Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging

Ultrasound is an inexpensive and widely used imaging modality for the diagnosis and staging of a number of diseases; nevertheless, technical improvements are needed before its full potential is realized. We believe that 2-D viewing of the 3-D anatomy, using conventional ultrasound procedures, limits our ability to quantify, diagnose and stage a number of diseases because: conventional ultrasound images are 2-D, multiple images must be integrated in the diagnostician's mind to develop a 3-D impression of the anatomy leading to a time-consuming process with increased operator variability; the patient's anatomy or orientation sometimes restricts the image angle, resulting in the optimal image plane necessary for diagnosis being unavailable; and, it is difficult to localize the conventional 2-D image plane and reproduce it at a later time, making it suboptimal for monitoring of therapy. Our efforts have focused on overcoming these deficiencies by developing 3-D ultrasound imaging techniques that are capable of acquiring B-mode, color Doppler and power Doppler images from existing ultrasound instruments, reconstructing the information in 3-D, and then allowing interactive viewing of 3-D ultrasound images on inexpensive desktop computers.