Breast ultrasound scanning method and apparatus

Abstract

A breast ultrasound scanning method and apparatus, comprising: after a breast machine probe covers a breast of a subject, controlling a transducer to transmit ultrasound waves toward the breast tissue of the subject before and during movement; obtaining a two-dimensional ultrasound image based on ultrasound echo signals, and performing three-dimensional reconstruction on a set of two-dimensional ultrasound images to obtain a whole-breast ultrasound image of the subject, wherein the set of two-dimensional ultrasound images is obtained based on ultrasound echo signals corresponding to ultrasound waves emitted by the transducer during movement from a starting position to an ending position in a receiving space; wherein, before or during control of the transducer to move within the receiving space, a scanning range of the transducer in this scanning is obtained, thereby obtaining a starting position, an ending position, and an array element used by the transducer to transmit ultrasound waves during movement from the starting position to the ending position; the scanning range is determined based on human tissue characteristics in the two-dimensional ultrasound image, or based on the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of breast ultrasound scanning, and more specifically to a breast ultrasound scanning method and device. Background Art

[0002] Currently, breast ultrasound scans are commonly performed using automated whole-breast ultrasound scanning equipment (hereinafter referred to as mammography). These machines use a large probe to automatically scan the patient's breast, generating a set of two-dimensional (2D) grayscale images. These images are then reconstructed into three-dimensional (3D) whole-breast data, which is then displayed in any number of new sections, including coronal, sagittal, and transverse sections. A single breast scan, with 3-5 standard scan planes, can cover the entire breast. Doctors use this 3D whole-breast data to screen for breast cancer and generate diagnostic reports.

[0003] Mammography scanners, with their standardized scanning image standards, enable medical and technical separation: technicians perform scans and screening at the grassroots level, while doctors remotely review the images offline at the expert level. This approach is highly suitable for breast cancer screening at the grassroots level and leverages internet technology to enable telemedicine and tiered diagnosis and treatment, reducing physician workload and enabling the sharing of medical resources. However, current mammography scanners still have shortcomings. For example, each scan covers a fixed area, examining six standard breast planes bilaterally. This results in long scan times, large amounts of data, slow transmission times, and low image reading efficiency. Summary of the Invention

[0004] According to one aspect of the present application, a breast ultrasound scanning method is provided, the method being applied to a breast machine, the breast machine comprising a breast machine probe, the breast machine probe comprising a housing, an acoustic window, a transducer, and a driving mechanism capable of driving the transducer to move, the acoustic window being connected to the housing, the acoustic window and the housing forming a receiving space, the transducer being arranged in the receiving space, the method comprising: after the breast machine probe covers the breast of the subject, controlling the driving mechanism to drive the transducer to move in the receiving space, and controlling the transducer to transmit ultrasonic waves to the breast tissue of the subject before and during the movement, receive echoes of the ultrasonic waves, and obtain ultrasonic echo signals based on the echoes of the ultrasonic waves; and obtaining two ultrasonic echo signals based on the ultrasonic echo signals. A three-dimensional ultrasound image is obtained, and a group of two-dimensional ultrasound images are reconstructed in three dimensions to obtain a whole-breast ultrasound image of the object being tested, wherein the group of two-dimensional ultrasound images is obtained based on ultrasound echo signals corresponding to ultrasound waves emitted by the transducer during the period when the transducer moves from a starting position to an ending position in the receiving space; wherein, before or during the movement of the transducer in the receiving space, a scanning range of the transducer in this scanning is obtained to obtain the starting position, the ending position, and the array element used by the transducer to emit the ultrasound waves during the period when the transducer moves from the starting position to the ending position; and wherein the scanning range is determined based on human tissue characteristics of the two-dimensional ultrasound image, or based on the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast.

[0005] According to another aspect of the present application, a breast ultrasound scanning device is provided, comprising a breast machine probe, a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, and a processor, wherein: the breast machine probe comprises a housing, an acoustic window, a transducer capable of transmitting ultrasound waves to scan tissue to be measured, and a driving mechanism capable of driving the transducer to move; the acoustic window is connected to the housing, and the transducer and the driving mechanism are arranged in the housing; the transmitting circuit excites the transducer to transmit ultrasound waves toward the breast tissue of the subject to be measured; the receiving circuit controls the transducer to receive the echo of the ultrasound waves to obtain an ultrasound echo signal; and the processor is used to execute the above-mentioned breast ultrasound scanning method.

