Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Cybèle Ciofolo-Veit

Laurence Rouet

Caroline Denise Francoise Raynaud

Thierry Lefevre

David N Roundhill

Tobias Klinder

Cristian Lorenz

Nicole Schadewaldt

Jean-Michel Rouet

Maxim Fradkin

Alexander Schmidt-Richberg

Haithem Boussaid

Matthieu Perrot

Antoine Olivier

A method of analyzing an ultrasound image involves assessing the quality of the image in terms of which features of interest have been identified in the image and assessing a segmentation quality relating to the quality of a segmentation of the image. The two quality assessments are combined to derive and output an overall quality assessment for biometry measurements obtained from the image.

Multiple-quality assessments from single segmentation algorithm

A method for segmenting a target anatomy in ultrasound data. Scan-converted ultrasound data is obtained within a scan-converted space in the Cartesian coordinate system. The scan-converted ultrasound data is transformed to de-scanned ultrasound data within a de-scanned space in the Toroidal coordinate system. The de-scanned ultrasound data is an estimate of the ultrasound data as obtained by an original acquisition procedure. A segmentation of a target anatomy can thus be performed on the ultrasound data in the de-scanned space The resulting segmentation data can then be re-scanned back to the Cartesian coordinate system for display with the ultrasound data.

Ultrasound data segmentation

The invention provides an ultrasound imaging method for determining complementary views of interest based on an anomalous feature identified in a region of interest of an ultrasound image. The method includes obtaining an ultrasound image of a region of interest of a subject and identifying an anomalous feature within said region. The identified anomalous feature may then be used to determine one or more available complementary ultrasound images of interest of the subject. The one or more available complementary ultrasound images may then be displayed to a user and the complementary ultrasound views to be reviewed may then be selected by the user from the displayed available complementary ultrasound images.

Methods and systems for determining complementary ultrasound views

The invention provides a method for guiding the acquisition of an ultrasound image. A 3D ultrasound image is acquired by an ultrasound probe at a first position and an anatomical structure is identified within the 3D ultrasound image. A target imaging plane is estimated based on the identified anatomical structure and it is determined whether the target imaging plane is present within the 3D ultrasound image. If the target imaging plane is present, a displacement between a central plane of the 3D ultrasound image and the target plane is determined. If the displacement is below a predetermined threshold, the target imaging plane is extracted and if the displacement is above the predetermined threshold, an instruction to acquire a 3D ultrasound image with the ultrasound probe at a second position, different from the first position, is generated based on the displacement. The invention further provides a method for estimating a target imaging plane. A central plane of a 3D ultrasound image is obtained, wherein the central plane contains at least part of an anatomical structure and abounding box is generated around the anatomical structure. The bounding box is divided into a grid having a plurality of grid points and, for each grid point; an offset is estimated between the central plane and the target imaging plane. Finally, coordinates of the target imaging plane are estimated based on the offset for each grid point of the bounding box.

Systems and methods for guiding the acquisition of an ultrasound image

An ultrasound image processing apparatus () is disclosed comprising a processor arrangement () adapted to receive a temporal sequence () of ultrasound images () of at least a chest region () of a fetal entity () from an ultrasound probe (), said chest region including the fetal heart (), said temporal sequence capturing at least part of a cardiac cycle of the fetal heart; identify the chest region of the fetal entity in one or more of the ultrasound images of said temporal sequence; identify a portion of the spine in the identified chest region; calculate an orientation axis () of the fetal chest from the identified chest region and the identified spine portion; identify the septum of the fetal heart as a linear structure which is temporally more stable than its surrounding structures in said temporal sequence of ultrasound images and which defines a region of convergence of the movements of the fetal heart during said cardiac cycle; calculate an orientation axis () of the fetal heart from the identified septum; and calculate an angle (&#x3b8;) between the orientation axis of the fetal chest and the orientation axis of the fetal heart. Also disclosed are an ultrasound imaging system comprising such an ultrasound image processing apparatus, a computer-implemented method of visualizing an orientation of the heart of a fetal entity within said entity and a computer program product for implementing such a method.

Fetal development monitoring

A computer implemented method is provided for processing a 3D fetal ultrasound image. A 3D fetal ultrasound image is obtained (either acquired or received from memory), and the spine is detected within the image. This enables a first reference axis to be defined. A second reference axis is defined perpendicular to the first reference axis, and the 3D fetal ultrasound image is updated (e.g. rotated in 3D space) using the first and second reference axes and an up/down (elevation) orientation detection. This provides a normalization of the orientation of the image, so that a machine learning approach is better able to identify landmarks within new images.

Fetal ultrasound image processing

An ultrasound system () and operating method () are disclosed in which the system is adapted to receive a sequence () of 2-D ultrasound image frames () of a prenatal entity from an ultrasound probe () and, for each image frame in said sequence, control the display device to display the received image frame; attempt to segment the image frame for recognition of an anatomical feature of interest () of said prenatal entity in said image frame; and accept the image frame for further processing upon recognition of said feature, said further processing comprising: determine a geometric property of the recognized anatomical feature of interest for each accepted image frame; and control the display device to display the determined geometric properties of the accepted image frames in said sequence with each displayed image frame. Such an operating method may be made available as a computer program product for installation on the ultrasound system.

Prenatal ultrasound imaging

The invention relates to a system () for delineating endocardial and epicardial contours of the heart in an image computed from long-axis image data, using a template defining curves for delineating the endocardial and epicardial contours in the image, the system () comprising a template-positioning unit () for positioning the template on the basis of short-axis image data, a scar map initialization unit () for initializing a scar map for use in adapting the template to the image, based on a prior segmentation of the endocardial and epicardial surfaces on the basis of the short-axis image data, and an adaptation unit () for adapting the template to the image, using a criterion function, the criterion function comprising terms describing the attraction of the template to image features and terms describing internal interactions within the template, and wherein at least one term of the criterion function is defined on the basis of the scar map. Identifying image pixels comprised in the scar map improves the definition of the criterion function by including at least one and possibly a plurality of criterion function terms defined on the basis of the scar map. Including criterion function terms defined on the basis of the scar map for adapting the template (i.e. a deformable model) for defining the endocardial and epicardial contours to the long-axis image data helps avoiding exclusion of the scar tissue from the delineated myocardial tissue and thus improves the delineation of the endocardial and epicardial contours of the heart.

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Meudon, France

Cybèle Ciofolo-Veit