Development of Ultrasonic 4-D Imaging Method

本研究的目的是发展一种从超声图像中显示靶器官三维运动图像的新方法。为了精细地显示三维图像，必须准确地提取器官边界。但是，从超声图像中准确、自动地检测出器官的边界是一个难点。因此，我们开发了边界提取方法，使用模糊推理和松弛技术。将该方法应用于胎儿临床资料，获得了高质量的胎儿三维图像。并将该算法应用于心脏临床数据。在心脏临床数据的情况下，B型图像的质量较差，因此很难检测器官边界。B型图像是超声回波图像。另外，M型图像在心脏诊断中应用广泛。因为很容易识别边界。并将改进后的方法应用于临床数据。通过两种方法获得4D数据。首先用心电图每隔2.5度采集四维数据，然后每隔一次心跳用经食管扫描采集四维数据。将改进的方法应用于临床数据，提取器官边界，并采用深度提示技术显示4D图像。实验结果表明，该算法能获得较好的4D图像。

The purpose of this study is to develop a new method for displaying 3D motion image of target organ from ultrasound images. To display 3D image finely, it is essential to extract the organ boundaries exactly. But it is difficult to detect the organ boundaries from ultrasound images exactly and automatically. Therefore, we developed the boundary extraction method using fuzzy reasoning and relaxation techniques. As a result of applying the experiment to fetal clinical data, we obtained the high quality 3D image of fetus. And besides, we applyed this algorithm to cardiac clinical data. In the case of cardiac clinical data, the quality of B-mode image is worse, and so it is much difficult to detect the organ boundaries. B-mode image is ultrasound echo image. By the way, M-mode image is used widely in cardiac diagnosis. Because it is much ease to recognize the boundary. Then we applyed this improved method to clinical data. 4D data were acquired by following two ways. First we acquired 4-D data at an intervals of 2.5 degrees with ECG.Other we acquired 4-D data with transesophageal scan every a heartbeat. We applyed the improved method to the clinical data, and extracted organ boundaries, and displayd 4D image using depth cueing technique. It was found that significant 4D image obtained by applying the algorithm.