Automatic focused assessment with sonography for trauma exams

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention provides a method for identifying internal trauma in a patient for pneumothorax, hemothorax and abdominal hemorrhage using ultrasound in B-modes with radial, longitudinal, phased array probes, and with M-mode for verification of lung sliding and lung point. Identifications are based on statistical classifications of image features, including A-line, B-line, lung sliding, barcode, sky, seashore, and beach patterns. For blood pools, a polygon is fitted to the boundary, and a cellular automaton extracts local interference patterns due to cavity shape. Logic is then applied to extractions to identify the trauma. With B-mode, feature extraction involves specialized algorithms operating at frame rate for tracking of features such as ribs and rib shadows, pleural line and fast changes in peak intensities along the pleural line. Results are presented on screen by means of highlighting and textual cues.