Time regarded method of 3D ultrasound reconstruction

Abstract

Ultrasound (US) examination is the most commonly used method for visualizing internal organs, and is usually used as a 2D visualisation method. Despite the fact that many ultrasound machines have ‘3D free hand’ protocols or they are equipped with a volumetric US probe, 3D volumetric reconstruction is popular mainly in obstetrics. 3D reconstruction and visualization of abdominal organs is difficult for two reasons. First – abdominal organs are large and the entire organ cannot be shown at once, and second – organs are moving. In this paper, a new approach to freehand 3D ultrasound reconstruction and visualisation is presented. The main idea of this approach is to not use all recorded data in the same time, but dynamically change the reconstruction model. Besides, typical order of the algorithm steps was changed. In the first step the segmentation is performed and in the second step the volume reconstruction is done. Usefulness of this approach was tested on Z-shaped phantom images. The median of error (RMSE) for obtained models is less than 0.41 mm with respect to the reference models. For the same data set the median RMSE for the standard reconstruction method (excluded the impact of registration time) is about 0.71 mm.