[0006] The breast ultrasound scanning method and apparatus according to the embodiments of the present application can reduce the scanning range, shorten the scanning time, improve the scanning efficiency, reduce the amount of data obtained by the scan, improve the transmission and storage efficiency, shorten the doctor's reading time, and because the effective human tissue area is not reduced, it will not affect the diagnosis result. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] The above and other purposes, features, and advantages of the present application will become more apparent through a more detailed description of the embodiments of the present application in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings are intended to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the present application and constitute a part of the specification. Together with the embodiments of the present application, they are used to explain the present application and do not constitute a limitation of the present application. In the drawings, the same reference numerals generally represent the same components or steps.

[0008] Figure 1 An exemplary schematic diagram showing an ultrasound image obtained by a traditional breast ultrasound scanning method based on a mammogram machine.

[0009] Figure 2 A schematic flowchart of a breast ultrasound scanning method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0010] Figure 3 An exemplary schematic diagram showing human tissue areas and invalid areas in an ultrasound image.

[0011] Figure 4 A schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of determining a scanning range in a breast ultrasound scanning method according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0012] Figure 5 Show the basis Figure 4 An exemplary schematic diagram of an ultrasound image obtained by an example.

[0013] Figure 6 A schematic diagram illustrating another embodiment of determining a scanning range in a breast ultrasound scanning method according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0014] Figure 7 Show the basis Figure 6 An exemplary schematic diagram of an ultrasound image obtained by an example.

[0015] Figure 8 A schematic structural block diagram of a breast ultrasound scanning device according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the following is a detailed description of example embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments of the present application, and it should be understood that the present application is not limited to the example embodiments described herein. Based on the embodiments of the present application described in this application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative work should fall within the scope of protection of this application.

[0017] The transducer of an existing mammography machine moves at a constant speed inside the volume probe housing, scanning from one end (starting position) to the other end (ending position). Therefore, the scanning range of the mammography machine is fixed, and the size of the obtained whole breast data is fixed. Figure 1 FIG1 shows an exemplary schematic diagram of an ultrasound image obtained by a conventional breast ultrasound scanning method based on a mammogram. Figure 1 As shown, the width of each of the six images is determined by the physical length of the probe, the length by the probe travel range, and the depth by the scanning depth. This 3D whole-breast image contains a relatively large amount of non-tissue images (light gray areas), which wastes scanning time, reduces reading efficiency, increases data storage / transmission volume, and is not helpful for diagnosis.

[0018] Based on this, this application provides a breast machine fast scanning solution, which on the one hand reduces the scanning range, shortens the scanning time, and improves the technician's work efficiency; on the other hand, it reduces the 3D whole breast data size, improves the transmission and storage efficiency, and shortens the doctor's reading time. At the same time, the effective image of the "human tissue area" is not reduced, so it will not affect the diagnosis result. Figures 2 to 8 To describe a breast ultrasound scanning scheme according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0019] Figure 2 The schematic flow chart of the breast ultrasound scanning method 200 according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The breast ultrasound scanning method 200 can be applied to a breast machine, which includes a breast machine probe, which includes a housing, an acoustic window, a transducer, and a driving mechanism capable of driving the transducer to move. The acoustic window is connected to the housing, and the acoustic window and the housing form a receiving space. The transducer is arranged in the receiving space. Figure 2 As shown, the breast ultrasound scanning method 200 may include the following steps:

[0020] In step S210, after the mammography machine probe covers the breast of the subject, the driving mechanism is controlled to drive the transducer to move within the accommodation space, and the transducer is controlled to transmit ultrasound to the breast tissue of the subject before and during the movement, receive ultrasound echoes, and obtain ultrasound echo signals based on the ultrasound echoes.

[0021] In step S220, a two-dimensional ultrasound image is obtained based on the ultrasound echo signal, and a set of two-dimensional ultrasound images is three-dimensionally reconstructed to obtain a whole-breast ultrasound image of the subject, wherein the set of two-dimensional ultrasound images is obtained based on the ultrasound echo signals corresponding to the ultrasound waves emitted by the transducer during the period when the transducer moves from the starting position to the ending position in the accommodation space; wherein, before or during the control of the transducer to move in the accommodation space, the scanning range of the transducer in this scan is obtained to obtain the starting position, the ending position, and the array elements used by the transducer to emit the ultrasound waves during the period when the transducer moves from the starting position to the ending position; and wherein the scanning range is determined based on human tissue characteristics of the two-dimensional ultrasound image, or based on the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast.

