REDUCED IMAGE READING TIME AND IMPROVED PATIENT FLOW IN AUTOMATED BREAST ULTRASOUND USING ENHANCED, WHOLE-BREAST NAVIGATOR OVERVIEW IMAGE

• Main Authors: SCHEIDER, Alexander, WANG, Shih-ping, ROMSDAHL, Harlan, ZHANG, Wei, NEFF, Thomas
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 23.10.2019
• Subjects: DIAGNOSIS; HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONTECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING ORPROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; IDENTIFICATION; INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTEDFOR SPECIFIC APPLICATION FIELDS; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; PHYSICS; SURGERY

A method and system acquiring, processing and displaying breast ultrasound images in a way that makes breast ultrasound screening more practical and thus more widely used, and reduces missing cancers in screening and diagnosis, using automated scanning of chestwardly compressed breasts with ultrasound. Enhanced, whole-breast navigator overview images are generated from scanning breasts with ultrasound that emphasize abnormalities in the breast while excluding obscuring influences of non-breast structures, particularly those external to the breast such as ribs and chest wall, and differentiating between likely malignant and likely benign abnormalities and otherwise enhancing the navigator overview image and other images, to thereby reduce the time to read, screen, or diagnose to practical time limits and also reduce screening or diagnostic errors.