CN114245726A

CN114245726A - Prostate elasticity measuring method and ultrasonic imaging system

Info

Publication number: CN114245726A
Application number: CN202080050940.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李双双; 兰帮鑫
Original assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Mindray Bio Medical Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-26
Filing date: 2020-10-26
Publication date: 2022-03-25
Also published as: WO2021218077A1; CN113545806A

Abstract

A prostate elasticity measurement method and an ultrasound imaging system (100). The method comprises the following steps: controlling an ultrasound probe (110) to transmit a first ultrasound wave to the prostate site, and receiving an ultrasound echo to obtain a first ultrasound echo signal; a processor (116) obtains a B-mode ultrasound image based on the first ultrasound echo signal; controlling the ultrasound probe (110) to emit a second ultrasound wave to track the shear wave, receiving the ultrasound echo to obtain a second ultrasound echo signal; a processor (116) obtains a shear wave elasticity image based on the second ultrasonic echo signal; a processor (116) determines an extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image, determines an elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region based on the shear wave elasticity image, determines at least one target measurement position in the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity measurement value, generates a target measurement region based on the at least one target measurement position, and obtains an elasticity measurement result based on the elasticity measurement value of the target measurement region; and controlling a display device (118) to display the elasticity measurement result. The system (100) includes an ultrasound probe (110), a transmit circuit (112), a receive circuit (114), a processor (116), and a display device (118).

Description

Prostate elasticity measuring method and ultrasonic imaging system

Description

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of ultrasound imaging technology, and more particularly, to a prostate elasticity measurement method and an ultrasound imaging system.

Background

Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the male genitourinary system, and the morbidity and mortality of prostate cancer are in a remarkably rising trend in recent years. The ultrasound is the most common means for screening prostate lesions in clinic, while the ultrasound elastography technology can reflect the hardness and softness of lesions and surrounding tissues, has unique diagnostic value and advantages in cancer diagnosis, and has been more and more widely applied to clinical diagnosis of prostate diseases in recent years. The elastography technology mainly comprises strain elastography and shear wave elastography, wherein the shear wave elastography refers to the formation of shear waves propagating in tissues, the identification and detection of the shear waves generated in the tissues and propagation parameters thereof, and the imaging of the parameters, so as to visually present the hardness difference of the tissues.

Elastography can reflect the tissue stiffness of the prostate, but to obtain specific parameters, a measurement zone needs to be selected for elastography. The prostate gland is divided in tissue structure into an inner gland and an outer gland, wherein prostate cancer is highly developed in the outer prostate gland, and thus prostate elasticity measurement is mainly applied to the outer gland region. However, it is difficult for the user to distinguish the extraprostatic gland region by the elasticity image, and most of the prostatic cancer is diffuse, not nodular, and the boundary of the lesion is difficult to distinguish, so that the user often encounters a problem of difficulty in selecting a measurement position in the process of performing the elasticity measurement. In addition, it often takes a long time to perform elasticity measurements in multiple measurement regions.

Disclosure of Invention

In this summary, concepts in a simplified form are introduced that are further described in the detailed description. This summary of the invention is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

A first aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a prostate elasticity measurement method, which is applied to an ultrasound imaging system, where the ultrasound imaging system includes an ultrasound probe, a processor, and a display device, and the method includes:

controlling the ultrasonic probe to emit first ultrasonic waves to the prostate part of a measured object, and receiving ultrasonic echoes of the first ultrasonic waves to obtain first ultrasonic echo signals;

the processor performs signal processing on the first ultrasonic echo signal to obtain a B-type ultrasonic image of the prostate part;

controlling the ultrasound probe to emit second ultrasound waves toward the prostate site to track shear waves propagating at the prostate site, and to receive ultrasound echoes of the second ultrasound waves to obtain second ultrasound echo signals;

the processor performs signal processing on the second ultrasonic echo signal to obtain a shear wave elastic image of the prostate part;

the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measure of the extraprostatic gland region based on the shear wave elasticity image;

the processor determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elastometric value of the extraprostatic region;

the processor generates at least one target measurement area by taking the at least one target measurement position as a reference, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area;

and controlling the display equipment to display the elasticity measurement result.

A second aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a prostate elasticity measuring method, which is applied to an ultrasound imaging system, where the ultrasound imaging system includes an ultrasound probe, a processor, and a display device, and the method includes:

controlling the ultrasonic probe to scan the prostate part of the tested object so as to obtain a B-type ultrasonic image and an elastic image of the prostate part of the tested object;

the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measure of the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image;

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a prostate elasticity measuring method, which is applied to an ultrasound imaging system including an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, and includes:

the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region according to the B-type ultrasonic image and determines an elasticity measurement value corresponding to at least one pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image;

the processor determines at least one target pixel point with the elasticity measuring value meeting preset requirements according to the elasticity measuring value corresponding to the at least one pixel point;

the processor generates a target measurement area according to the at least one target pixel point, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the target measurement area;

A fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides an ultrasound imaging system, which includes an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, where the processor is configured to control the ultrasound probe and the display device to perform the method for measuring prostate elasticity of the first aspect of the embodiments of the present application.

A fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides an ultrasound imaging system, which includes an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, wherein the processor is configured to control the ultrasound probe and the display device to perform the prostate elasticity measurement method according to the second aspect of the embodiments of the present application.

A sixth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides an ultrasound imaging system, which includes an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, wherein the processor is configured to control the ultrasound probe and the display device to perform the method for measuring prostate elasticity of the third aspect of the embodiments of the present application.

According to the prostate elasticity measurement method and the ultrasound imaging system, the extraprostatic gland region is determined based on the B-type ultrasound image, the elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region is obtained according to the elasticity image corresponding to the B-type ultrasound image, and the target measurement position is selected in the extraprostatic gland region according to the elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region, so that the problem that the measurement region is difficult to determine when the prostate elasticity measurement is carried out is solved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without inventive exercise.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic flow diagram of a method of measuring prostate elasticity in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3A shows a B-mode ultrasound image of a prostate site according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B shows the extraprostatic gland region identified in the B-mode ultrasound image shown in FIG. 3A;

FIG. 4A shows a B-mode ultrasound image of a prostate site according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4B shows the extraprostatic gland region identified in the B-mode ultrasound image shown in FIG. 4A;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic view of a measurement region determined at the extraprostatic region according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a schematic view of a plurality of alternative measurement regions determined at the extraprostatic gland region in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows a schematic block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system according to another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 shows a schematic flow diagram of a method of measuring prostate elasticity according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 shows a schematic flow chart of a prostate elasticity measurement method according to yet another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, exemplary embodiments according to the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present application and not all embodiments of the present application, and that the present application is not limited by the example embodiments described herein. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the application described in the application without inventive step, shall fall within the scope of protection of the application.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present application. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present application may be practiced without one or more of these specific details. In other instances, well-known features of the art have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the present application.

It is to be understood that the present application is capable of implementation in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the application to those skilled in the art.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of the associated listed items.

In order to provide a thorough understanding of the present application, a detailed structure will be presented in the following description in order to explain the technical solutions presented in the present application. Alternative embodiments of the present application are described in detail below, however, the present application may have other implementations in addition to these detailed descriptions.

Next, an ultrasound imaging system according to an embodiment of the present application is first described with reference to fig. 1, and fig. 1 shows a schematic structural block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system 100 according to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 1, the ultrasound imaging system 100 includes an ultrasound probe 110, transmit circuitry 112, receive circuitry 114, a processor 116, and a display device 118. Further, the ultrasound imaging system may further include a transmit/receive selection switch 120 and a beam forming circuit 122, and the transmit circuit 112 and the receive circuit 114 may be connected to the ultrasound probe 110 through the transmit/receive selection switch 120.

