IMU-Assisted Manual 3D-Ultrasound Imaging Using Motion-Constrained Swept-Fan Scans

Harindranath, A and Shah, K and Devadass, D and George, A and Banerjee Krishnan, K and Arora, M (2024) IMU-Assisted Manual 3D-Ultrasound Imaging Using Motion-Constrained Swept-Fan Scans. In: Ultrasonic Imaging, 46 (3). pp. 164-177.

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Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasonic imaging can enable post-facto plane of interest selection. It can be performed with devices such as wobbler probes, matrix probes, and sensor-based probes. Ultrasound systems that support 3D-imaging are expensive with added hardware complexity compared to 2D-imaging systems. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) can potentially be used for 3D-imaging by using it to track the motion of a one-dimensional array probe and constraining its motion in one degree of freedom (1-DoF) rotation (swept-fan). This work demonstrates the feasibility of an affordable IMU-assisted manual 3D-ultrasound scanner (IAM3US). A consumer-grade IMU-assisted 3D scanner prototype is designed with two support structures for swept-fan. After proper IMU calibration, an appropriate KF-based algorithm estimates the probe orientation during the swept-fan. An improved scanline-based reconstruction method is used for volume reconstruction. The evaluation of the IAM3US system is done by imaging a tennis ball filled with water and the head region of a fetal phantom. From fetal phantom reconstructed volumes, suitable 2D planes are extracted for biparietal diameter (BPD) manual measurements. Later, in-vivo data is collected. The novel contributions of this paper are (1) the application of a recently proposed algorithm for orientation estimation of swept-fan for 3D imaging, chosen based on the noise characteristics of selected consumer grade IMU (2) assessment of the quality of the 1-DoF swept-fan scan with a deflection detector along with monitoring of maximum angular rate during the scan and (3) two probe holder designs to aid the operator in performing the 1-DoF rotational motion and (4) end-to-end 3D-imaging system-integration. Phantom studies and preliminary in-vivo obstetric scans performed on two patients illustrate the usability of the system for diagnosis purposes. © The Author(s) 2024.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Ultrasonic Imaging
Publisher:	SAGE Publications Inc.
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to SAGE Publications Inc.
Keywords:	Degrees of freedom (mechanics); Diagnosis; Imaging systems; Probes; Ultrasonic imaging, 3-D ultrasound; Affordable 3d-ultrasound; Biomedical ultrasound; Biomedical ultrasound imaging; Diagnostic ultrasound; Fetal imaging; Inertial measurements units; MEMS-inertial measurement unit; Ultrasound imaging; Ultrasound system, Phantoms
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Department of Design & Manufacturing (formerly Centre for Product Design & Manufacturing)
Date Deposited:	29 Aug 2024 06:24
Last Modified:	29 Aug 2024 06:24
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/84859

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