Verification of 3D blood vessel reconstruction by weighted fusion between B-mode and Doppler-mode volumes

Abstract

We have used three-dimensional Doppler-mode volumes to obtain the blood vessel structure for ultrasound therapy. However, since reconstructed Doppler-mode volumes showed expansion and deficiency problems, we propose a new blood vessel network reconstruction method by fusing B-mode and Doppler-mode volumes, which were acquired simultaneously in the same coordinate space. First, we configured a spiral tube to quantitatively evaluate the degrees of expansion and deficiency in both volumes. From the analysis of the results, we established the weight coefficients varied with the angle between the tangent vector of the centerline in the volume and the direction of ultrasound propagation to correct the shape of each volume. Finally, using these coefficients, we fused the corrected B- and D-volumes to reconstruct the shape of the spiral tube and human liver vessels. The results showed clear reproduction and reliable construction. We confirmed that the proposed method is effective for reconstructing human blood vessels.