Specifically, the ultrasound probe 110 includes a plurality of transducer elements, which may be arranged in a line to form a linear array, or in a two-dimensional matrix to form an area array, or in a convex array. The transducer is used for transmitting ultrasonic waves according to the excitation electric signals or converting the received ultrasonic waves into the electric signals, so that each array element can be used for realizing the mutual conversion of the electric pulse signals and the ultrasonic waves, thereby realizing the transmission of the ultrasonic waves to tissues of a target area of a measured object and also receiving ultrasonic wave echoes reflected back by the tissues. In ultrasound imaging, it is possible to control which transducers are used to transmit ultrasound waves and which transducers are used to receive ultrasound waves, or to control which transducers are time-slotted to transmit ultrasound waves or to receive echoes of ultrasound waves, by means of a transmit sequence and a receive sequence. The transducers participating in the ultrasonic transmission may be simultaneously excited by the electrical signal, thereby simultaneously transmitting ultrasonic waves; alternatively, the transducers involved in the transmission of the ultrasonic beam may be excited by several electrical signals with a certain time interval, so that the ultrasonic waves with a certain time interval are continuously transmitted.

In one embodiment, the transducer is used both to emit ultrasound waves that generate B-mode ultrasound images and to apply pulses of acoustic radiation force to a target region of an object under test to produce shear waves. In another embodiment, the ultrasound imaging system 100 may further include a vibrator. In transient elastic detection, the vibrator generates mechanical vibration under the control of the processor 116, thereby generating shear waves propagating in the tissue at the target region of the object to be measured. The vibrator may be a built-in vibrator disposed inside the ultrasonic probe 110, or an external vibrator separately disposed.

During ultrasound imaging, the transmit circuit 112 sends delay-focused transmit pulses to the ultrasound probe 110 through the transmit/receive select switch 120. The ultrasonic probe 110 is excited by the transmission pulse to transmit an ultrasonic beam to the tissue of the target region of the object to be measured, receives an ultrasonic echo with tissue information reflected from the tissue of the target region after a certain time delay, and converts the ultrasonic echo back into an electrical signal again. The receiving circuit 114 receives the electrical signals generated by the ultrasound probe 110, obtains ultrasound echo signals, and sends the ultrasound echo signals to the beam forming circuit 122, and the beam forming circuit 122 performs processing such as focusing delay, weighting, channel summation and the like on the ultrasound echo data, and then sends the ultrasound echo data to the processor 116.

The processor 116 performs signal detection, signal enhancement, data conversion, logarithmic compression, and the like on the ultrasonic echo signal to form an ultrasonic image. Specifically, the processor 116 may perform conventional B-mode ultrasound image processing on the ultrasound echo signals to generate B-mode ultrasound images; the processor 116 may also perform elastography processing on the ultrasound echo signals tracking the shear waves, and calculate elasticity measurement values for generating an elasticity image, so as to generate a corresponding elasticity image according to the elasticity measurement values. The processor 116 may also select a specific measurement area and obtain quantitative elasticity measurements based on the elasticity measurements in the measurement area. The ultrasound images (e.g., B-mode ultrasound images, elasticity images, etc.) and elasticity measurements obtained by the processor 116 may be displayed on a display device 118 or may be stored in a memory 124.

Alternatively, the processor 116 may be implemented as software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof, and may use single or multiple Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), single or multiple general purpose Integrated circuits, single or multiple microprocessors, single or multiple programmable logic devices, or any combination of the preceding, or other suitable circuits or devices. Also, the processor 116 may control other components in the ultrasound imaging system 100 to perform the respective steps of the methods in the various embodiments herein.

The display device 118 is connected to the processor 116, and the display device 118 may be a touch screen, a liquid crystal display, or the like; alternatively, the display device 118 may be a separate display device such as a liquid crystal display, a television, or the like, separate from the ultrasound imaging system 100; alternatively, the display device 118 may be a display screen of an electronic device such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, and the like. The number of the display devices 118 may be one or more. For example, the display device 118 may include a home screen primarily for displaying ultrasound images and a touch screen primarily for human-computer interaction.

The display device 118 may display the ultrasound image obtained by the processor 116. In addition, the display device 118 can provide a graphical interface for human-computer interaction for the user while displaying the ultrasound image, and one or more controlled objects are arranged on the graphical interface, so that the user can input operation instructions by using a human-computer interaction device to control the controlled objects, thereby executing corresponding control operation. For example, an icon is displayed on the graphical interface, and the icon can be operated by the human-computer interaction device to execute specific functions, such as drawing a region-of-interest box on the ultrasonic image, selecting whether to accept the elastic measurement region automatically determined by the system, and the like.

Optionally, the ultrasound imaging system 100 may further include a human-computer interaction device other than the display device 118, which is connected to the processor 116, for example, the processor 116 may be connected to the human-computer interaction device through an external input/output port, which may be a wireless communication module, a wired communication module, or a combination thereof. The external input/output port may also be implemented based on USB, bus protocols such as CAN, and/or wired network protocols, etc.

The human-computer interaction device may include an input device for detecting input information of a user, for example, control instructions for the transmission/reception timing of the ultrasonic waves, operation input instructions for drawing points, lines, frames, or the like on the ultrasonic images, or other instruction types. The input device may include one or more of a keyboard, mouse, scroll wheel, trackball, mobile input device (such as a mobile device with a touch screen display, cell phone, etc.), multi-function knob, and the like. The human-computer interaction device may also include an output device such as a printer.

The ultrasound imaging system 100 may also include a memory 124 for storing instructions executed by the processor, storing received ultrasound echoes, storing ultrasound images, and so forth. The memory may be a flash memory card, solid state memory, hard disk, etc. Which may be volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory, removable memory and/or non-removable memory, etc.

It should be understood that the components included in the ultrasound imaging system 100 shown in fig. 1 are merely illustrative and that more or fewer components may be included. This is not limited by the present application.

In the following, a method for measuring prostate elasticity according to an embodiment of the present application will be described with reference to fig. 2, which is applied to an ultrasound imaging system comprising at least an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, and in particular, may refer to the ultrasound imaging system 100 shown in fig. 1. Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a prostate elasticity measurement method 200 according to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 2, the prostate elasticity measuring method 200 includes the steps of:

in step S210, controlling the ultrasound probe to emit a first ultrasound wave to a prostate part of a measured object, and receiving an ultrasound echo of the first ultrasound wave to obtain a first ultrasound echo signal;

in step S220, the processor performs signal processing on the first ultrasonic echo signal to obtain a B-mode ultrasonic image of the prostate part;

in step S230, controlling the ultrasound probe to emit a second ultrasound wave to the prostate site to track a shear wave propagating at the prostate site, and receiving an ultrasound echo of the second ultrasound wave to obtain a second ultrasound echo signal;

in step S240, the processor performs signal processing on the second ultrasound echo signal to obtain a shear wave elastic image of the prostate part;

in step S250, the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region based on the shear wave elasticity image;

in step S260, the processor determines at least one target measurement position in the extraprostatic gland region according to the elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region;

in step S270, the processor generates at least one target measurement area based on the at least one target measurement position, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value in the at least one target measurement area;

in step S280, the display device is controlled to display the elasticity measurement result.

The prostate elasticity measurement method 200 of the embodiment of the present application is used for performing elasticity measurement on a specific measurement region after shear wave elastography is performed on a prostate to obtain a quantitative elasticity measurement result. The processor determines an extraprostatic gland region according to a B-type ultrasonic image corresponding to the shear wave elastic image, automatically selects a position where an elastic measurement value meets a preset requirement in the extraprostatic gland region to determine a target measurement position, determines a target measurement region by taking the target measurement position as a reference, and counts the elastic measurement value in the target measurement region to obtain a measurement result, so that the problem that the measurement region for measuring the elasticity of the prostate is difficult to determine is solved, a plurality of positions meeting the preset requirement can be simultaneously selected for automatic measurement, and the measurement time is saved.

Illustratively, in step S210, in conjunction with fig. 1, the transmitting circuit 112 transmits an electrical signal with appropriate time delay to each transducer element in the ultrasound probe 110, and the transducer converts the electrical signal into a first ultrasonic wave to be transmitted to the target region of the measured object; the transducer in the ultrasonic probe 110 receives the ultrasonic echo of the first ultrasonic wave returned by the target region and converts the ultrasonic echo into an electrical signal to obtain a first ultrasonic echo signal, the first ultrasonic echo signal is subjected to signal amplification, analog-to-digital conversion and the like and then transmitted to the beam forming circuit 122 to be subjected to beam forming processing, then the beam formed first ultrasonic echo signal is transmitted to the processor 116, then in step S220, the processor 116 performs log compression, dynamic range adjustment, digital scanning conversion and the like on the first ultrasonic echo signal to form a B-type ultrasonic image for representing the tissue morphological structure of the target region, and outputs the B-type ultrasonic image to the display device 118 for display, and a user can observe the B-type ultrasonic image in real time, so that the examination range, the ultrasonic probe placement angle and the like can be adjusted according to needs.

