology (AREA)
• Molecular Biology (AREA)
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• Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
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• Heart & Thoracic Surgery (AREA)
• High Energy & Nuclear Physics (AREA)
• Optics & Photonics (AREA)
• Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Cardiology (AREA)
• Quality & Reliability (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
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• 2015
  • 2015-09-11 US US15/510,103 patent/US20170251988A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2015-09-11 JP JP2017514650A patent/JP2017527401A/ja active Pending
  • 2015-09-11 WO PCT/EP2015/070806 patent/WO2016041855A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2015-09-11 EP EP15760481.0A patent/EP3193727A1/en not_active Withdrawn

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