A robust index for global tissue deformation analysis in ultrasound images

摘要

In this paper, a new index for global 2D tissue deformation analysis without correlation is computed from anultrasound video sequence. First, the vertical and horizontal projections of the frames are computed, followedby the mean of the outer product of the two projections. Finally, the deformation index is the relative variationof the mean of the outer product with respect to the first frame. The index was validated on simulated data(valve and echocardiography) and ex vivo (raw meat). In the latter case, an ultrasound probe was roboticallymoved along the vertical axis to compress the meat. Results showed that the proposed index is robust and highlycorrelated with the average relative displacement of the landmarks located on the boundaries of the deformedpart for the simulations (r = 0:90) and with the probe motion in the ex vivo case (r = 0:83). In comparison,a simple normalized cross correlation approach gives poor results (r < 0:2) due to a lack of robustness in thetracking.