After the B-mode ultrasonic image is generated and displayed, an elastic image acquisition preparation state is entered, and a region of interest (ROI) for generating the elastic image in the B-mode ultrasonic image is determined. As an example, a region of interest box on the B-mode ultrasound image may be selected by a user manual box, and the position of the region of interest may be determined according to a detected user input instruction. The region of interest frame may be rectangular, or may be circular, elliptical, fan-shaped, etc. For example, the user may draw the region of interest box on the B-mode ultrasound image through an input device such as a mouse or a touch screen.

As another implementation, the location of the region of interest on the B-mode ultrasound image may be automatically determined based on a related machine recognition algorithm, i.e., the region of interest box is automatically generated. In other examples, the region of interest may also be obtained by semi-automatic detection, for example, first automatically detecting the position of the region of interest on the B-mode ultrasound image based on a machine recognition algorithm, and displaying an editable region of interest box on the B-mode ultrasound image, allowing the user to adjust the height, width and position thereof by mouse, touch screen or the like to determine the specific position of the region of interest.

The display device 118 then transmits the determined coordinate information of the region of interest to the processor 116, and the processor 116 determines the position of the region of interest in the tissue based on the coordinate information of the region of interest, thereby subsequently elastography imaging the region of interest. In some embodiments, the region of interest may also be selected by other means, such as by default setting the region of interest a predetermined distance below a certain position of the ultrasound probe, and the user may adjust the region of interest by moving the ultrasound probe according to the displayed ultrasound image, thereby changing the position of the elastography.

After the position of the region of interest has been determined, a scanning phase of an elastography mode is entered, in which the region of interest determined above is elastographically imaged. In this phase, a shear wave propagating in a target region of the object under test is first generated. In one embodiment, shear waves may be generated within tissue of the region of interest by focused impingement of acoustic radiation forces. In particular, a series of ultrasonic push pulses may be transmitted by the ultrasound probe 110 to tissue of the region of interest to generate a propagation of shear waves in the tissue based on the acoustic radiation force. In another embodiment, mechanical vibrations may also be applied to the object to be measured by the vibrator to generate shear waves inside the tissue of the region of interest. The vibrator may be disposed inside the ultrasonic probe 110, or may be a separate vibrator disposed outside the ultrasonic probe 110.

Thereafter, in step S230, the transmission circuit 112 excites the ultrasound probe 110 to transmit a second ultrasonic wave that tracks the shear wave to the determined region of interest and receives an echo of the second ultrasonic wave to obtain a second ultrasonic echo signal. In step S240, the processor 116 calculates an elasticity measure, such as at least one of shear wave velocity, young' S modulus or shear modulus, of the region of interest from the second ultrasound signal. And then, generating a shear wave elastic image based on the distribution of the elastic measured values, wherein tissues with different properties and hardness can be identified in the shear wave elastic image through different colors, gray scales or filling modes. For example, a pseudo-color mapping can be superimposed on the elasticity measurement at a plurality of positions of the region of interest within the region of interest frame of the B-mode ultrasound image, i.e., a shear wave elasticity image of the region of interest can be formed.

For example, the elasticity measurement value can be calculated by the following method: and calculating the displacement of a certain point on the propagation path of the shear wave according to the received second ultrasonic echo signal, and considering that the shear wave reaches the point when the displacement of the point is maximum. The propagation path or propagation track of the shear wave can be positioned by the time of the shear wave reaching each point, so that a shear wave track graph can be drawn, the slope of each point on the shear wave propagation path can be obtained according to the track line of the shear wave, and the slope is the shear wave speed. Based on the relationship between the shear wave velocity and the young's modulus and shear modulus, other elasticity measurements, such as young's modulus and shear modulus, can be further calculated after obtaining the shear wave velocity.

The processor may then merge the B-mode ultrasound image with the region of interest identification and the elasticity image into one frame image. In the embodiment of the application, the B-mode ultrasound image with the region of interest identifier and the elasticity image obtained in the elasticity imaging preparation stage may be synthesized into one frame of image, or the B-mode ultrasound imaging of the target region and the elasticity imaging of the region of interest may be alternately performed in the elasticity scanning stage or the B-mode ultrasound imaging and the elasticity image may be respectively generated based on the same set of ultrasound echo signals, then the region of interest identifier is added to the B-mode ultrasound image generated in real time in the elasticity scanning stage according to the position information of the region of interest obtained in the elasticity acquisition preparation stage, and the B-mode ultrasound image and the elasticity image generated in real time are merged into one frame of image. That is, the B-mode ultrasound image in step S220 may be generated before or during the acquisition of the elastic image. The processor 116 may then output the synthesized image data to the display device 118 for display on a display interface of the display device 118.

In step S250, the processor first determines the extraprostatic gland region according to the B-mode ultrasound image, and the specific workflow can be implemented in any one of the following forms:

1) in a B-mode ultrasonic imaging mode before acquiring an elastic image, namely in the process of acquiring a B-mode ultrasonic image, determining an extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasonic image in real time, then maintaining the position and the direction of an ultrasonic probe, and acquiring a shear wave elastic image corresponding to the B-mode ultrasonic image;

2) determining the extraprostatic gland region of the B-type ultrasonic image in an elastic image acquisition preparation state after the B-type ultrasonic image is obtained and before the elastic image is acquired, then keeping the position and the direction of an ultrasonic probe, and acquiring a shear wave elastic image corresponding to the B-type ultrasonic image;

3) determining an extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasonic image in an elastography mode, namely in the process of obtaining a shear wave elasticity image corresponding to the B-mode ultrasonic image;

4) after obtaining the shear wave elastic image corresponding to the B-mode ultrasonic image, the extraprostatic gland region of the B-mode ultrasonic image is determined.

The B-mode ultrasound image may be used to determine the prostate region and the extraprostatic region, or only the extraprostatic region. The prostate region in the B-mode ultrasound image may be determined first, and then the extraprostatic gland region may be segmented into an extraprostatic gland region and an intraprostatic gland region, or the extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasound image may be directly identified and segmented.

In one example, the processor may identify and segment an extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasound image or an extraprostatic gland region and an intraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasound image using an edge-detected image segmentation method. Referring to fig. 3A and 3B, in the B-mode ultrasound image shown in fig. 3A, the discontinuity caused by the gray level or the abrupt change of the structure is an edge, and the prostatic glands, the extraprostatic glands and other tissue regions have the discontinuity of the gray level or the structure in the B-mode ultrasound image, and the discontinuity in the B-mode ultrasound image can be detected by an edge detection algorithm including, but not limited to, an edge detection algorithm such as a differential operator, so as to realize the identification and segmentation of the prostatic glands region, the prostatic glands region and other tissue regions, and fig. 3B shows the divided prostatic glands region and the prostatic glands region in the B-mode ultrasound image shown in fig. 3A.

In another example, the processor may perform image segmentation using a machine learning algorithm, for example, a trained deep learning neural network model may be used to segment an extraprostatic gland region in a B-mode ultrasound image, or an prostatic gland region and an extraprostatic gland region in a B-mode ultrasound image. The method performs characteristic learning on a pre-constructed database by stacking a convolution layer and a full connection layer, thereby directly obtaining a region to be segmented of an input image and a corresponding category of the region. Fig. 4A and 4B show a B-mode ultrasound image of a prostate site and an prostatic internal gland region and an prostatic external gland region segmented in the B-mode ultrasound image, respectively.

Alternatively, an image feature recognition algorithm may be used to segment the extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasound image, or to segment the prostatic gland region and the extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasound image. For example, feature extraction may be performed on image blocks of a predetermined neighborhood around each pixel point in the B-type ultrasound image, then, the extracted features are matched with features in a pre-constructed database, and the extracted features are classified by using a classifier to determine the category of the image block corresponding to the features, that is, the image block is divided into image blocks of an extraprostatic gland region, an image block of an intraprostatic gland region, and image blocks of other regions according to the features of the image block, thereby realizing segmentation of the extraprostatic gland region in the B-type ultrasound image.

