A method of determining the time dependent behavior of non rigid moving objects, particularly of biological tissues, from echographic ultrasound imaging data

摘要

The invention relates to a method of determining the time dependent behavior of non rigid moving objects, particularly of biological tissues from echographic ultrasound imaging data comprising the steps of: tracking position and velocity of objects' borders in two or three dimensional digital images, particularly in echographic images by: Acquiring a sequence of at least two consecutive ultrasound image frames of a moving tissue or a moving object which ultrasound image frames are timely separated by a certain time interval; Automatically or manually defining a certain number of reference points of a border of a moving tissue or object at least on one image frame of the sequence of image frames acquired; Automatically tracking the border of the moving tissue or object in the at least one further following frame by determining the new position of the reference points of the border in at least one following image frame of the sequence of image frames by estimating the position of the said reference points in the said at least following image frame of the sequence of image frames on the basis of the ultrasound image data of the acquired sequence of image frames and determining the border line instant velocity on each image frame of said sequence of image frames.According to the invention in order to evaluate strain and strain rate of the moving object the component for the velocity vector tangential to the said border line and the component normal to the said tangential direction are determined and the strain is being evaluated as a function of the said tangential component of the velocity vectors and of the component of the velocity vector normal to the said tangential component.