[0022] In an embodiment of the present application, the subject can be a person undergoing a breast ultrasound examination. In this embodiment of the present application, the transducer's scanning range is not fixed. Instead, the scanning range for the current scan is determined before or during transducer movement based on the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast or based on the tissue characteristics of a pre-scanned two-dimensional ultrasound image. This determines the transducer's starting scanning position (hereinafter referred to as the starting position), ending scanning position (hereinafter referred to as the ending position), and the array elements used to transmit ultrasound waves during movement from the starting position to the ending position within the receiving space. Because the scanning range is determined based on the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast or based on the tissue characteristics of a pre-scanned two-dimensional ultrasound image, only or primarily valid tissue areas are scanned each time, while ineffective areas with poor coupling or no coupling to tissue are not scanned or scanned only in limited quantities. This reduces the scanning range, shortens scanning time, improves scanning efficiency, reduces the amount of scanned data, improves transmission and storage efficiency, and shortens the time it takes for doctors to review the images. Furthermore, because the valid tissue area is not reduced, the diagnostic results are not affected.

[0023] The following combination Figure 3 To understand the human tissue area and invalid area in the ultrasound image described above. Generally, each scan of the breast machine is to continuously scan a series (a group) of A-plane (cross-sectional area of the tissue) ultrasound images, and then reconstruct the C-plane (coronal area of the tissue) ultrasound image based on the group of A-plane ultrasound images. There may be invalid areas and human tissue areas in each A-plane. Among them, the invalid area refers to, for example, in the A-plane, there are bright horizontal stripes in the near field 0.3cm and low echoes in the back; the human tissue area refers to, for example, in the A-plane, there are no (or very few horizontal stripes) in the near field, and there are brighter tissue images in the whole field. The ratio of the invalid area and the human tissue area of each A-plane may be different. For example, during the scan, there are more human tissue areas (such as Figure 3 As shown in the left figure, the solid line below the coronal plane and the corresponding cross-section in the lower right box). When the scan just starts or is about to end, there are many invalid areas (such as Figure 3As shown, the left image shows the middle solid line of the coronal plane and the right middle box of the corresponding cross section), or even all of them are invalid areas (such as Figure 3 (As shown in the left image, the solid line above the coronal plane and its corresponding cross-section are shown in the upper right box.) The fuller the breast, the more tissue area is included in each frame's A-plane. Therefore, the distinction between tissue areas and invalid areas can be made through subjective judgment by the operator or automatic detection by the ultrasound system. For example, the tissue area can be determined and circled before the scan (automatically by the mammography machine or by the operator visually observing the image), or during the scan itself to determine the scan range.

[0024] In an embodiment of the present application, the scanning range acquired before controlling the transducer's movement within the containment space can be determined based on the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast, or based on human tissue characteristics in a two-dimensional ultrasound image; the scanning range acquired while controlling the transducer's movement within the containment space is determined based on human tissue characteristics in a two-dimensional ultrasound image. Specific embodiments are described below.

[0025] In one embodiment, the scanning range of the transducer may have a rectangular boundary. When controlling the transducer to move within the receiving space, determining the scanning range based on the human tissue characteristics of the two-dimensional ultrasonic image may include: before controlling the transducer to move within the receiving space, acquiring a first ultrasonic image, and determining the left and right boundaries of the rectangular boundary based on the left and right boundaries of the human tissue area in the first ultrasonic image; when controlling the transducer to move from the center position of the receiving space to one end of the receiving space, acquiring a second ultrasonic image, when the human tissue area in the second ultrasonic image gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the starting position; when controlling the transducer to move from the starting position to the other end of the receiving space, acquiring a third ultrasonic image, when the human tissue area in the third ultrasonic image gradually increases and then gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the ending position; the starting position and the ending position are the upper and lower boundaries of the rectangular boundary, and the scanning range is the rectangular area surrounded by the left and right boundaries and the upper and lower boundaries.

[0026] In the embodiments of the present application, a first ultrasonic image refers to an ultrasonic image generated based on an ultrasonic echo signal obtained after emitting ultrasonic waves when the transducer is about to start scanning and moves from the center of the receiving space to the scanning start position (i.e., the starting position); a second ultrasonic image refers to an ultrasonic image generated based on an ultrasonic echo signal obtained after emitting ultrasonic waves when the transducer is about to start scanning and moves from the center of the receiving space to the scanning start position (i.e., the starting position); and a third ultrasonic image refers to an ultrasonic image generated based on an ultrasonic echo signal obtained after emitting ultrasonic waves when the transducer starts scanning and moves from the starting position to the ending position. The set of ultrasonic images generated in this process is a set of two-dimensional ultrasonic images used for three-dimensional reconstruction. The first, second, and third ultrasonic images are named as such to distinguish them from each other.

[0027] The following combination Figure 4 and Figure 5 This embodiment will be described.