Several ways of determining the area of the extraprostatic gland are provided above by way of example only, but it should be noted that the processor may use any suitable image recognition or segmentation algorithm to segment the B-mode ultrasound image in addition to the above ways, and the specific algorithm used is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. While the determination of the extraprostatic region based on the B-mode ultrasound image is described in detail above, it is understood that the extraprostatic region can also be determined based on the C-mode ultrasound image, the three-dimensional ultrasound image or other images capable of seeing the extraprostatic gland structure, and the detailed method can be understood by referring to the above-mentioned image recognition or segmentation algorithm based on the B-mode ultrasound image, which will not be described in detail herein.

After determining the extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasound image, the processor may determine the extraprostatic gland region in the elasticity image according to the correspondence between the B-mode ultrasound image and the shear wave elasticity image. Since the shear wave elasticity image is generated based on the distribution of the elasticity measurement values, the elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region, such as the shear wave velocity, the shear modulus or the young modulus corresponding to each pixel point of the extraprostatic gland region, can be obtained according to the position of the extraprostatic gland region in the shear wave elasticity image.

In some embodiments, after the determination of the extraprostatic gland region in the B-mode ultrasound image, the location of the extraprostatic gland region may be displayed on the B-mode ultrasound image or the shear wave elasticity image. For example, a boundary between the prostate region inside the prostate and the prostate region outside the prostate may be displayed as shown in fig. 3B, or a contour line of the prostate region outside the prostate may be displayed as shown in fig. 4B, so that the user can intuitively understand the prostate region in the ultrasound image.

Thereafter, in step S240, at least one target measurement position is determined in the extraprostatic region according to the elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic region. As shown in fig. 5, a region of interest box 502 is drawn on a B-mode ultrasound image 501, and a shear wave elastic image 503 is superimposed in the region of interest box 502 of another identical B-mode ultrasound image. After the extraprostatic gland region 504 is determined based on the B-mode ultrasound image 501, an elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region 504 is obtained from the shear wave elasticity image 503, a target measurement position is determined in the extraprostatic gland region 504 based on the obtained elasticity measurement value, and a target measurement region 505 is determined with the target measurement position as a reference.

The target measurement region 505 shown in fig. 5 is the region with the highest measured elasticity value in the extraprostatic region 504, but in other embodiments, the target measurement region may be the region with the lowest measured elasticity value in the extraprostatic region, the region with the median measured elasticity value, or the region with the measured elasticity value satisfying other predetermined criteria. In addition, the target measurement region shown in fig. 5 is a circular region centered on the target measurement position, but the shape of the target measurement region in the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this, and in other embodiments, the shape of the target measurement region may also be implemented as another shape such as an ellipse, a square, a rectangle, or a four-pointed star, and may be specifically set in advance by the ultrasound imaging system or set by the user.

Referring to fig. 6, a specific scheme for determining a target measurement position according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. As shown in fig. 6, in this embodiment, the extraprostatic gland region 601 is first divided into at least two sub-regions, and the extraprostatic gland region 601 is divided into 4 sub-regions in fig. 6, wherein the dotted line represents the boundary between adjacent sub-regions. The areas of the various sub-regions may be equal or unequal, and the number and area of the sub-regions may be predetermined by the ultrasound imaging system. Or can be set by the user.

Then, the alternative measuring position corresponding to each sub-area is determined according to the elasticity measuring values of at least two sub-areas. Specifically, for each sub-region, the elasticity measurement value corresponding to each pixel point in the sub-region is obtained, and the pixel point corresponding to the elasticity measurement value meeting the preset condition is used as the candidate measurement position. The preset condition depends on the characteristics of the expected measurement region, for example, when it is desired to perform elasticity measurement in the region with the highest elasticity measurement value in the extraprostatic gland region to obtain the elasticity measurement result of the prostatic lesion, the elasticity measurement value represented by each pixel point in the sub-region may be ranked from large to small, and the pixel point with the largest elasticity measurement value may be used as the candidate measurement position of the sub-region. In the example of fig. 6, one candidate measurement position is determined in each of the 4 sub-areas, resulting in 4 candidate measurement positions.

Similarly, the area of interest of the user may not only include the area with the highest elasticity measurement value, but in some cases, the area with the lowest elasticity measurement value, the area corresponding to the median elasticity measurement value, or the area where the elasticity measurement value satisfies other conditions may also have research value, and the user may also wish to perform research analysis on these areas, so that the candidate measurement positions in the sub-areas may be selected according to corresponding criteria, which may be preset by the system, or one or more criteria that are required may be selected by the user among a plurality of criteria that are preset. For example, the candidate measurement position may be a maximum value, a minimum value, a median value, a quantile of the maximum value (e.g., 75% of the maximum value), or a multiple of the minimum value (e.g., 2 times of the minimum value) in the elasticity measurement values corresponding to all the pixel points in the sub-region.

Thereafter, a final target measurement position is selected among the candidate measurement positions. Specifically, first, candidate measurement regions are generated based on each candidate measurement position, respectively. For example, a circular candidate measurement area of a predetermined size may be determined centering on each candidate measurement position, and the radius of the candidate measurement area is, for example, 2.5mm or 3mm, but is not limited thereto. In the example of fig. 6, a circular candidate measurement region 602 is determined in each sub-region.

Then, the candidate elasticity measurement results of the candidate measurement areas are obtained according to the elasticity measurement values in each candidate measurement area. For example, the elasticity measurement values corresponding to all the pixel points in each candidate measurement region may be obtained, and the statistical results such as the average value, the minimum value, the maximum value, the quartile value or the standard deviation of the elasticity measurement values are calculated to be the candidate elasticity measurement results in the candidate measurement region, and the candidate measurement position corresponding to the candidate elasticity measurement result that satisfies the preset condition is determined as the final target measurement position.

The candidate elasticity measurement results satisfying the preset condition may be maximum values, minimum values, median values, quantiles of the maximum values, multiples of the minimum values, or the like in all the candidate elasticity measurement results. The preset condition may be consistent with a condition used when selecting the candidate measurement position, for example, when the candidate measurement position is a pixel point with the largest elastic measurement value in the sub-region, the candidate measurement position corresponding to the maximum value in all the candidate elastic measurement results is determined as the final target measurement position, so that the finally selected target measurement position is located in the region with the largest elastic measurement value in the extraprostatic region.

In another embodiment, the target measurement location may be determined as follows: generating alternative measurement regions by taking each pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region as a reference, determining alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region according to the elasticity measurement value in the alternative measurement regions, determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting preset conditions from the alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region, and taking the pixel point corresponding to the at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting the preset conditions as at least one target measurement position. The candidate measurement results meeting the preset condition include, but are not limited to, a maximum value, a minimum value, a median value, a quantile of the maximum value or a multiple of the minimum value in all the candidate elasticity measurement results.

Besides, the target measurement position can be determined as follows: firstly, dividing the extraprostatic gland region into at least two sub-regions, generating corresponding alternative measurement regions by taking each pixel point in each sub-region as a reference, and determining an alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to each alternative measurement region according to the elasticity measurement value of the alternative measurement regions; determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting preset conditions according to the alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to each alternative measurement region of each sub-region; determining at least one target elasticity measurement result from the at least one alternative elasticity measurement result satisfying a preset condition; and taking the pixel point corresponding to the at least one target elasticity measurement result as at least one target measurement position. For example, in each sub-region, each pixel point is used as the center of a circle of the candidate measurement region, and the average value of the elasticity measurement values corresponding to all the pixel points in the circular region with a certain radius around the pixel point is calculated, that is, the candidate measurement result corresponding to the pixel point used as the center of a circle. And then, comparing the alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each pixel point in each sub-area, and determining the pixel point corresponding to the alternative measurement result meeting the preset condition as the alternative measurement position in the sub-area. Finally, a final target measurement location is selected among the plurality of candidate measurement locations.

Compared with the method described above with reference to fig. 6, the above two schemes perform statistics on the region around each pixel point, so that an absolute result can be obtained, and the method is particularly suitable for scenes with high requirements on measurement accuracy.

