Medical ultrasound image processing device

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of medical ultrasound imaging, and in particular to a medical ultrasound image processing device for supporting reproducible acquisition of 2D ultrasound images. A medical ultrasound image processing device () is presented that comprises a first interface () for receiving a first 3D scout ultrasound image () and a first 2D ultrasound image () of a volumetric region; a second interface () for receiving a second 3D scout ultrasound image () of the volumetric region; and a processing unit () arranged to perform the steps of: determining an orientation of an image plane of the first 2D ultrasound image with respect to the first 3D scout ultrasound image (S); registration of the first 3D scout ultrasound image and the second 3D ultrasound scout image in a common coordinate frame (S); determining an orientation of the image plane of the first 2D ultrasound image with respect to said common coordinate frame based on said registration of the first and second 3D scout ultrasound images and the determined orientation of the image plane of the first 2D ultrasound image with respect to the first 3D scout ultrasound image (S); and providing a control signal adapted to control an acquisition of a second 2D ultrasound image of the volumetric region by an ultrasound probe in accordance with the orientation of the image plane of the first 2D ultrasound image of the volumetric region (S), wherein an orientation of an image plane of the second 2D ultrasound image corresponds to the determined orientation of the image plane of the first 2D ultrasound image of the volumetric region, wherein the acquisition of the second 2D ultrasound image by the ultrasound probe is from either a same position as, or a tracked position with respect to, the position of the acquisition of the second 3D scout ultrasound image.