Volume rendered ultrasound imaging
An ultrasound image processing apparatus ( 200 ) is disclosed for obtaining a biometric measurement of an anatomical feature of interest from a 3D ultrasound image. The apparatus comprises a display apparatus ( 50 ) communicatively coupled to a processor arrangement ( 210 ) adapted to render a volumetric ultrasound image ( 300 ) from the 3-D ultrasound image and control the display apparatus to display said rendered image; receive a plurality of user inputs ( 303 ) highlighting the anatomical feature of interest, each input corresponding to a pixel of the displayed volumetric ultrasound image; estimate a depth of each of said pixels in the volumetric ultrasound image ( 300 ); define a 3-D path ( 307 ) in the volumetric ultrasound image based on the received user inputs along said estimated depths; perform a processing operation based on the defined 3-D path; and control the display apparatus to display the processing operation result, wherein the processing operation based on the defined 3-D path comprises at least one of a measurement of a length of the 3-D path ( 307 ); a reorientation of the rendered volumetric ultrasound image ( 300 ); and a generation of a 2-D image slice ( 400 ) of the 3-D ultrasound image based on the defined 3-D path. Also disclosed are an ultrasound imaging system including such an ultrasound image processing apparatus, a computer-implemented method and a computer program product for implementing this method on a computer.
1. An ultrasound image processing apparatus for obtaining biometric measurements of an anatomical feature of interest from a 3-D ultrasound image, the ultrasound image processing apparatus comprising:
a display;
a processor communicatively coupled to the display; and
a non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
render a volumetric ultrasound image from the 3-D ultrasound image and control the display apparatus to display the rendered volumetric ultrasound image;
receive a plurality of user inputs highlighting the anatomical feature of interest, wherein each user input defines a point with a corresponding pixel of the displayed volumetric ultrasound image;
estimate a depth represented by each of the corresponding pixels in the volumetric ultrasound image, wherein the estimated depth of each corresponding pixel comprises a depth in the volumetric ultrasound image having a highest contribution to pixel intensity of the corresponding pixel;
define a 3-D path in the volumetric ultrasound image based on the received user inputs along the estimated depths, wherein the defined 3-D path comprises the corresponding pixels;
measure a length of the defined 3-D path in the volumetric ultrasound image; and
control the display apparatus to display the measured length of the defined 3-D path.
2. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to generate the 3-D ultrasound image from a sequence of 2-D ultrasound images.
3. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
generate a 2-D image slice of the 3-D ultrasound image based on the defined 3-D path, wherein at least a part of the anatomical feature of interest lies in a plane of the 2-D image slice.
4. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to generate the 2-D image slice based on the defined 3-D path by:
fitting a plurality of tangential planes to different regions of the defined 3-D path;
selecting the tangential plane having a best fit with the defined 3-D path; and
generating the 2-D image slice in accordance with the selected tangential plane.
5. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
perform a biometric measurement on the anatomical feature of interest visible within the generated 2-D image slice, wherein the biometric measurement comprises at least one of length, thickness or cross-section measurement of the anatomical feature of interest; and
control the display apparatus to display a result of the performed biometric measurement.
6. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to control the display to display the result of the performed biometric measurement by controlling the display to display the generated 2-D image slice together with the result of the performed biometric measurement.
7. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the biometric measurement on the anatomical feature of interest visible within the generated 2-D image slice by:
defining a volume of interest associated with the defined 3-D path; and
identifying the anatomical feature of interest within the volume of interest.
8. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to identify the anatomical feature of interest within the volume of interest by:
applying a plurality of image filters to the volume of interest; and
identifying the anatomical feature of interest based on the filter results obtained by the plurality of image filters.
9. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the length of the 3-D path is measured in the 2-D image slice of the 3-D ultrasound image.
10. The ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
reorient the rendered volumetric ultrasound image based on the defined 3-D path, wherein a main direction of the 3-D path is oriented perpendicular to a viewing angle of the rendered volumetric image.
11. An ultrasound imaging system comprising the ultrasound image processing apparatus of claim 1 and an ultrasound probe for providing the ultrasound image processing apparatus with ultrasound image data for forming the 3-D ultrasound image.
12. A computer-implemented method for obtaining biometric measurements of an anatomical feature of interest from a 3-D ultrasound image, the method comprising:
receiving the 3-D ultrasound image;
rendering a volumetric ultrasound image from the 3-D ultrasound image and controlling a display apparatus to display the rendered volumetric ultrasound image;
receiving a plurality of user inputs highlighting the anatomical feature of interest, wherein each user input defines a point with a corresponding pixel of the displayed volumetric ultrasound image;
estimating a depth represented by each of the corresponding pixels in the volumetric ultrasound image, wherein the estimated depth of each corresponding pixel comprises a depth in the volumetric ultrasound image having a highest contribution to pixel intensity of the corresponding pixel;
defining a 3-D path in the volumetric ultrasound image based on the received user inputs along the estimated depths, wherein the defined 3-D path comprises the corresponding pixels;
measuring a length of the defined 3-D path in the volumetric ultrasound image; and
controlling the display apparatus to display the measured length of the defined 3-D path.
13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , further comprising receiving a sequence of 2-D ultrasound images, and generating the 3-D ultrasound image from the sequence of 2-D ultrasound images.
14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , further comprising:
generating a 2-D image slice of the 3-D ultrasound image based on the defined 3-D path, wherein at least a part of the anatomical feature of interest lies in a plane of the 2-D image slice.
15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein generating the 2-D image slice based on the defined 3-D path comprises:
fitting a plurality of tangential planes to different regions of the defined 3-D path;
selecting the tangential plane having a best fit with the defined 3-D path; and
generating the 2-D image slice in accordance with the selected tangential plane.
16. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:
performing a biometric measurement on the anatomical feature of interest visible within the generated 2-D image slice, wherein the biometric measurement comprises at least one of length, thickness or cross-section measurement of the anatomical feature of interest; and
controlling the display apparatus to display a result of the performed biometric measurement with the generated 2-D image slice.
17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein performing the biometric measurement on the anatomical feature of interest visible within the generated 2-D image slice comprises:
defining a volume of interest associated with the defined 3-D path; and
identifying the anatomical feature of interest within the volume of interest.
18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17 , wherein identifying the anatomical feature of interest within the volume of interest comprises:
applying a plurality of image filters to the volume of interest; and
identifying the anatomical feature of interest based on filter results obtained by the plurality of image filters.
19. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein the length of the 3-D path is measured in the 2-D image slice of the 3-D ultrasound image.
20. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , further comprising:
reorienting the rendered volumetric ultrasound image based on the defined 3-D path, wherein a main direction of the 3-D path is oriented perpendicular to a viewing angle of the rendered volumetric image.