The third scheme for determining the target measurement position provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps: acquiring an elasticity measurement value corresponding to each pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region; determining at least one elasticity measuring value meeting preset requirements from the elasticity measuring values corresponding to each pixel point; and taking a pixel point corresponding to at least one elasticity measurement value meeting the preset requirement as at least one target measurement position. That is, according to the present embodiment, the target measurement position is selected only based on the elasticity measurement value of a single point, and there is no need to divide the region and calculate the candidate measurement result, so that the calculation amount is small and the calculation speed is high.

The elasticity measurement values represented by each pixel point in the external gland area of the prostate can be arranged from large to small, and one or more pixel points corresponding to the elasticity measurement values meeting the preset requirements are determined as target measurement positions. For example, the elasticity measurement value meeting the preset requirement includes, but is not limited to, a maximum value, a minimum value, a median value, a quantile of the maximum value (e.g., 75% of the maximum value), or a multiple of the minimum value (e.g., 2 times of the minimum value) in the elasticity measurement values corresponding to all the pixel points.

For example, when it is desired to perform elasticity measurement on a lesion area, a pixel point corresponding to a maximum value in the elasticity measurement values may be used as a target measurement position, but since the target measurement position is selected based on a single measurement value, a special value may occur, for example, most elasticity measurement values are within a certain range, but a small portion of elasticity measurement values far exceed most elasticity measurement values, and the elasticity measurement values may be inaccurate or have no reference value. Therefore, when it is desired to perform elasticity measurement on a lesion area, a pixel point corresponding to about 75% of the maximum value in the elasticity measurement values may be used as a target measurement position, and the target measurement position may be obtained by excluding the influence of a specific value.

In one embodiment, the processor may first exclude the abnormal measurement point based on the measured elasticity value of the extraprostatic region, and determine the target measurement position in the extraprostatic region based on the measured elasticity value of the extraprostatic region after excluding the abnormal measurement point. For example, the abnormal measurement point may be a measurement point where the elasticity measurement value is higher than a certain preset threshold value or lower than a certain preset threshold value. Therefore, the interference of the abnormal measuring point on the determination of the target measuring position can be avoided.

In step S270, the processor generates at least one target measurement area based on the at least one target measurement position, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value in the at least one target measurement area.

Specifically, the processor may determine a certain area around each selected target measurement position as a final target measurement area, and calculate a statistical result of the elasticity measurement values in the final target measurement area to obtain a final elasticity measurement result. Wherein the target measurement position may be a center of the target measurement area. The shape of the target measurement region includes, but is not limited to, a circle, an ellipse, a square, a rectangle, or a four-pointed star, and the shape and area thereof can be preset by the ultrasound imaging system or can be selected by the user.

For example, when the target measurement position is selected in a partition manner, the shape and area of the final target measurement region may be consistent with those of the candidate measurement regions in each partition, and then the candidate elasticity measurement result corresponding to the final target measurement position may be directly used as the final elasticity measurement result. The shape and area of the final target measurement region may also be different from the alternative measurement regions, e.g. when the alternative measurement regions are circular, the final target measurement region may be square, rectangular, etc. of different sizes, and then the final measurement result may be recalculated at this point.

In one embodiment, after determining the target measurement location, the location of the target measurement location may be displayed and selected by the user whether to take the target measurement location. Alternatively, after the target measurement position is determined, the user may select whether to use the measurement region. Specifically, at least one target measurement area is generated based on the target measurement position, the at least one target measurement area is displayed, for example, a circular measurement frame with the target measurement position as a circle center is displayed, and a confirmation instruction of a user for the at least one target measurement area is received to determine at least one selected target measurement area; an elasticity measurement is obtained based on the elasticity measurement value in at least one selected target measurement zone. Of course, it is also possible to skip the step selected by the user, generate the target measurement area directly based on the selected target measurement position, and obtain the elasticity measurement result.

Finally, in step S280, the processor controls the display to display the elasticity measurement result obtained in step S270.

As can be seen from the above description, the number of target measurement positions may be one or more. When only one target measuring position exists, the corresponding elastic measuring result can be directly output. When there are a plurality of target measurement positions, the output mode of the elasticity measurement result includes, but is not limited to, the following:

as a first way, a plurality of elasticity measurements may be obtained, wherein each of the elasticity measurements is obtained based on elasticity measurements of a target measurement region corresponding to a respective target measurement position. And then, the plurality of elasticity measurement results are respectively displayed, so that the measurement results of a plurality of measurement areas can be obtained at one time without manual measurement, and the operation time is saved.

As a second way, a plurality of elasticity measurement results may be obtained, wherein each elasticity measurement result is obtained based on elasticity measurement values of target measurement areas corresponding to respective target measurement positions; a statistical operation is performed on a plurality of said elastic measurements to obtain a statistical result, e.g. averaging or median of the plurality of elastic measurements, etc., and finally the obtained statistical result is displayed, which may be different from each individual measurement.

As a third mode, a plurality of elasticity measurement results may be obtained, wherein each elasticity measurement result is obtained based on an elasticity measurement value of a target measurement area corresponding to a respective target measurement position; the elasticity measurements corresponding to the plurality of target measurement locations are compared to determine and display a final measurement result therein, such as a maximum, minimum, or median of the plurality of elasticity measurements. In addition to this, the above three ways may also be combined with each other, for example, displaying each measurement, the statistical result and the final measurement simultaneously.

Based on the above description, the method 200 for measuring prostate elasticity according to the embodiment of the present application determines the extraprostatic gland region based on the B-mode ultrasound image, automatically selects the target measurement position within the extraprostatic gland region, generates the measurement region based on the selected target measurement position, and obtains the elasticity measurement result, thereby solving the problem that the measurement region is difficult to determine when performing the measurement of prostate elasticity, and saving the operation time without requiring the user to manually select the measurement region.

Referring to fig. 7, the ultrasound imaging system 700 includes an ultrasound probe 710, a processor 720 and a display device 730, and the processor 720 can control the ultrasound probe 710 and the display device to implement the method 200 for measuring elasticity of prostate. The ultrasound imaging system 700 may include some or all of the components of the ultrasound imaging system 100 described with reference to fig. 1, and the associated description of the various components may be as described above. Only the main functions of the ultrasound imaging system 700 will be described below, and details that have been described above will be omitted.

Specifically, the processor 720 is configured to control the ultrasound probe 710 to transmit a first ultrasound wave to the prostate part of the measured object, and receive an ultrasound echo of the first ultrasound wave to obtain a first ultrasound echo signal; the processor 720 performs signal processing on the first ultrasonic echo signal to obtain a B-mode ultrasonic image of the prostate part; processor 720 is further configured to control the ultrasound probe 710 to transmit a second ultrasound wave to the prostate site to track a shear wave propagating at the prostate site, receive an ultrasound echo of the second ultrasound wave to obtain a second ultrasound echo signal; the processor 720 performs signal processing on the second ultrasonic echo signal to obtain a shear wave elastic image of the prostate part; the processor 720 determines an extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measure of the extraprostatic gland region based on the shear wave elasticity image; the processor 720 determines at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elasticity measurement of the extraprostatic region; the processor 720 generates at least one target measurement area based on the at least one target measurement position, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area; the processor 720 is further configured to control the display device 730 to display the elasticity measurement result.

In one embodiment, the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elastography of the extraprostatic region comprises: dividing the extraprostatic gland region into at least two sub-regions; determining an alternative measuring position corresponding to each sub-region according to the elasticity measuring values of the at least two sub-regions; generating an alternative measurement area corresponding to each alternative measurement position by taking the alternative measurement position corresponding to each sub-area as a reference, and obtaining an alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to each alternative measurement area according to the elasticity measurement value of the alternative measurement area corresponding to each alternative measurement position; determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting a preset condition from the alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region; and determining the candidate measuring position corresponding to the at least one candidate elasticity measuring result meeting the preset condition as the at least one target measuring position.

In one embodiment, the determining the candidate measurement position corresponding to each sub-region according to the elasticity measurement values of the at least two sub-regions includes: acquiring elasticity measurement values corresponding to all pixel points in each sub-area; taking a pixel point corresponding to the elasticity measurement value meeting the preset condition in each sub-region as a candidate measurement position corresponding to each sub-region, where the elasticity measurement value meeting the preset condition includes: and the quantiles of the maximum value, the minimum value, the median value, the maximum value or the multiple of the minimum value in the elastic measurement values corresponding to all the pixel points in the sub-area.

