Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Roberto José Ardon

Cecile Dufour

Gary Cheng-How Ng

Vincent Maurice André Auvray

Thomas Shu Yin Tang

Remi Nicolas Thierry Cuingnet

A fusion imaging system co-registers and fuses real time ultrasound images with reference images such as those produced by MRI or CT imaging. In an illustrated implementation, previously acquired CT or MRI or ultrasound images are loaded into the system. An ultrasound system is operated in conjunction with a tracking system so that the ultrasound probe and images can be spatially tracked. A computerized image processor registers the probe position with a reference image of the anatomy being scanned by the probe and determines whether the probe appears to be inside the skin line of the subject. If that is the case it is due to probe compression of the subject, and the reference image is modified to locate the skin line in the reference image in front of the ultrasound probe. The modified reference images can then be readily co-registered and fused with the ultrasound images produced by the probe.

Correcting probe induced deformation in an ultrasound fusing imaging system

An ultrasound imaging assembly is disclosed, comprising an image processing unit () for receiving and for evaluating at least one set of ultrasound data resulting from an ultrasound scan of a volume of interest () and for providing corresponding image data on the basis of the ultrasound data. The assembly comprises a display unit () for displaying an ultrasound image () on the basis of the image data, and an evaluation unit () adapted to detect whether a shadowed area () is present within the volume of interest () on the basis of the ultrasound data, wherein the image processing unit is adapted to determine ultrasound image data of a two-dimensional slice of the shadowed area and wherein the display unit is adapted to display a graphical representation of a corresponding sectional view of the shadowed area within the ultrasound image.

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Sèvres, France

Roberto José Ardon