Method for generating anatomical M-mode displays

Abstract

A method for generating anatomical M-Mode displays for ultrasonic investigation of living biological structures during movement of the structure, for example a heart function, employing an ultrasonic transducer (21) comprises the acquisition of a time series of 2D or 3D ultrasonic images (22), arranging said time series so as to constitute data sets, providing at least one virtual M-Mode line (23) co-registered with said data sets, subjecting said data sets to computer processing on the basis of said at least one virtual M-Mode line, whereby interpolation along said at least one virtual M-Mode line is effected, and displaying the resulting computed anatomical M-Mode display (24) on a display unit.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to a method for generating anatomical M-Mode displays in ultrasonic investigation of living biological structures during movement, for example a heart function, employing an ultrasonic transducer.The invention describes a technique for obtaining anatomically meaningful M-Mode displays by data extraction from 2D (two dimensional) and 3D (three dimensional) ultrasonic imaging. Conventional M-Mode is acquired along one acoustical beam of an ultrasonic transducer employed, displaying the .[.tide-variant.]. .Iadd.time-variant .Iaddend.data in a display unit with time along the x-axis and depth along the y-axis. The localization of the M-Mode line in conventional M-Mode is limited to the set of beam directions that can be generated (scanned) by the transducer.In cardiology, the use of the M-Mode method is fairly standardized, requiring specific cuts through the heart at standard positions and angles. To be able to perform a good M-Mode mea...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

With the advent of high-performance digital front-end control for phased transducer array probes, the possibility exists for acquiring 2D images at very high framerates (<10 ms per 2D image). These 2D data are stored in a computer RAM, with storage capacity enough to hold one or more full heart cycles worth of 2D data recordings. M-Mode displays can be generated based on these recordings with an adequate temporal resolution. According to the present invention this allows for complete flexibility in the positioning of the M-Mode lines. The invention describes how this flexibility can be utilized to improve the anatomical information content in the extracted M-Mode displays.

Some of the advantages obtained with this invention can be summarized as follows: Multiple M-Mode displays with arbitrary positioning can be computer on the basis of a 2D or 3D acquisition. The position of the M-Mode line is not limited to the scanning geometry and can be freely positioned. Global heart movements can be compensated for by moving the M-Mode line according to the motion of the heart during the cardiac cycle. Wall thickening analysis is improved due to the possibility of keeping the M-Mode line perpendicular to the ventricle wall during the entire cardiac cycle. Reference points in the scene can be fixed at a given y-coordinate in the M-Mode display, hence improving the visual interpretability of relative motion / thickening phenomenons. 3D acquisitions can be visualized by mapping properties extracted from local M-Mode lines in a color encoding of the ventricle wall.

Problems solved by technology

On older patients, these windows are scarce, and hard to find.

This is very difficult to compensate for manually, since the probe must be moved synchronous to the heartbeats.

In many cases there can be problems getting the correct alignment at a good acoustical window.

Often, the good acoustic windows give bad alignment, and vice versa.

Hence, the sonographer or user spends much time and effort trying to optimize the image for the two criteria (alignment, image quality).

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