[0028] Figure 4 A schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of determining a scanning range in a breast ultrasound scanning method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The scanning process of this embodiment may be as follows:

[0029] 1) Before scanning, the patient lies supine, and the user pulls the whole breast volume probe to cover and compress the breast. At this time, the transducer is at the center of the probe housing (such as Figure 4 The ultrasound system displays the ultrasound cross section in real time ( Figure 4 In most cases, this position is the largest point of the horizontal (left-right) boundary of the human tissue area.

[0030] 2) Before starting the scan, the operator manually selects (user inputs) the horizontal (left-right direction) ab boundary of the human tissue area based on the image features at this time ( Figure 4 The system automatically determines the ab boundary based on the image detection algorithm (the two dotted lines on the left and right in the lower right image). In this scan, the width of the scan range is the ab boundary.

[0031] 3) In this scan, only the scanning line between a and b of the transducer is valid, and only the array elements related to it transmit and receive, while the other array elements do not work.

[0032] 4) Click "Start Scan" and the transducer slides from the middle position to one end of the probe volume housing. During this process, the operator is allowed to manually select or the system automatically detects the start position of this scan. During the movement, the proportion of human tissue area in surface A gradually decreases. When the operator observes or the system automatically detects that there is no human tissue area in the image ( Figure 4 The operator manually clicks OK or the system automatically determines the start position of this scan ( Figure 4 At the upper dotted line c) in the left figure, the transducer stops and starts to move in the reverse direction.

[0033] 5) Entering the scanning phase, the transducer moves in the reverse direction while scanning. During the moving scanning process, the proportion of the human tissue area in the A surface gradually changes. At this time, the operator manually selects or the system automatically determines the end position of this scan. When the operator observes or the system automatically detects that there is no human tissue area in the image again, the operator manually clicks OK or the system automatically determines the end position of this scan ( Figure 4 At the lower dotted line d) in the left figure, the transducer stops moving and the scan ends.

[0034] 6) Reconstruct 3D whole breast data.

[0035] Because the entire scan is performed within the dotted rectangle of abcd, the scan range is reduced, scanning time is reduced, and the size of the 3D whole breast data is reduced. However, the human tissue area is not reduced, so the diagnostic results are not affected. The location of abcd may vary from patient to patient, so the operator needs to manually click OK or the system automatically detects and confirms it.

[0036] Figure 5 Show the basis Figure 4 An exemplary schematic diagram of an ultrasound image obtained by an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 5 As shown, the scanning range of the six standard surfaces of each patient's bilateral breasts can be set according to the boundaries of the human tissue image. Before scanning, the transducer is at the dotted line position in the middle of the figure, and the user or the system automatically sets the left and right boundaries according to the image features (the left and right solid lines in the figure). During the scanning process, the user or the system automatically detects that there is no human tissue in the image and can set the head and feet boundaries (the upper and lower solid lines in the figure).

[0037] on the whole, Figures 4 to 5 In the embodiment shown, the scan width of the mammogram is the width of the horizontal (left-right) boundary of the human tissue in the image ( Figure 4 The ab boundary in the figure is also the longitudinal boundary of the human body ( Figure 4 The depth is the scanning depth, which can reduce ineffective scanning areas to a certain extent. This embodiment is simple to implement and has low hardware requirements (transducer drive mechanism); the transducer only requires constant transducer motion. The scan width (the number of active elements) is determined before each scan and remains unchanged during the scan. Furthermore, the scan range boundaries can be set manually by the operator or automatically detected and set by an algorithm. Manual corrections can also be made based on the automatic detection settings, thereby achieving more accurate and efficient scan range determination.

[0038] In addition, a simplified embodiment can be derived from the above embodiment. That is, only the above-mentioned ab boundary can be determined, and the cd boundary does not need to be determined. Instead, one end and the other end of the transducer's receiving space are directly used as the cd boundary, respectively, which can also reduce the scanning range to a certain extent. In this simplified embodiment, the scanning range still has a rectangular boundary. Before controlling the transducer to move in the receiving space, the scanning range is determined based on the human tissue characteristics of the two-dimensional ultrasound image. It can include: before controlling the transducer to move in the receiving space, obtaining a first ultrasound image, determining the left and right boundaries of the rectangular boundary based on the left and right boundaries of the human tissue area in the first ultrasound image; determining the upper and lower boundaries of the rectangular boundary based on the position from one end to the other end of the receiving space; and the scanning range is a rectangular area surrounded by the left and right boundaries and the upper and lower boundaries.

[0039] In another embodiment, the scanning range may have an irregularly shaped boundary, and before controlling the transducer to move within the receiving space, determining the scanning range based on the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast may include: before controlling the transducer to move within the receiving space, obtaining the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast, and using the coupling range as the scanning range of the transducer. Figure 6 and Figure 7 To describe.

