Methods and apparatuses for collection and visualization of ultrasound data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11727558-B2
Application number	US-202016838986-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2020
Priority date	Apr 3, 2019
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

Some aspects of the technology described herein relate to configuring an ultrasound device to perform a three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep, and displaying ultrasound images and segmented portions of the ultrasound images as the ultrasound images are collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep. Certain aspects relate to displaying an ultrasound image collected by an ultrasound device and configuring the ultrasound device to perform a three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep based on the ultrasound image collected by the ultrasound device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a processing device in operative communication with an ultrasound device, the processing device configured to:
display an initial ultrasound image collected by the ultrasound device;
configure the ultrasound device to perform a three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep based on the initial ultrasound image collected by the ultrasound device, wherein the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep comprises an elevational sweep of a bladder;
display ultrasound images as the ultrasound images are collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep;
display a cine including ultrasound images that were collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep, wherein at least a subset of the ultrasound images are each displayed in the cine with a respective indicator overlaid thereon, wherein the respective indicator for each ultrasound image in the subset indicates a segmented portion of the ultrasound image, wherein the segmented portion indicates an anatomical structure in the ultrasound image; and
display a three-dimensional visualization based at least on the segmented portions of the subset of the ultrasound images that were collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep, wherein the three-dimensional visualization comprises a three-dimensional visualization of a volume of the bladder depicted in the ultrasound images, and wherein the segmented portions of the ultrasound images comprise interiors of the bladder.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound device is configured to perform the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep while a user maintains the ultrasound device at approximately a same position and orientation at which the ultrasound device collected the initial ultrasound image.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound device is configured to use a two-dimensional array of ultrasound transducers on a chip to perform beamforming in order to perform the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is configured, when displaying the ultrasound images as the ultrasound images are collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep, to display a most recently collected ultrasound image.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is configured, when displaying the ultrasound images as the ultrasound images are collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep, to display the ultrasound images in real-time.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to use a statistical model to generate the segmented portions of the ultrasound images.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the three-dimensional visualization comprises a three-dimensional visualization of a bladder.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is configured, when displaying the three-dimensional visualization, to display an orientation indicator that indicates a position of the ultrasound device relative to a bladder depicted by the three-dimensional visualization.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is configured, when displaying the three-dimensional visualization, to display an orientation indicator that indicates a position of a bottom plane of the ultrasound images collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep relative to a bladder depicted by the three-dimensional visualization.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
detect a dragging movement and/or a pinching movement across a touch-sensitive display screen of the processing device; and
based on the dragging movement and/or the pinching movement, display the three-dimensional visualization as if the three-dimensional visualization were being rotated and/or zoomed in three dimensions.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to perform a measurement based on the segmented portions of the ultrasound images collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the measurement comprises a measurement of a volume of a bladder.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the segmented portions of the ultrasound images comprise interiors of a bladder depicted in the ultrasound images.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an imaging slice of the initial ultrasound image comprises a center imaging slice of the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an imaging slice of the initial ultrasound image comprises an extreme of the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to display the segmented portions of the ultrasound images as the ultrasound images are collected during the three-dimensional ultrasound imaging sweep.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing device comprises a handheld processing device.

Assignees

• Bfly Operations Inc

Inventors

• Howell Audrey
• De Jonge Matthew
• Guenther Kurt
• Neben Abraham
• Gafner Tomer
• Liu Yang
• Silberman Nathan
• Shin Cristina
• Sankaranarayanan Swaminathan

Classifications

• G06T7/0012 Primary

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title

• A61B8/085

  for locating body or organic structures, e.g. tumours, calculi, blood vessels, nodules · CPC title

• A61B8/462

  characterised by constructional features of the display · CPC title

• A61B8/466

  adapted to display 3D data · CPC title

• A61B8/483

  involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data · CPC title