In one embodiment, the at least one alternative elasticity measurement satisfying the preset condition includes: and the local maximum value, the local minimum value, the median value, the quantile of the local maximum value or the multiple of the local minimum value in the alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to the alternative measurement area.

In one embodiment, the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elastography of the extraprostatic region comprises: generating corresponding alternative measurement regions by taking each pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region as a reference, and determining alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region according to the elasticity measurement values of the alternative measurement regions; determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting a preset condition from the alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region; and taking the pixel point corresponding to the at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting the preset condition as the at least one target measurement position.

In one embodiment, the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elastography of the extraprostatic region comprises: dividing the extraprostatic gland region into at least two sub-regions; generating corresponding alternative measurement areas by taking each pixel point in each sub-area as a reference, and determining alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement area according to the elasticity measurement values of the alternative measurement areas; determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting preset conditions according to the alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to each alternative measurement region of each sub-region; determining at least one target elasticity measurement result from the at least one alternative elasticity measurement result satisfying a preset condition; and taking the pixel point corresponding to the at least one target elasticity measurement result as the at least one target measurement position.

In one embodiment, the at least one alternative elasticity measurement satisfying the preset condition includes: and the maximum value, the minimum value, the median value, the quantile of the maximum value or the multiple of the minimum value in the alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to the alternative measurement area.

In one embodiment, the determining at least one target measurement center within the extraprostatic gland region based on the elastography of the extraprostatic gland region comprises: acquiring an elasticity measurement value corresponding to each pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region; determining at least one elasticity measuring value meeting preset requirements from the elasticity measuring values corresponding to each pixel point; and taking a pixel point corresponding to the at least one elasticity measurement value meeting the preset requirement as the at least one target measurement position.

In one embodiment, the at least one elasticity measurement value satisfying the preset requirement includes: and the quantiles of the maximum value, the minimum value, the median value, the maximum value or the multiple of the minimum value in the elastic measured values corresponding to the pixel points.

In one embodiment, when there are a plurality of target measurement positions, the obtaining an elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area comprises: obtaining a plurality of elasticity measurements, wherein each elasticity measurement is obtained based on elasticity measurements of a target measurement region corresponding to a respective target measurement location; the displaying the elasticity measurement comprises: displaying the plurality of elasticity measurements.

In one embodiment, when there are a plurality of target measurement positions, the obtaining an elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area comprises: obtaining a plurality of elasticity measurements, wherein each elasticity measurement is obtained based on elasticity measurements of a target measurement region corresponding to a respective target measurement location; performing statistical operation on the plurality of elastic measurement results to obtain statistical results; the displaying the elasticity measurement comprises: and displaying the statistical result.

In one embodiment, when there are a plurality of target measurement positions, the obtaining an elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area comprises: obtaining a plurality of elasticity measurements, wherein each elasticity measurement is obtained based on elasticity measurements of a target measurement region corresponding to a respective target measurement location; comparing the plurality of elasticity measurements to determine a final measurement among the plurality of elasticity measurements; the displaying the elasticity measurement comprises: and displaying the final measurement result.

In one embodiment, the elasticity measure comprises at least one of shear wave velocity, shear modulus and young's modulus.

In an embodiment, the elasticity measurement comprises at least one of a mean, a minimum, a maximum, a quartile value and a standard deviation of elasticity measurement values of the measurement area.

In one embodiment, the determining the extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image comprises: after obtaining the shear wave elasticity image, determining the area of the extraprostatic gland according to the B-type ultrasonic image.

In one embodiment, after generating the at least one target measurement area, the processor 720 is further configured to control the display device 730 to display the at least one target measurement area; the obtaining an elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area includes: receiving a confirmation instruction of a user to the at least one target measuring area so as to determine at least one selected target measuring area; and obtaining the elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the at least one selected target measurement area.

In one embodiment, the target measurement location is a center of the target measurement area.

In one embodiment, the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region from the elastography of the extraprostatic region comprises: excluding abnormal measuring points of the extraprostatic gland region according to the elasticity measuring value of the extraprostatic gland region; determining the target measurement position according to the elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region after excluding the abnormal measurement point.

Based on the above description, the ultrasound imaging system of the embodiment of the present application determines the extraprostatic gland region based on the B-mode ultrasound image, automatically selects the target measurement position selected in the extraprostatic gland region, generates the measurement region with the selected target measurement position as a reference, and obtains the elasticity measurement result, thereby solving the problem that the measurement region is difficult to determine when performing the elasticity measurement of the prostate, and saving the operation time without manually selecting the measurement region by the user.

Next, a prostate elasticity measurement method according to another embodiment of the present application, which is applied to an ultrasound imaging system including at least an ultrasound probe, a processor, and a display device, will be described with reference to fig. 8. Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a method 800 for measuring prostate elasticity in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the prostate elasticity measurement method 800 includes the steps of:

in step S810, controlling the ultrasound probe to scan the prostate part of the object to be tested to obtain an ultrasound image and an elasticity image of the prostate part of the object to be tested;

in step S820, the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region from the ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image;

in step S830, the processor determines at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic gland region according to the elasticity measurement of the extraprostatic gland region;

in step S840, the processor generates at least one target measurement area based on the at least one target measurement position, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area;

in step S850, the display device is controlled to display the elasticity measurement result.

The method 800 for measuring prostate elasticity according to an embodiment of the present application is substantially similar to the method 200 for measuring prostate elasticity described above, but differs therefrom mainly in that the method 800 for measuring prostate elasticity does not limit the manner in which the elasticity image and the ultrasound image are acquired. For example, the elastic image and the ultrasound image acquired in step S810 may be acquired in real time by the scanning method described above, or may be saved images extracted from a storage medium.

Also, in the prostate elasticity measurement method 800, the elasticity image acquired in step S810 includes not only the shear wave elasticity image described above but also a strain elasticity image. Implementations of the shear wave elastic image may be understood with reference to the foregoing description; the strain elastic image is realized through pressure elastic imaging, the specific mode is that a handheld ultrasonic probe applies pressure to a target tissue to obtain two frames of ultrasonic echo information before and after the target tissue is compressed, the displacement of the corresponding position before and after the compression is calculated through a specific algorithm, namely the spatial position change information of the target tissue at two different moments, the axial gradient is obtained through the displacement, further the strain value of each point in the target tissue area is obtained, and the strain elastic image is expressed in an image form according to the strain value of each point in the target tissue area. The strain elastic image can visually reflect the difference between hardness and softness or the difference between elasticity of different tissues, under the compression of the same external force, the larger the strain is, the softer the tissue is, and the smaller the strain is, the harder the tissue is.

In addition, the ultrasound image acquired in step S810 may include not only the B-mode ultrasound image described above, but also a C-mode ultrasound image, a three-dimensional ultrasound image, or other images in which the prostate structure can be seen. Therefore, the determination of the extraprostatic gland region according to the ultrasound image in step S820 also includes the determination of the extraprostatic gland region according to the B-mode ultrasound image as described above, and the extraprostatic gland region can also be determined based on the C-mode ultrasound image, the three-dimensional ultrasound image or other images capable of seeing the extraprostatic gland structure, and the specific method can be understood by referring to the aforementioned image recognition or segmentation algorithm based on the B-mode ultrasound image, which is not further described here.

Otherwise, steps S820 to S850 are substantially similar to steps S230 to S260 in the method 200 for measuring prostate elasticity, and reference may be made to the related description above, and for brevity, the same details are not repeated here.

The embodiment of the present application further provides an ultrasound imaging system, which can be used to implement the above-mentioned prostate elasticity measurement method 800. With continued reference to fig. 7, the ultrasound imaging system 700 may include an ultrasound probe 710, a processor 720, and a display device 730. In addition, the ultrasound imaging system 700 may also include some or all of the components of the ultrasound probe, transmit circuitry, receive circuitry, transmit/receive selection switches, and beamforming circuitry in the ultrasound imaging system 100 as described above.

Wherein the processor 720 may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof, may utilize circuitry, single or multiple application specific integrated circuits, single or multiple general purpose integrated circuits, single or multiple microprocessors, single or multiple programmable logic devices, or any combination of the foregoing, or other suitable circuitry or devices, and the processor 720 may control other components of the ultrasound imaging system 700 to perform desired functions.

