Ultrasound Tracking Vector Smoothing for Cardiac Motion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ultrasound diagnostic apparatuses face challenges in cardiac muscle tracking due to noise artifacts, leading to alignment disturbances and deviations in tracking images, which affect the accuracy of heart motion evaluation.
Innovation Solution
An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising a tracking unit, smoothing unit, and aligning unit that calculates and smooths vector arrays representing movement destinations of representative points in the cardiac muscle region, aligning them along the cardiac muscle contour direction to generate a stable tracking image.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If cardiac muscle tracking is performed using marker array in ultrasound images, then motion of individual cardiac muscle sites can be recognized and measured, but noise artifacts cause alignment disturbance and deviation of marker array from cardiac muscle region
Solution Approach 1:
The marker array is divided into multiple representative point sequences arranged in the cardiac muscle contour direction. Each sequence is independently aligned along the direction intersecting the contour direction, allowing localized correction of tracking deviations while preserving overall tracking accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs iterative alignment by calculating the degree of alignment between representative point sequences and adjusting their positions accordingly. This feedback mechanism continuously corrects alignment disturbances caused by noise artifacts, maintaining both measurement precision and tracking reliability.
2Measurement precision
If marker array tracking is applied to evaluate heart motion, then cardiac muscle motion can be measured, but unnatural motion occurs due to tracking errors from noise
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment process converts the harmful effect of noise-induced deviations into beneficial information by using the degree of alignment calculation to identify and correct tracking errors. The representative point sequences are realigned based on their relative positions, transforming noise-corrupted data into accurate motion measurements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the positional parameters of representative points by aligning each sequence along the direction intersecting the contour. This parameter adjustment removes the unnatural motion caused by noise while preserving the true cardiac muscle motion characteristics.
3Productivity
If representative point array is tracked between frames to generate tracking image, then cardiac muscle motion can be visualized, but deviation from cardiac muscle region occurs over time
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary alignment of representative point sequences before generating the tracking image. By pre-aligning each sequence along the direction intersecting the contour direction, the system ensures positioning accuracy is maintained throughout the tracking process, preventing deviation from the cardiac muscle region.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment operation introduces a new dimensional constraint by aligning sequences along the direction intersecting the contour direction. This additional dimensional control prevents out-of-plane deviation and maintains accurate positioning within the cardiac muscle region across multiple frames.
Data Source
AI summary
An interpolation unit generates a vector array representing a movement destination of a representative point array. A smoothing unit smoothes a tangential component and a normal component of each vector of the vector array, to generate a smoothed vector array. An aligning unit generates a new representative point array based on the smoothed vector array. In this process, alignment is performed for each representative point sequence. A tracking image is created based on the new representative point array.