Vorrichtung zur Echtzeit-Bestimmung des Volumens eines Körperhohlraums

摘要

A method and apparatus for determining the volume of a fluid-filled cavity in a patient's body in real time from an ultrasound image. An ultrasound display of the cavity and the surrounding tissue is obtained. The ultrasound display includes a sequence of ultrasound images. The user traces a fixed region of interest around the image of the cavity at the largest volume for which the volume determination is to be made. The region of interest is subdivided into a predetermined number of segments. Each pixel of the ultrasound image, at least within the region of interest, is classified as a fluid pixel or a tissue pixel. The area of fluid pixels within each segment is determined. The volume of the cavity is calculated from the area of the fluid pixels within each segment of the region of interest using the method of disks. The volume is determined for each ultrasound image in the sequence of ultrasound images to provide the volume of the cavity in real time.