In particular, processor 720 is configured to: controlling the ultrasonic probe 710 to scan the prostate part of the measured object to obtain an ultrasonic image and an elastic image of the prostate part of the measured object; processor 720 determines an extraprostatic gland region from the ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measurement of the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image; processor 720 determines at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elastometric value of the extraprostatic region; the processor 720 generates at least one target measurement area based on the at least one target measurement position, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area; the display device 730 is controlled to display the elasticity measurement result. Wherein the elastic image comprises a shear wave elastic image or a strain elastic image; the ultrasound image includes a B-mode ultrasound image, a C-mode ultrasound image, or a three-dimensional ultrasound image.

Based on the above description, the prostate elasticity measurement method 800 and the ultrasound imaging system according to the embodiment of the present application determine the extraprostatic region based on the ultrasound image and automatically select the target measurement position within the extraprostatic region, thereby solving the problem that it is difficult to determine the measurement region when performing the prostate elasticity measurement.

Next, a prostate elasticity measurement method according to another embodiment of the present application, which is applied to an ultrasound imaging system including at least an ultrasound probe, a processor, and a display device, will be described with reference to fig. 9. Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart of a method 900 for measuring prostate elasticity in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the method 900 for measuring prostate elasticity includes the steps of:

in step S910, controlling the ultrasound probe to scan the prostate part of the object to be tested to obtain an ultrasound image and an elasticity image of the prostate part of the object to be tested;

in step S920, the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region according to the ultrasound image, and determines an elasticity measurement value corresponding to at least one pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image;

in step S930, the processor determines at least one target pixel point with an elasticity measurement value meeting a preset requirement according to the elasticity measurement value corresponding to the at least one pixel point;

in step S940, the processor generates a target measurement area according to the at least one target pixel point, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the target measurement area;

in step S950, the display device is controlled to display the elasticity measurement result.

Compared to the above-described prostate elasticity measurement method 200 and prostate elasticity measurement method 800, the prostate elasticity measurement method 900 of the present embodiment differs mainly in that: in step S940, the processor generates a target measurement area according to at least one target pixel point. That is to say, it is not limited that each target pixel point corresponds to one target measurement region, but a plurality of target pixel points may correspond to one target measurement region, and the target measurement region may be a region including a plurality of or all target pixel points.

In addition, in step S930, the processor directly determines at least one target pixel point whose elasticity measurement value meets the preset requirement according to the elasticity measurement value corresponding to at least one pixel point in the prostate gland region, that is, directly determines whether to use the pixel point as the target pixel point according to whether the elasticity measurement value of each pixel point meets the preset requirement, without determining the target pixel point according to the candidate elasticity measurement result corresponding to the candidate measurement region. In one embodiment, the elasticity measurement value satisfying the predetermined requirement includes the elasticity measurement value being within a first threshold range. For example, the processor may use all the pixels with the elasticity measurement value greater than the preset threshold as target pixels, and the target measurement region may be a region formed by the target pixels.

In another embodiment, the elasticity measurement satisfying the predetermined requirement comprises: maximum, minimum, median, quantile of maximum or multiple of minimum in the elastic measurement values. At this time, the target measurement region may be a region centered on the target pixel point.

The embodiment of the present application further provides an ultrasound imaging system, which can be used to implement the above-mentioned prostate elasticity measurement method 900. With continued reference to fig. 7, the ultrasound imaging system 700 may include an ultrasound probe 710, a processor 720, and a display device 730. In addition, the ultrasound imaging system 700 may also include some or all of the components of the ultrasound probe, transmit circuitry, receive circuitry, transmit/receive selection switches, and beamforming circuitry in the ultrasound imaging system 100 as described above.

In particular, processor 720 is configured to: controlling the ultrasonic probe 710 to scan the prostate part of the measured object so as to obtain an ultrasonic image and an elastic image of the prostate part of the measured object; determining an extraprostatic gland region according to the ultrasonic image, and determining an elasticity measuring value corresponding to at least one pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image; determining at least one target pixel point with the elasticity measurement value meeting preset requirements according to the elasticity measurement value corresponding to the at least one pixel point; generating a target measurement area according to the at least one target pixel point, and obtaining an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the target measurement area; the display device 730 is controlled to display the elasticity measurement result.

Based on the above description, the prostate elasticity measurement method 900 and the ultrasound imaging system according to the embodiment of the present application determine the extraprostatic region based on the ultrasound image, and automatically select the target pixel point in the extraprostatic region, thereby solving the problem that it is difficult to determine the measurement region when performing the prostate elasticity measurement.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a computer storage medium having stored thereon program instructions for executing the respective steps of the prostate elasticity measurement method 200, the prostate elasticity measurement method 800 or the prostate elasticity measurement method 900 of the embodiment of the present application when the program instructions are executed by a computer or a processor. The storage medium may include, for example, a memory card of a smart phone, a storage component of a tablet computer, a hard disk of a personal computer, a Read Only Memory (ROM), an Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), a portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), a USB memory, or any combination of the above storage media. The computer-readable storage medium may be any combination of one or more computer-readable storage media.

In addition, according to the embodiment of the application, a computer program is further provided, and the computer program can be stored on a storage medium in a cloud or a local place. When being executed by a computer or a processor, for performing the respective steps of the prostate elasticity measurement method of the embodiments of the present application.

Although the example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the above-described example embodiments are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application thereto. Various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one of ordinary skill in the pertinent art without departing from the scope or spirit of the present application. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present application as claimed in the appended claims.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another device, or some features may be omitted, or not executed.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the application may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the description of exemplary embodiments of the present application, various features of the present application are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the application and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. However, the method of the present application should not be construed to reflect the intent: this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this application.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and all of the processes or elements of any method or apparatus so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where such features are mutually exclusive. Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise.

Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that while some embodiments described herein include some features included in other embodiments, rather than other features, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the application and form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

The various component embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP) may be used in practice to implement some or all of the functionality of some of the modules according to embodiments of the present application. The present application may also be embodied as apparatus programs (e.g., computer programs and computer program products) for performing a portion or all of the methods described herein. Such programs implementing the present application may be stored on a computer readable medium or may be in the form of one or more signals. Such a signal may be downloaded from an internet website or provided on a carrier signal or in any other form.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the application, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The application may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In the unit claims enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The usage of the words first, second and third, etcetera do not indicate any ordering. These words may be interpreted as names.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application or the description thereof, and the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application, and shall be covered by the protection scope of the present application. The protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A method for measuring prostate elasticity, applied to an ultrasound imaging system including an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, the method comprising:

controlling the ultrasonic probe to emit first ultrasonic waves to the prostate part of a measured object, and receiving ultrasonic echoes of the first ultrasonic waves to obtain first ultrasonic echo signals;

the processor performs signal processing on the first ultrasonic echo signal to obtain a B-type ultrasonic image of the prostate part;

controlling the ultrasound probe to emit second ultrasound waves toward the prostate site to track shear waves propagating at the prostate site, and to receive ultrasound echoes of the second ultrasound waves to obtain second ultrasound echo signals;

the processor performs signal processing on the second ultrasonic echo signal to obtain a shear wave elastic image of the prostate part;

the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measure of the extraprostatic gland region based on the shear wave elasticity image;

the processor determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elastometric value of the extraprostatic region;

the processor generates at least one target measurement area by taking the at least one target measurement position as a reference, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area;

and controlling the display equipment to display the elasticity measurement result.
The method of claim 1, wherein the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic gland region based on the measure of elasticity of the extraprostatic gland region comprises:

dividing the extraprostatic gland region into at least two sub-regions;

determining an alternative measuring position corresponding to each sub-region according to the elasticity measuring values of the at least two sub-regions;

generating an alternative measurement area corresponding to each alternative measurement position by taking the alternative measurement position corresponding to each sub-area as a reference, and obtaining an alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to each alternative measurement area according to the elasticity measurement value of the alternative measurement area corresponding to each alternative measurement position;

determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting a preset condition from the alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region;