[0040] Figure 6 A schematic diagram illustrating another embodiment of determining the scanning range in the breast ultrasound scanning method according to an embodiment of the present application. The scanning process of this embodiment may be as follows: before scanning, the patient lies on his back, and the user pulls the whole breast volume probe to cover and compress the breast (e.g., Figure 6 As shown in the left figure), the acoustic window of the whole breast volume probe is coupled with part of the breast area. Then, the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast can be obtained according to the user input, or the system can automatically detect the coupling range (such as Figure 6 The coupling range is used as the scanning range of this scan. In this embodiment, the scanning range can be automatically decomposed into two boundaries (such as the left and right boundaries). Figure 6 (Dash lines a and b are shown in the right figure.) During scanning, the transducer moves and scans, and the scanning range of each frame (i.e., the range between a point above dashed line a and a point above dashed line b) is different. The transducer only transmits and receives signals within this scanning range. During the reconstruction phase, the frame spacing for reconstructing 3D whole breast data must remain consistent.

[0041] Since the entire scan is performed only within the coupling range, which generally does not include invalid areas outside the human tissue area, the scanning range can be minimized to the greatest extent, the scanning time is reduced, and the size of the 3D whole breast data is reduced, but the human tissue area is not reduced, so it does not affect the diagnostic results.

[0042] Figure 7 Show the basis Figure 6 An exemplary schematic diagram of an ultrasound image obtained by an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 7 As shown in the figure, the scanning range of each patient's six standard breast surfaces can be set according to the coupling range of the acoustic window and the breast (irregular human tissue area). Before scanning, the starting position and ending position of the transducer and the array elements that need to participate in transmission and reception in each frame have been determined, and the invalid area in the final scanned ultrasound image is reduced to a minimum. Figure 6 and Figure 7 In the illustrated embodiment, the scanning range of the mammogram machine is the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast tissue. This scanning range can minimize the scanning of invalid areas and improve scanning efficiency.

[0043] In the above embodiment, the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast can be obtained based on user input, or the coupling range can be automatically detected. Exemplarily, obtaining the coupling range based on user input can include: having an image acquisition device capture an image of the coupling boundary between the acoustic window and the breast drawn by the user on the acoustic window, and obtaining the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast based on the captured image; or having a projector mounted on the mammography machine housing project the coupling between the acoustic window and the breast onto a touch screen to obtain a projected image, and obtaining the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast based on the coupling boundary between the acoustic window and the breast drawn by the user on the projected image.

[0044] For example, automatically detecting the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast may include: using an acoustic window with pressure detection capabilities to detect the pressure between the acoustic window and human tissue, and defining the area where the pressure exceeds a preset threshold as the coupling range. In this example, the acoustic window of the whole breast volume probe may have a pressure detection function. In areas where the acoustic window is well coupled with tissue, the acoustic window is subjected to upward pressure from the human tissue. In areas where the acoustic window is poorly coupled with tissue or has no contact with tissue, the pressure on the acoustic window is minimal or even zero. Therefore, the coupling range can be determined through pressure detection.

[0045] Exemplarily, automatically detecting the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast may include: projecting the coupling between the acoustic window and the breast onto a touchscreen using a projector mounted on the housing to obtain a projected image; and detecting the coupling boundary between the acoustic window and the breast using an image detection algorithm to obtain the coupling range between the acoustic window and the breast. In this example, the coupling range can be obtained through image detection. When a portion of the projected image is obscured by the transducer, when detecting the coupling boundary between the acoustic window and the breast, the boundary of the obscured area may be predicted using a smoothing algorithm; or the boundary of the obscured area may be supplemented using the boundary detected by the image detection algorithm.

[0046] In another embodiment, the scanning range may have an irregularly shaped boundary, and when controlling the transducer to move within the receiving space, determining the scanning range based on the human tissue characteristics of the two-dimensional ultrasonic image may include: in the process of controlling the transducer to move from the center position of the receiving space to one end of the receiving space, obtaining a second ultrasonic image, and when the human tissue area in the second ultrasonic image gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the starting position; in the process of controlling the transducer to move from the starting position to the other end of the receiving space, obtaining a third ultrasonic image, and when the human tissue area in the third ultrasonic image gradually increases and then gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the ending position; wherein, in the process of controlling the transducer to move from the starting position to the ending position, the transducer is controlled to transmit and receive in a manner of spreading from the center array element to the two end array elements, so as to obtain the left and right boundaries of the human tissue area in each frame of the third ultrasonic image; the scanning range is determined based on the starting position, the ending position, and the left and right boundaries of the human tissue area in each frame of the third ultrasonic image. In the previous embodiment, the coupling boundary is determined as the scanning range before scanning, while in this embodiment, the coupling boundary is determined according to the image features during the scanning process ( Figure 6 The ab dotted line in the right figure is used as the scanning range, and the coupling boundary is determined more accurately.

