# An automatic geometrical and statistical method to detect acoustic shadows in intraoperative ultrasound brain images

2 VisAGeS - Vision, Action et Gestion d'informations en Santé
INSERM - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale : U746, Inria Rennes – Bretagne Atlantique , IRISA-D5 - SIGNAUX ET IMAGES NUMÉRIQUES, ROBOTIQUE
Abstract : In ultrasound images, acoustic shadows appear as regions of low signal intensity linked to boundaries with very high acoustic impedance differences. Acoustic shadows can be viewed either as informative features to detect lesions or calcifications, or as damageable artifacts for image processing tasks such as segmentation, registration or $3D$ reconstruction. In both cases, the detection of these acoustic shadows is useful. This paper proposes a new method to detect these shadows that combines a geometrical approach to estimate the B-scans shape, followed by a statistical test based on a dedicated modeling of ultrasound image statistics. Results demonstrate that the combined geometrical-statistical technique is more robust and yields better results than the previous statistical technique. Integration of regularization over time further improves robustness. Application of the procedure results in 1) improved 3D reconstructions with fewer artifacts, and 2) reduced mean registration error of tracked intraoperative brain ultrasound images.
Document type :
Journal articles

Cited literature [18 references]

https://hal.inria.fr/inria-00432724
Contributor : Pierre Hellier <>
Submitted on : Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 9:54:14 AM
Last modification on : Friday, July 10, 2020 - 4:22:07 PM
Long-term archiving on: : Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 2:11:15 PM

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Pierre Hellier, Pierrick Coupé, Xavier Morandi, D. Louis Collins. An automatic geometrical and statistical method to detect acoustic shadows in intraoperative ultrasound brain images. Medical Image Analysis, Elsevier, 2010, 14 (2), pp.195-204. ⟨10.1016/j.media.2009.10.007⟩. ⟨inria-00432724⟩

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