Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc.

University of Washington

Siemens Medical Systems, Inc.

Christian Deforge

Stephen P Czenszak

Paul Donald Freiburger

Paul H Jones

Craig B Robinson

Dong-Chyuan Liu

Yongmin Kim

Thomas B Lindh

Patrick L Sutcliffe

David Edward Nielsen

Raul Alvarez

Craig Robinson

Warren Edwards

Methods and systems for measuring transducer movement are provided. For example, free-hand scanning for three-dimensional imaging is provided. An optical sensor within the transducer measures motion along the skin surface similar to measuring movement of a personal computer mouse with an optical sensor. Alternatively or additionally, the transducer is tilted at an angle other than perpendicular to the skin surface generally towards or away from the direction in which the transducer is translated. The transducer is then translated while maintaining the angle. Motion to or from the transducer is measured, and a component of the motion measured while the transducer is maintained at an angle is parallel to the direction of translation. The component of motion is angle corrected and used to determine a distance of travel.

Measuring transducer movement methods and systems for multi-dimensional ultrasound imaging

A system and a method for three dimensional (3D) volume editing for medical imaging applications is disclosed. The method and system comprise the steps of projecting vertices of the at least one ROI in one plane and transforming the data within the at least one ROI to allow all of a plurality of slices on the inside of the at least one ROI to be along one axis of a three axis coordinate system. The method and system also includes representing the inside of the at least one ROI as a plurality of line segments, wherein only two coordinates and the length of a line segment are stored. The system and method is particularly useful for removing unwanted structure by defining one or more regions of interest (ROI) in freehand from an arbitrary slice of a 3D data volume. In a preferred embodiment, the system and method comprises a fast algorithm to process a set of compact ROI volumes to remove either the inside or the outside ROI volumes. Because the computational complexity is linear to the boundary of the ROI, the system and method can allow 3D volume editing to be faster and more user interactive.

Method and system for three-dimensional volume editing for medical imaging applications

A system and a method of managing 2-D images, as well as any saved 3-D volume data that was used to derive the 2-D images, utilize a bookmark saver that operates to automatically save, for each 2-D image saved, the settings of viewing parameters for the corresponding 3-D volume data when the 2-D image was saved. The automatic saving feature executed by the bookmark saver ensures that the underlying 3-D volume data, if saved, is retrieved in the viewing configuration that was set when the 2-D image of interest was saved. This feature allows a user of the system to efficiently return to work that was previously suspended or terminated. In an exemplary embodiment, the system is an ultrasound imaging system. However, the system may also be an imaging system based on magnetic resonance, computed tomography technology, or other modalities. In a preferred embodiment, the 2-D bitmap data of the 2-D image being saved and the viewing parameters that were used to manipulate the underlying 3-D volume data are saved in the same data file, known as a &ldquo;bookmark.&rdquo; The bookmark also includes information that identifies the corresponding 3-D volume, which allows the system to infer the existence of a relationship between the 2-D image and the underlying 3-D volume by searching to see if the underlying 3-D volume had been saved, thereby eliminating the need to store such information in a database.

Ultrasound imaging system and method to archive and review 3-D ultrasound data

An ultrasound imaging system produces three-dimensional tissue/flow images by first computing a plurality of separate two-dimensional tissue images and two-dimensional flow images. Separate tissue and flow volumes are created by applying the tissue and flow images to a three-dimensional construction algorithm. Each of the separate tissue and flow volumes is analyzed using a three-dimensional rendering algorithm to produce a rendered tissue and flow image. The separately rendered tissue and flow images are combined to produce the combined tissue/flow image. In addition, the present invention provides visual cues that allow a user to create more even scans. The invention also includes a method for correcting for probe movement. The invention also produces an image that is calculated from the partial volume data as it is being created to give a user feedback on the quality of the image they are producing. Finally, the invention compensates for variations in the cardiac cycle when selecting data to be used in creating a flow volume.

Three-dimensional tissue/flow ultrasound imaging system

A 3D image is generated in real-time on an ultrasound medical imaging system which performs acquisition, volume reconstruction, and image visualization tasks using multiple processors. The acquisition task includes deriving position and orientation indicators for each gathered image frame. Volume reconstruction includes defining a reference coordinate system within which each image frame in a sequence of image frames is registered. The reference coordinate system is the coordinate system for a 3D volume encompassing the image planes to be used in the 3D image. The first image frame is used to define the reference coordinate system. As each image plane is registered, a 2D projection of the incremental volume is displayed. A shear-warp factorization process is used to derive a 2D projection for a rotated volume. A viewing transformation matrix is factorized into a 3D shear which is parallel to slices of the reference volume. A 2D warp then is implemented to produce the projection of the rotated volume.

Ultrasound imaging with real time 3D image reconstruction and

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Christian Deforge