A Theoretical Framework to Three-Dimensional Ultrasound Reconstruction from Irregularly-Sample Data

R. San Jose Estepar, M. Martin-Fernandez, P.P. Caballero-Martinez, C. Alberola-Lopez, J. Ruiz-Alzola
Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume 29, Number 2, Pages 255-269
2003

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Abstract

Several techniques have been described in the literature in recent years for the reconstruction of a regular volume out of a series of ultrasound slices with arbitrary orientations, typically scanned by means of ultrasound freehand systems. However, a systematic approach to such a problem is still missing. This paper focuses on proposing a theoretical framework for the 3D ultrasound volume reconstruction problem. We introduce a statistical method for the construction and trimming of the sampling grid where the reconstruction will be carried out. The results using in vivo ultrasound data demonstrate that the computed reconstruction grid that encloses the region of interest is smaller than those obtained from other reconstruction methods in those cases where the scanning trajectory deviates from a pure straight line. In addition, an adaptive Gaussian interpolation technique is studied and compared with well-known interpolation methods that have been applied to the reconstruction problem in the past. We find that the proposed method numerically outperforms former proposals in several control studies; subjective visual results also support this conclusion and highlight some potential deficiencies of methods previously proposed.

Eigenvalue-driven trimming performance. The original B-scan planes, bounding box (outer blue) and boxes for r= 0.9, r= 0.8 and r= 0.7 (black, green and inner blue, respectively) are shown for the volumes (a) thyroid gland, (b) liver, (c) kidney, and (d) fetus. The difference between the bounding box volume and the trimmed volume are fairly clear.

Reference

San Jose Estepar R, Martin-Fernandez M, Caballero-Martinez P, Alberola-Lopez C, Ruiz-Alzola J. A theoretical framework to three-dimensional ultrasound reconstruction from irregularly-sample data. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology 2003;29(2):255-269.

Bibtex entry

@Article{san-joseUMB03,
  author         = {R. {San Jose Estepar} and M. Martin-Fernandez and P.P.     
                   Caballero-Martinez and C. Alberola-Lopez and J.             
                   Ruiz-Alzola},                                               
  title          = {A Theoretical Framework to Three-Dimensional Ultrasound    
                   Reconstruction from Irregularly-Sample Data},               
  journal        = {Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology},                       
  year           = {2003},                                                     
  volume         = {29},                                                       
  number         = {2},                                                        
  pages          = {255--269}
}

Grants

NIH P41-RR13218 (NAC), CIMIT, 1FD97-0881-C02, TIC2001-3808-C02, JCYL VA78-99, JCYL VA91-01

Research area

US

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