title: Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging of the vasculature.
abstract: With conventional ultrasonography, the diagnostician must view a series of two-dimensional images in order to form a mental impression of the three-dimensional anatomy, an efficient and time consuming practice prone to operator variability, which may cause variable or even incorrect diagnoses. Also, a conventional two-dimensional ultrasound image represents a thin slice of the patients anatomy at a single location and orientation, which is difficult to reproduce at a later time. These factors make conventional ultrasonography non-optimal for prospective or follow-up studies. Our efforts have focused on overcoming these deficiencies by developing three-dimensional ultrasound imaging techniques that are capable of acquiring B-mode, colour Doppler and power Doppler images of the vasculature, by using a conventional ultrasound system to acquire a series of two-dimensional images and then mathematically reconstructing them into a single three-dimensional image, which may then be viewed interactively on an inexpensive desktop computer. We report here on two approaches: (1) free-hand scanning, in which a magnetic positioning device is attached to the ultrasound transducer to record the position and orientation of each two-dimensional image needed for the three-dimensional image reconstruction; and (2) mechanical scanning, in which a motor-driven assembly is used to translate the transducer linearly across the neck, yielding a set of uniformly-spaced parallel two-dimensional images.
authors.affiliation: John P. Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada. afenster@irus.rri.uwo.ca
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fenster
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sherebrin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rankin
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Downey
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008280:Magnetics; D008838:Microcomputers; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014159:Transducers; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler; D018615:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional