Rib blockage delineation in anatomically intelligent echocardiography

Abstract

An interactive visual guidance tool for an imaging acquisition and display system and configured for user navigation with respect to a blockage of a field of view () detects, and spatially defines, the blockage. It also integrates, with the image for joint visualization, an indicium () that visually represents the definition. The indicium is moved dynamically according to movement, relative to the blockage, of the field of view. The indicium can be shaped like a line segment, or two indicia () can be joined in a 'V' shape to frame a region of non-blockage. The defining maybe based on determining whether ultrasound beams in respective directions are blocked. Included, for deriving the image, in some embodiments are imaging channels for receiving image data for which a metric of coherence, i.e., similarity among channel data, is computed. The determination for a direction is based on the metric for locations in that direction. One application is navigating an ultrasound probe between blocking ribs () to achieve a standard cardiac view.