Medical imaging apparatus and medical imaging method for inspecting a volume of a subject

1. A medical imaging apparatus or inspecting a volume of a subject, comprising:

an image interface for receiving a plurality of ultrasound image data acquired by an ultrasound probe, wherein the plurality of ultrasound image data is two dimensional data comprising a plurality of temporally discrete image planes, and medical image data of the subject, wherein the medical image data is three dimensional data comprising a plurality of image planes disposed parallel to one another and oriented in a cranio-caudal direction;

a position determining unit for receiving a position data of the ultrasound probe; and

an image processing unit configured to:

determine a motion model of the volume based on the position of the ultrasound probe and a variation of a repetitive temporal pattern of anatomical features throughout the plurality of temporally discrete image planes, wherein the motion model includes a cranio-caudal translation model having a respiration function B(t) and is determined based on the plurality of ultrasound image data acquired during at least one respiratory period of the respiration function B(t);

determine a motion state of the anatomical features in individual ones of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the motion model;

detect a pattern of the anatomical features in the medical image data and the plurality of ultrasound imaging data;

select one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the pattern; and

align the ultrasound image data and the one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the motion model,

wherein the image processing unit comprises:

a fusion unit for processing the ultrasound image data and the medical image data to fuse the ultrasound image data and the medical image data based on the alignment to combined image data.

2. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the image processing unit is adapted to determine corresponding anatomical features in the ultrasound data and the medical image data and to align the ultrasound data and the medical image data based on the corresponding anatomical features.

3. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the image processing unit is adapted to align the ultrasound data and the medical image data based on a distance between the determined corresponding anatomical features.

4. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the image processing unit is further configured to adapted the alignment of the ultrasound image data and the medical image data on the basis of the determined motion state.

5. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the image processing unit comprises a segmentation unit for providing segmentation data of anatomical features of the subject, and an alignment unit adapted to align the ultrasound image data and the medical image data based on the segmentation data.

6. The image medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the ultrasound probe for acquiring the plurality of ultrasound image data, and wherein the position determining unit is arranged to determining a position of the ultrasound probe.

7. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the image processing unit is further configured to determine a subset of the plurality of image planes in the medical image data, based on the determined position of the ultrasound probe.

8. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the one of the plurality of image planes is selected from the subset of the plurality of image planes.

9. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the image processing unit is adapted to select one image plane of the subset of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data on the basis of a probability algorithm.

10. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the probability algorithm is a Viterbi algorithm.

11. The medical imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the motion model is determined based on the position of the ultrasound probe received from the position determining unit.

12. A medical imaging method for inspecting a volume of a subject, comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of ultrasound image data acquired by an ultrasound probe, wherein the plurality of ultrasound image data is two dimensional data comprising a plurality of temporally discrete image planes;

receiving medical image data of the subject via an image interface, wherein the medical image data is three dimensional data comprising a plurality of image planes disposed parallel to one another and oriented in a cranio-caudal direction;

receiving a position of the ultrasound probe;

determining a motion model of the volume based on the position of the ultrasound probe and a variation of a repetitive temporal pattern of anatomical features throughout the plurality temporally discrete image planes wherein the motion model includes a cranio-caudal translation model having a respiration function B(t) and is determined based on the plurality of ultrasound image data acquired during at least one respiratory period of the respiration function B(t);

determining a motion state of the anatomical features in individual ones of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the motion model;

detecting a pattern of the anatomical features in the medical image data and the plurality of ultrasound imaging data;

selecting one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the pattern;

aligning the plurality of ultrasound image data and one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data;

adapting the alignment of the plurality of ultrasound image data and one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the motion model; and

processing the ultrasound image data and the medical image data to fuse the ultrasound image data and the medical image data based on the alignment to generate combined image data.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions that when executed, cause an ultrasound imaging system to:

receive a plurality of ultrasound image data acquired by an ultrasound probe, wherein the plurality of ultrasound image data is two dimensional data comprising a plurality of temporally discrete image-planes;

receive medical image data of the subject via an image interface, wherein the medical image data is three dimensional data comprising a plurality of image planes disposed parallel to one another and oriented in a cranio-caudal direction;

receive a position of the ultrasound probe:

determine a motion model of the volume based on the position of the ultrasound probe and a variation of a repetitive temporal pattern of anatomical features throughout the plurality temporally discrete image planes wherein the motion model includes a cranio-caudal translation model having a respiration function B(t) and is determined based on the plurality of ultrasound image data acquired during at least one respiratory period of the respiration function B(t);

determine a motion state of the anatomical features in individual ones of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the motion model;

detect a pattern of the anatomical features in the medical image data and the plurality of ultrasound imaging data;

select one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the pattern;

align the plurality of ultrasound image data and one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data;

adapt the alignment of the plurality of ultrasound image data and one of the plurality of image planes of the medical image data based on the motion model; and

process the ultrasound image data and the medical image data to fuse the ultrasound image data and the medical image data based on the alignment to generate combined image data.