[0047] Among them, controlling the transducer to transmit and receive in a manner that spreads from the center array element to the two end array elements to obtain the left and right boundaries of the human tissue area in each frame of the third ultrasonic image can include: controlling the transducer to transmit and receive in a manner that spreads from the center array element to the two end array elements to generate each frame of the third ultrasonic image; wherein, in the process of generating each frame of the third ultrasonic image, the left end array element transmits and receives in sequence to generate a left image of the third ultrasonic image, and when the human tissue in the left image gradually decreases to no human tissue, the array element stops spreading to the left end and obtains the left boundary of the third ultrasonic image; the right end array element transmits and receives in sequence to generate a right image of the third ultrasonic image, and when the human tissue in the right image gradually decreases to no human tissue, the array element stops spreading to the right end and obtains the right boundary of the third ultrasonic image.

[0048] The scanning process in this embodiment is described below with reference to a specific example, as follows:

[0049] 1) The operator clicks "Start Scan," and the transducer quickly slides from the center to one end of the probe housing. During this movement, the proportion of human tissue area in surface A gradually decreases. When the mammography algorithm automatically detects that there is no human tissue area in the image, the transducer stops moving, marking the start position of this scan.

[0050] 2) Entering the formal scanning phase, the transducer moves in reverse, scanning as it moves. The mammography algorithm detects and circles the ab boundary of the human tissue area in each frame in real time. Each frame of the image is transmitted and received starting from the probe's central element, and then proceeds to the elements at both ends. For example, transmission and reception begin at the left end. When a certain element is detected to no longer have image information, this is the a boundary of the current frame. Transmission and reception then continue to the right end. When a certain element is detected to no longer have image information, this is the b boundary of the current frame. In the current frame, only the scan line between ab and b is active on the probe, and only the elements associated with it transmit and receive; the remaining elements are inactive.

[0051] 3) When the mammography algorithm automatically detects that there is no human tissue area in the image again, the probe stops moving, and this is the end position of this scan.

[0052] 4) Reconstruction phase.

[0053] The ab locations vary from patient to patient, requiring real-time detection by the mammography algorithm. In this embodiment, each scan of each patient is performed not on a rectangular area, but on an irregular tissue region, minimizing ineffective areas. Furthermore, since the coupling boundary, serving as the scanning range, is determined during the scanning process based on ultrasound image features, the resulting coupling boundary is highly accurate.

[0054] In addition, in this embodiment, when obtaining the aforementioned left and right boundaries, the left and right boundaries of the third ultrasound image of the current frame can be obtained based on the left and right boundaries of the third ultrasound image of the previous frame. This is because, during the mobile scanning process, the proportion of the human tissue area in plane A gradually changes. Assuming that the two boundary positions a(N) and b(N) of the Nth frame are known, then in the N+1th frame, it is only necessary to detect whether there is a human tissue area with m array elements / sound beams on the left and right of the a(N) and b(N) positions to obtain the a(N+1) and b(N+1) boundaries of the new frame, which can reduce the amount of calculation. In addition, the detection of the human tissue area can be performed in every other frame, which can further improve the calculation efficiency.

[0055] Based on the above description, the breast ultrasound scanning method according to the embodiment of the present application can reduce the scanning range, shorten the scanning time, improve the scanning efficiency, reduce the amount of data obtained by the scan, improve the transmission and storage efficiency, shorten the doctor's reading time, and because the effective human tissue area is not reduced, it will not affect the diagnosis results.

[0056] The following combination Figure 8 A breast ultrasound scanning device according to another aspect of the present application is described. Figure 8 FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a breast ultrasound scanning device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 8As shown, the breast ultrasound scanning device 800 includes a breast probe 810, a transmitting circuit 820, a receiving circuit 830, and a processor 840. The breast probe 810 includes a housing, an acoustic window, a transducer capable of transmitting ultrasound waves to scan the tissue under test, and a drive mechanism (not shown) capable of driving the transducer to move. The acoustic window is connected to the housing, and the transducer and the drive mechanism are disposed within the housing. The transmitting circuit 820 is used to excite the transducer to transmit ultrasound waves toward the breast tissue of the subject under test. The receiving circuit 830 is used to control the transducer to receive ultrasound echoes returned from the breast tissue to obtain ultrasound echo signals. The processor 840 is used to execute the breast ultrasound scanning method 200 according to the embodiment of the present application described above. Those skilled in the art can understand the structure and operation of the breast ultrasound scanning device 800 according to the embodiment of the present application in conjunction with the above description of the breast ultrasound scanning method according to the embodiment of the present application. For the sake of brevity, the specific details of the operation of the various components of the breast ultrasound scanning device 800 will not be repeated here.

