RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2018/074352, filed on Sep. 10, 2018, which claims priority to and the benefit of European Application No. 17191027.6, filed Sep. 14, 2017. These applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an ultrasound image processing apparatus comprising an image processor arrangement adapted to receive and process a plurality of ultrasound images.

The present invention further relates to an ultrasound imaging system comprising such an ultrasound image processing apparatus.

The present invention still further relates to a computer program product for configuring an ultrasound image processing apparatus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Ultrasound imaging is rapidly gaining popularity as an imaging technique supporting interventional procedures, either as a standalone technique or in combination with other imaging techniques such as x-ray imaging techniques. During such interventional procedures, an invasive medical device such as a catheter, guide wire, needle, and so on, is inserted into a patient by a medical professional, with the imaging tools such as ultrasound imaging being used to guide the invasive medical device towards or past anatomical regions of interest within the patient. In particular, 3-D or volumetric ultrasound imaging is a powerful tool to assist the medical professional in guiding the invasive medical device through the patient's anatomy.

A common problem during such interventional procedures is that part of an anatomical feature of interest of the patient may be blocked from view by the invasive medical device. This typically occurs in a situation where the invasive medical device is located in between the ultrasound transducer or probe and the anatomical feature of interest, in which case the invasive medical device can cast an acoustic shadow onto the anatomical feature of interest, thereby yielding an incomplete view of the anatomical feature of interest. This is of course undesirable, as it hampers the medical professional in the correct operation or guidance of the invasive medical device relative to the incompletely imaged anatomical feature of interest.

Solutions exist to address the problem of such acoustic shadowing of part of an anatomical region of interest. For example, US 2014/0100439 A1 discloses a method and system for the removal of guidewire artefacts from ultrasound images. At least two ultrasound images of an imaging surface are acquired. Each acquired ultrasound image comprises a set of data. A guidewire artefact is detected in one of the at least two images. The guidewire artefacts is replaced with data representing the imaging surface obtained from another one of the at least two images.

This technique assumes that the imaging surface is the same between the different acquired ultrasound images. This, however, often is an oversimplification that can lead to incorrect artefact removal. Many invasive medical devices are inserted into the patient's cardiovascular system, e.g. to access the patient's heart or arteries. As is well-known per se, the cardiac cycle consists of different phases, e.g. expansion and contraction phases, during which various parts of the cardiovascular system, most notably the heart, change shape. Consequently, it is not straightforward to correct shadow artefacts in ultrasound images of an anatomical feature of interest that changes shape during the cardiac cycle, as the changes in the geometry of the anatomical feature of interest can cause the introduction of artefacts in a composite ultrasound image in which parts of different ultrasound images captured during such a cardiac cycle are combined due to different parts of the anatomy being combined in such a composite ultrasound image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention seeks to provide an ultrasound image processing apparatus that is configured to remove shadow regions from such imaged anatomical regions of interest in a more robust manner.

The present invention further seeks to provide an ultrasound imaging system comprising such an ultrasound image processing apparatus.

The present invention still further seeks to provide a computer program product for configuring such an ultrasound image processing apparatus.

According to an aspect, there is provided an ultrasound image processing apparatus comprising an image processor arrangement adapted to receive a first sequence of ultrasound images imaging an anatomical feature of interest during a first full cardiac cycle in the absence of an invasive medical device in said ultrasound images, each ultrasound image corresponding to a different phase of said cardiac cycle; receive a further sequence of ultrasound images imaging the anatomical feature of interest during a further full cardiac cycle in the presence of the invasive medical device in said ultrasound images, each ultrasound image corresponding to a different phase of said cardiac cycle said invasive medical device at least partially obscuring the anatomical feature of interest, and for each ultrasound image of the further sequence: track the location of the invasive medical device in the ultrasound image; isolate the invasive medical device from the ultrasound image; and insert the isolated invasive medical device into an ultrasound image of the first sequence of a corresponding phase of the cardiac cycle in the tracked location; and control a display device to display the first sequence of ultrasound images including the inserted invasive medical device.

In this manner, a sequence of ultrasound images is generated in which a historical view of the anatomical feature of interest is merged with an actual view of the invasive medical instrument such as a catheter, guide wire, needle or the like, in front of the anatomical feature of interest. This results in a sequence of ultrasound images, e.g. a cine loop or the like, in which the anatomical feature of interest is fully visible without acoustic shading by the invasive medical device blocking part of view of the anatomical feature of interest.

