An automatic free fluid detection for Morrison’s-pouch

Abstract

Ultrasound provides a useful and readily available imaging tool to detect free fluids in blunt abdominal trauma patients. However, applying conventional 2D ultrasound to diagnose the patient requires a well trained physician. In this paper we describe a fully automatic free fluid detection pipeline for the hepathorenal recess or Morrison’s pouch using 3D ultrasound acquisitions. The image data is collected using the standardized “Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma” (FAST) exam. Our method extracts key structures like the kidney and the liver from the image data and uses their relative positions to search and detect free fluids between the organ interfaces. To evaluate our method we have developed a free fluid simulation that allows us to generate free fluid images using acquisitions of healthy volunteers. Our intentions are to enable even untrained ultrasound operators to perform a free fluid diagnosis of an injured person. In order to do this, our method additionally provides basic image acquisition guidance information.