[0057] In addition, according to an embodiment of the present application, a storage medium is provided, on which program instructions are stored. When the program instructions are executed by a computer or processor, the computer or processor is used to execute the corresponding steps of the breast ultrasound scanning method of the embodiment of the present application. The storage medium may include, for example, a memory card of a smartphone, a storage component of a tablet computer, a hard disk of a personal computer, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a USB memory, or any combination of the above storage media.

[0058] Based on the above description, the breast ultrasound scanning method and device according to the embodiments of the present application can reduce the scanning range, shorten the scanning time, improve the scanning efficiency, reduce the amount of data obtained by the scan, improve the transmission and storage efficiency, shorten the doctor's reading time, and because the effective human tissue area is not reduced, it will not affect the diagnosis results.

[0059] Although example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the above example embodiments are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application. Various changes and modifications may be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present application. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present application as required by the appended claims.

[0060] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0061] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of the units described is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, other division methods may be used, such as combining or integrating multiple units or components into another device, or ignoring or not performing some features.

[0062] In the description provided herein, a large number of specific details are described. However, it is understood that the embodiments of the present application can be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures, and techniques are not shown in detail so as not to obscure the understanding of this description.

[0063] Similarly, it should be understood that in order to streamline the present application and aid in understanding one or more of the various inventive aspects, in the description of the exemplary embodiments of the present application, the various features of the present application are sometimes grouped together into a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof. However, this approach of the present application should not be interpreted as reflecting the intention that the application claimed for protection requires more features than those explicitly recited in each claim. More precisely, as reflected in the corresponding claims, the inventive point is that the corresponding technical problem can be solved with fewer features than all the features of a single disclosed embodiment. Therefore, the claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim itself serving as a separate embodiment of the present application.

[0064] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, except where mutually exclusive, all features disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstract, and drawings) and all processes or units of any method or apparatus disclosed herein may be combined in any combination. Unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstract, and drawings) may be replaced by an alternative feature providing the same, equivalent, or similar purpose.

[0065] Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that although some embodiments described herein include certain features included in other embodiments but not other features, combinations of features from different embodiments are intended to be within the scope of this application and to form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

[0066] The various component embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP) can be used in practice to implement some or all of the functions of some modules in the article analysis device according to the embodiment of the present application. The application can also be implemented as a device program (e.g., computer program and computer program product) for executing a part or all of the methods described herein. Such a program implementing the present application can be stored on a computer-readable medium, or can have the form of one or more signals. Such a signal can be downloaded from an Internet website, or provided on a carrier signal, or provided in any other form.

[0067] It should be noted that the above embodiments illustrate rather than limit the present application, and that a person skilled in the art may devise alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference symbols placed between brackets should not be construed as limiting the claims. The word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of elements or steps not listed in the claims. The word "a" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements. The present application may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several different elements and by means of appropriately programmed computers. In a unit claim enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by the same item of hardware. The use of the words first, second, and third etc. does not indicate any order. These words may be interpreted as names.