The ultrasound image processing apparatus may be adapted to trigger the capture of at least the further sequence of ultrasound images in response to an external stimulus indicative of a particular point in the cardiac cycle to ensure that each sequence of ultrasound images captured with an ultrasound probe is initiated at the same point in time of the cardiac cycle such that the ultrasound images in such sequences are all taken at set phases of the cardiac cycle.

In an embodiment, the image processor arrangement is adapted to determine the location of the invasive medical device in an ultrasound image of the further sequence using an object recognition algorithm. In this embodiment, the location of the invasive medical device is determined by processing the ultrasound images of the further sequence. For instance, the object recognition algorithm may be an optical shape sensing algorithm to detect the invasive medical device in the ultrasound images of the further sequence.

In an alternative embodiment, the invasive medical device comprises a plurality of electromagnetic transmitters in a defined alignment along the invasive medical device, e.g. ultrasound transmitters, wherein the image processor arrangement is adapted to determine the location of the invasive medical device in an ultrasound image of the further sequence based on received electromagnetic transmissions from said plurality of electromagnetic transmitters. In this embodiment, the location of the invasive medical device within the ultrasound images of the further sequence may be determined without having to analyse the ultrasound images, as the location information may be obtained using separate location detection techniques.

According to another aspect, there is provided an ultrasound imaging system comprising the ultrasound image processing apparatus according to any of the herein described embodiments and an ultrasound probe that can be communicatively coupled to the ultrasound image processing apparatus and is adapted to provide the ultrasound image processing apparatus with at least the further sequence of ultrasound images. Such an ultrasound imaging system benefits from being able to provide its user with improved quality ultrasound images during procedures in which the progress of an invasive medical instrument such as a catheter, guide wire, needle and so on relative to other anatomical feature of interest is being imaged using the ultrasound imaging system.

According to yet another aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program instructions embodied therewith for, when executed on the image processor arrangement of the ultrasound image processing apparatus of any of the herein described embodiments, cause the image processor arrangement to receive a first sequence of ultrasound images imaging an anatomical feature of interest during a first full cardiac cycle in the absence of an invasive medical device in said ultrasound images, each ultrasound image corresponding to a different phase of said cardiac cycle; receive a further sequence of ultrasound images imaging the anatomical feature of interest during a further full cardiac cycle in the presence of the invasive medical device in said ultrasound images, each ultrasound image corresponding to a different phase of said cardiac cycle said invasive medical device at least partially obscuring the anatomical feature of interest, and for each ultrasound image of the further sequence: track the location of the invasive medical device in the ultrasound image; isolate the invasive medical device from the ultrasound image; and insert the isolated invasive medical device into an ultrasound image of the first sequence of a corresponding phase of the cardiac cycle in the tracked location; and control a display device to display the first sequence of ultrasound images including the inserted invasive medical device.

Consequently, with such a computer program product the image processor arrangement of an ultrasound image processing apparatus may be configured to accurately remove shadow regions from an anatomical feature of interest that changes shape during different phases of the cardiac cycle such as a beating heart or another part of the cardiovascular system that changes shape during the cardiac cycle, as explained in more detail above.

The computer program product may further cause the image processor arrangement to trigger the capture of at least the further sequence of ultrasound images in response to an external stimulus indicative of a particular point in the cardiac cycle to ensure that the various sequences, e.g. cine loops, of ultrasound images are captured in a synchronized manner.

In an embodiment, the computer program product further causes the image processor arrangement to determine the location of the invasive medical device in an ultrasound image of the further sequence using an object recognition algorithm, such as an optical shape sensing algorithm. In this embodiment, the location of the invasive medical device is determined from the ultrasound images of the further sequence, thereby providing a method in which all necessary information is retrieved from the ultrasound images captured with the ultrasound probe.

In an alternative embodiment, the invasive medical device comprises a plurality of electromagnetic transmitters in a defined alignment along the invasive medical device, the computer program product further causing the image processor arrangement to determine the location of the invasive medical device in an ultrasound image of the further sequence based on received electromagnetic transmissions from said plurality of electromagnetic transmitters. This may facilitate a particularly fast determination of the location of the invasive medical device as the ultrasound images do not need to be evaluated to determine this location, which can be computationally intensive.

Such a computer program product for example may be used to reconfigure, e.g. upgrade, existing ultrasound image processing apparatuses.

