Method, apparatus, and system for analyzing elastography of tissue using one-dimensional ultrasound probe

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9603583-B2
Application number	US-201313868460-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2013
Priority date	Sep 17, 2012
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

A method of analyzing elastography of tissue using a one-dimensional (1D) ultrasound probe. The method includes: acquiring two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound images with respect to a region of interest (ROI) of an object to be diagnosed, to which a shear wave is induced, using the 1D ultrasound probe; measuring a displacement of the shear wave from the acquired 2D ultrasound images; estimating a change rate in the displacement of the shear wave along a y-axis direction orthogonal to a 2D plane on which the 2D ultrasound images are shown, using the measured displacement; and analyzing elastography information of tissue in the ROI using the measured displacement and the estimated displacement change rate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for analyzing elastography of tissue using a one-dimensional (1D) ultrasound probe with transducers arranged along a single dimension, the apparatus comprising:
an ultrasound image processor for acquiring two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound images with respect to a region of interest (ROI), of an object to be diagnosed, in which an asymmetric shear wave is induced using the 1D ultrasound probe; and
a processor configured to:
measure a displacement of the asymmetric shear wave from the acquired 2D ultrasound images;
estimate a change rate in the displacement of the asymmetric shear wave along a y-axis direction orthogonal to a 2D plane in which the 2D ultrasound images acquired by the ultrasound image processor are shown, using the measured displacement;
analyze elastography information of tissue in the ROI using the measured displacement and the estimated displacement change rate;
generate an elastographv image of the ROI using the elastographv information; and
control a display to display the elastography image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the 2D plane includes a z-axis direction, which is a traveling direction of ultrasound waves irradiated by the 1D ultrasound probe, and an x-axis direction orthogonal to the z-axis direction.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the change rate information estimator calculates a change rate in a displacement of the asymmetric shear wave along an x-axis direction orthogonal to a z-axis direction that is a traveling direction of ultrasound waves irradiated by the 1D ultrasound probe and estimates the change rate in the displacement of the asymmetric shear wave along a y-axis direction based on the calculated change rate in the displacement of the shear wave along the x-axis direction.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the elastography analyzer analyzes the elastography information by calculating a shear modulus of tissue in the ROI using the measured displacement and the estimated displacement change rate.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the change rate information estimator estimates a y-axis direction component of the asymmetric shear wave using an x-axis direction component of the asymmetric shear wave from a wave equation including x-, y-, and z-axes direction components of the asymmetric shear wave.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the y-axis direction component is calculated using at least one of a change rate in a displacement of the asymmetric shear wave along an x-axis direction and a distance in the x-axis direction from a location at which the asymmetric shear wave is induced.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the y-axis direction component is a result obtained by adjusting a scale using the calculated component.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the y-axis direction component is a result obtained by performing axis adjustment of the x-axis direction using the scale adjustment result.

9. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the elastography image of the ROI is generated using the calculated shear modulus.

10. An elastography analysis system comprising:
a one-dimensional (1D) ultrasound probe with transducers arranged along a single dimension; and
a shear wave processing apparatus comprising:
an ultrasound image processor to acquire two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound images of a region of interest in which a symmetric shear wave is induced using the 1D ultrasound probe; and
a processor configured to:
measure a displacement of the symmetric shear wave by cross-correlating a plurality of sequential ultrasound images of the acquired 2D ultrasound images;
estimate a change rate in a displacement of the symmetric shear wave along a y-axis direction orthogonal to a 2D plane on which the 2D ultrasound images are shown, using the measured displacement;
analyze elastography information of tissue in the region of interest using the measured displacement and the estimated displacement change rate;
generate an elastography image of the ROI using the elastography information; and
control a display to display the elastography image.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Choi Ki-Wan
• Park Ji-Young
• Lee Hyoung-Ki

Classifications

• A61B8/4494

  characterised by the arrangement of the transducer elements · CPC title

• A61B8/485 Primary

  involving measuring strain or elastic properties · CPC title

• G01S7/52042

  determining elastic properties of the propagation medium or of the reflective target (diagnostic techniques involving the measurement of strain A61B8/485) · CPC title

• G01S15/8918

  the array being linear · CPC title

• A61B8/5223

  for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data (for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012) · CPC title