Three-dimensional volume of interest in ultrasound imaging

摘要

A volume of interest is ultrasonically imaged. An object of interest is automatically located from a volume scan. In one approach, a geometric bounding box surrounding the object is found by a classifier. In another approach, an option for zooming to the object is indicated to the user. A scan region is defined around the object or the bounding box automatically, whether in response to user selection of the option or not. The scan region is shaped based on the ultrasound scan format, but is smaller than the volume. The volume of interest defined by the scan region is used to generate images with a greater temporal and/or spatial resolution than scanning of the entire original volume.

主权项

1. A method for ultrasound imaging of a volume of interest, the method comprising:
acquiring, with an ultrasound imaging system, data representing a volume of a patient; locating, by a processor, a target bounding box surrounding an object of interest and additional anatomy; identifying, by the processor, the volume of interest within the volume as a scan region in a scan format enclosing the target bounding box; scanning the scan region in the scan format with the ultrasound imaging system; and generating an image from the scanning of the volume of interest.