Development of a New Display Method for Compound 3D Ultrasound Images: Fusion 3D Images From B-mode and 3D Doppler Images

In the fields of X-ray CT, MRI, and nuclear medicine, three-dimensional (3D) imaging techniques, mainly based on segmentation methods, for extracting the surface contours of 3D structures are widely used in clinical applications in order to obtain stereoscopic information regarding anatomical structures. It has been difficult to apply such segmentation techniques to diagnostic ultrasound images. In recent years, however, a new 3D imaging technique called “volume rendering” (VR), which does not rely on segmentation, has been developed, making it possible to obtain 3D ultrasound images for clinical diagnosis. In addition, diagnostic ultrasound systems provided with a 3D display function using a linear array probe have been introduced in clinical practice, mainly for obstetric and abdominal applications.1) In this paper, we describe a newly developed imaging technique in which ultrasound image information is used to generate and display arbitrary cross-sectional B-mode images showing two-dimensional (2D) tissue structures combined with 3D blood-flow images. Such images make it much easier to visualize the anatomical relationships between tissues and surrounding blood vessels, and provide valuable diagnostic information.2,3)