and determining the candidate measuring position corresponding to the at least one candidate elasticity measuring result meeting the preset condition as the at least one target measuring position.
The method according to claim 2, wherein the determining the candidate measurement position corresponding to each sub-region according to the elasticity measurement values of the at least two sub-regions comprises:

acquiring elasticity measurement values corresponding to all pixel points in each sub-area;

taking a pixel point corresponding to the elasticity measurement value meeting the preset condition in each sub-region as a candidate measurement position corresponding to each sub-region, where the elasticity measurement value meeting the preset condition includes: and the quantiles of the maximum value, the minimum value, the median value, the maximum value or the multiple of the minimum value in the elastic measurement values corresponding to all the pixel points in the sub-area.
The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one alternative elasticity measurement satisfying a preset condition comprises: and the local maximum value, the local minimum value, the median value, the quantile of the local maximum value or the multiple of the local minimum value in the alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to the alternative measurement area.
The method of claim 1, wherein the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic gland region based on the measure of elasticity of the extraprostatic gland region comprises:

generating corresponding alternative measurement regions by taking each pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region as a reference, and determining alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region according to the elasticity measurement values of the alternative measurement regions;

determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting a preset condition from the alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement region;

and taking the pixel point corresponding to the at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting the preset condition as the at least one target measurement position.
The method of claim 1, wherein the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic gland region based on the measure of elasticity of the extraprostatic gland region comprises:

dividing the extraprostatic gland region into at least two sub-regions;

generating corresponding alternative measurement areas by taking each pixel point in each sub-area as a reference, and determining alternative elasticity measurement results corresponding to each alternative measurement area according to the elasticity measurement values of the alternative measurement areas;

determining at least one alternative elasticity measurement result meeting preset conditions according to the alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to each alternative measurement region of each sub-region;

determining at least one target elasticity measurement result from the at least one alternative elasticity measurement result satisfying a preset condition;

and taking the pixel point corresponding to the at least one target elasticity measurement result as the at least one target measurement position.
The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein the at least one alternative elasticity measurement satisfying a preset condition comprises: and the local maximum value, the local minimum value, the median value, the quantile of the local maximum value or the multiple of the local minimum value in the alternative elasticity measurement result corresponding to the alternative measurement area.
The method of claim 1, wherein the determining at least one target measurement center within the extraprostatic region from the measure of elasticity of the extraprostatic region comprises:

acquiring an elasticity measurement value corresponding to each pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region;

determining at least one elasticity measuring value meeting preset requirements from the elasticity measuring values corresponding to each pixel point;

and taking a pixel point corresponding to the at least one elasticity measurement value meeting the preset requirement as the at least one target measurement position.
The method according to claim 8, wherein the at least one elasticity measurement value satisfying preset requirements comprises: and the quantiles of the maximum value, the minimum value, the median value, the maximum value or the multiple of the minimum value in the elastic measured values corresponding to the pixel points.
The method according to claim 1, wherein when there are a plurality of the target measurement positions, the obtaining an elasticity measurement result based on the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement region comprises:

obtaining a plurality of elasticity measurements, wherein each elasticity measurement is obtained based on elasticity measurements of a target measurement region corresponding to a respective target measurement location;

the displaying the elasticity measurement comprises: displaying the plurality of elasticity measurements.
The method according to claim 1, wherein when there are a plurality of the target measurement positions, the obtaining an elasticity measurement result based on the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement region comprises:

obtaining a plurality of elasticity measurements, wherein each elasticity measurement is obtained based on elasticity measurements of a target measurement region corresponding to a respective target measurement location;

performing statistical operation on the plurality of elastic measurement results to obtain statistical results;

the displaying the elasticity measurement comprises: and displaying the statistical result.
The method according to claim 1, wherein when there are a plurality of the target measurement positions, the obtaining an elasticity measurement result based on the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement region comprises:

obtaining a plurality of elasticity measurements, wherein each elasticity measurement is obtained based on elasticity measurements of a target measurement region corresponding to a respective target measurement location;

comparing the plurality of elasticity measurements to determine a final measurement among the plurality of elasticity measurements;

the displaying the elasticity measurement comprises: and displaying the final measurement result.
The method of claim 1, wherein the elastometry value comprises at least one of shear wave velocity, shear modulus and young's modulus.
The method of claim 13, wherein the elasticity measurement result comprises at least one of a mean value, a minimum value, a maximum value, a quartile value and a standard deviation of the elasticity measurement values of the measurement region.
The method of measuring prostate elasticity of claim 1, wherein said determining the extraprostatic gland region from the B-mode ultrasound image comprises:

after obtaining the shear wave elasticity image, determining the extraprostatic gland region according to the B-mode ultrasonic image.
The method of measuring prostate elasticity of claim 1, further comprising, after generating the at least one target measurement zone:

displaying the at least one target measurement area;

the obtaining an elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area includes:

receiving a confirmation instruction of a user to the at least one target measuring area so as to determine at least one selected target measuring area;

and obtaining the elasticity measurement result according to the elasticity measurement value of the at least one selected target measurement area.
The method of measuring prostate elasticity of any one of claims 1 to 16, wherein the target measurement location is the center of the target measurement region.
The method of any one of claims 1 to 16, wherein the determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic gland region from the elastography value of the extraprostatic gland region comprises:

excluding abnormal measuring points of the extraprostatic gland region according to the elasticity measuring value of the extraprostatic gland region;

determining the target measurement position according to the elasticity measurement value of the extraprostatic gland region after excluding the abnormal measurement point.
A method for measuring prostate elasticity, applied to an ultrasound imaging system including an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, the method comprising:

controlling the ultrasonic probe to scan the prostate part of the tested object so as to obtain an ultrasonic image and an elastic image of the prostate part of the tested object;

the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region from the ultrasound image and determines an elasticity measurement of the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image;

the processor determining at least one target measurement location within the extraprostatic region based on the elastometric value of the extraprostatic region;

the processor generates at least one target measurement area by taking the at least one target measurement position as a reference, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the at least one target measurement area;

and controlling the display equipment to display the elasticity measurement result.
The method of measuring prostate elasticity of claim 19, wherein the elasticity image comprises a shear wave elasticity image or a strain elasticity image.
The method of measuring prostate elasticity of claim 19 or 20, wherein the ultrasound image comprises a B-mode ultrasound image, a C-mode ultrasound image, or a three-dimensional ultrasound image.
A method for measuring prostate elasticity, applied to an ultrasound imaging system including an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, the method comprising:

controlling the ultrasonic probe to scan the prostate part of the tested object so as to obtain an ultrasonic image and an elastic image of the prostate part of the tested object;

the processor determines an extraprostatic gland region according to the ultrasonic image and determines an elasticity measuring value corresponding to at least one pixel point in the extraprostatic gland region based on the elasticity image;

the processor determines at least one target pixel point with the elasticity measuring value meeting preset requirements according to the elasticity measuring value corresponding to the at least one pixel point;

the processor generates a target measurement area according to the at least one target pixel point, and obtains an elasticity measurement result according to an elasticity measurement value of the target measurement area;

and controlling the display equipment to display the elasticity measurement result.
The method of claim 22, wherein the measure of elasticity satisfies a predetermined requirement comprising the measure of elasticity being within a first threshold range.
The method of claim 22, wherein the measure of prostate elasticity satisfies a predetermined requirement comprising: the elastic measurement value comprises a maximum value, a minimum value, a median value, a quantile of the maximum value or a multiple of the minimum value.
The method of measuring prostate elasticity according to any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein the ultrasound image includes a B-mode ultrasound image, a C-mode ultrasound image, or a three-dimensional ultrasound image; the elastic image comprises a shear wave elastic image or a strain elastic image.
An ultrasound imaging system, characterized in that the ultrasound imaging system comprises an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, the processor being configured to control the ultrasound probe and the display device to perform the method of measuring prostate elasticity of any one of claims 1 to 18.
An ultrasound imaging system, characterized in that the ultrasound imaging system comprises an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, the processor being configured to control the ultrasound probe and the display device to perform the method of measuring prostate elasticity of any one of claims 19 to 21.
An ultrasound imaging system, characterized in that the ultrasound imaging system comprises an ultrasound probe, a processor and a display device, the processor being configured to control the ultrasound probe and the display device to perform the method of measuring prostate elasticity of any one of claims 22 to 25.