[0068] The above description is merely a specific embodiment or illustration of a specific embodiment of the present application, and the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present application should be included in the scope of protection of the present application. The scope of protection of the present application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A breast ultrasound scanning method, applied to a breast machine, characterized in that: The mammography machine includes a mammography machine probe, which includes a housing, an acoustic window, a transducer, and a driving mechanism capable of driving the transducer to move. The acoustic window is connected to the housing, and the acoustic window and the housing form a receiving space. The transducer is disposed in the receiving space. The method includes: After the mammography probe covers the breast of the subject, the driving mechanism is controlled to drive the transducer to move within the accommodation space, and the transducer is controlled to transmit ultrasound to the breast tissue of the subject, receive echoes of the ultrasound, and obtain ultrasound echo signals based on the echoes of the ultrasound before and during the movement; obtaining a two-dimensional ultrasound image based on the ultrasound echo signal, and performing three-dimensional reconstruction on a set of two-dimensional ultrasound images to obtain a whole-breast ultrasound image of the subject, wherein the set of two-dimensional ultrasound images is obtained based on ultrasound echo signals corresponding to ultrasound waves emitted by the transducer during movement from a starting position to an ending position in the accommodation space; wherein, in the process of controlling the transducer to move from the center position of the receiving space toward one end of the receiving space, a second ultrasonic image is acquired, and when the human tissue area in the second ultrasonic image gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the starting position; in the process of controlling the transducer to move from the starting position to the other end of the receiving space, a third ultrasonic image is acquired, and when the human tissue area in the third ultrasonic image gradually increases and then gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the ending position; wherein, in the process of controlling the transducer to move from the starting position to the ending position, the transducer is controlled to transmit and receive in a manner of spreading from the center array element to the array elements at both ends, so as to acquire the left and right boundaries of the human tissue area in each frame of the third ultrasonic image; The scanning range of the transducer is determined based on the start position, the end position, and left and right boundaries of a human tissue region in each frame of the third ultrasound image.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The movement of the transducer in the accommodation space is uniform motion.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The scanning range has an irregular-shaped boundary.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein Controlling the transducer to transmit and receive in a manner of spreading from the center array element to the array elements at both ends to obtain the left and right boundaries of the human tissue area in each frame of the third ultrasound image, including: Controlling the transducer to transmit and receive in a manner of spreading from a central array element to array elements at both ends, so as to generate each frame of the third ultrasonic image; In the process of generating each frame of the third ultrasonic image, the left-end array element transmits and receives in sequence to generate a left side image of the third ultrasonic image. When the human tissue in the left side image gradually decreases to no body tissue, the array element stops spreading toward the left side and obtains the left boundary of the third ultrasonic image. The right-end array element transmits and receives in sequence to generate a right side image of the third ultrasonic image. When the human tissue in the right side image gradually decreases to no body tissue, the array element stops spreading toward the right side and obtains the right boundary of the third ultrasonic image.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that When acquiring the left boundary and the right boundary, the left boundary and the right boundary of the third ultrasonic image of the current frame are acquired based on the left boundary and the right boundary of the third ultrasonic image of the previous frame.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The detection of the human tissue area is frame-by-frame detection.

7. A breast ultrasound scanning method, applied to a breast machine, characterized in that: The mammography machine includes a mammography machine probe, which includes a housing, an acoustic window, a transducer, and a driving mechanism capable of driving the transducer to move. The acoustic window is connected to the housing, and the acoustic window and the housing form a receiving space. The transducer is disposed in the receiving space. The method includes: After the mammography probe covers the breast of the subject, the driving mechanism is controlled to drive the transducer to move within the accommodation space, and the transducer is controlled to transmit ultrasound to the breast tissue of the subject, receive echoes of the ultrasound, and obtain ultrasound echo signals based on the echoes of the ultrasound before and during the movement; obtaining a two-dimensional ultrasound image based on the ultrasound echo signal, and performing three-dimensional reconstruction on a set of two-dimensional ultrasound images to obtain a whole-breast ultrasound image of the subject, wherein the set of two-dimensional ultrasound images is obtained based on ultrasound echo signals corresponding to ultrasound waves emitted by the transducer during movement from a starting position to an ending position in the accommodation space; Wherein, before controlling the transducer to move within the receiving space, a first ultrasonic image is acquired, and the left and right boundaries of the transducer scanning range are determined based on the left and right boundaries of the human tissue region in the first ultrasonic image; while controlling the transducer to move from the center position of the receiving space toward one end of the receiving space, a second ultrasonic image is acquired, and when the human tissue region in the second ultrasonic image gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the starting position; while controlling the transducer to move from the starting position to the other end of the receiving space, a third ultrasonic image is acquired, and when the human tissue region in the third ultrasonic image gradually increases and then gradually decreases to nothing, the transducer stops moving, and the position of the transducer at this time is the ending position; The scanning range of the transducer is determined based on the start position, the end position, and the left and right boundaries of the human tissue region in the first ultrasound image.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that The scanning range has a rectangular boundary, the starting position and the ending position are upper and lower boundaries of the rectangular boundary, and the scanning range is a rectangular area surrounded by the left and right boundaries and the upper and lower boundaries.

9. A breast ultrasound scanning device, characterized in that: The device includes a mammography probe, a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, and a processor, wherein: The mammography probe comprises a housing, an acoustic window, a transducer capable of emitting ultrasonic waves to scan tissue to be measured, and a driving mechanism capable of driving the transducer to move, wherein the acoustic window is connected to the housing, and the transducer and the driving mechanism are arranged in the housing; The transmitting circuit excites the transducer to transmit ultrasonic waves toward the breast tissue of the subject; The receiving circuit controls the transducer to receive the ultrasonic echo to obtain an ultrasonic echo signal; The processor is configured to execute the breast ultrasound scanning method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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