Development of Ultrasonic 4-D Imaging Method

本研究的目的是开发一种从超声图像中显示目标器官三维运动图像的新方法。为了更好地显示3D图像，准确地提取器官边界是必不可少的。但要从超声图像中准确、自动地检测出器官边界是很困难的。为此，我们提出了一种基于模糊推理和松弛技术的边界提取方法。将该实验应用于胎儿临床数据，获得了高质量的胎儿3D图像。此外，我们还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超图像的质量较差，因此很难检测到器官边界。B超图像为超声回波图像。顺便说一句，M型图像在心脏诊断中得到了广泛的应用。因为识别边界要容易得多。然后我们将这种改进的方法应用于临床数据。通过以下两种方式获取4D数据。首先用心电信号以2.5度为间隔采集4-D数据，然后每隔一次心跳经食道扫描采集4-D数据。将改进的方法应用于临床数据，提取器官边界，并利用深度线索技术显示4D图像。结果表明，应用该算法得到的4D图像具有较好的视觉效果。

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.