Monitoring thermal ablation using registration of B-mode ultrasound images

摘要

Systems, displays and methods are provided, for performing ultrasound image registration and for using ultrasound images to guide thermal ablation. Registration is carried out by correlating sequential ultrasound images, identifying key frames from the correlation values, identifying periodic change(s) corresponding to breathing and heart beating, and correlating pixels in sequential key frames that have a same phase with respect to the identifying periodic change(s). Based on the registration, the start of ablation is detected, bubbles formed in the ablation procedure are identified and their movements are followed—all using B-mode ultrasound images only. Using the identified bubbles, the thermally damaged tissue region is demarcated and provided in real-time—at an accuracy similar to prior art post-ablation results. Disclosed systems and methods therefore provide the physician with an ultrasound-based way of monitoring thermal ablation in real-time.