US-20260123916-A1 - LESION CHARACTERIZATION APPARATUS AND METHOD USING 3D ULTRASOUND IMAGE

US20260123916A1US 20260123916 A1US20260123916 A1US 20260123916A1US-20260123916-A1

Abstract

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a lesion characterization apparatus using a three-dimensional ( 3 D) ultrasound image includes a processor configured to set a 3 D analysis region based on an ultrasound B-mode (brightness mode) image or an ultrasound C-scan (cross-section scan) image in the 3 D ultrasound image, move the 3 D analysis region, perform quantitative analysis based on lesion and peripheral signals included in the 3 D analysis region, and reconstruct the 3 D ultrasound image to highlight differences between lesion and peripheral signals by mapping quantitative values obtained through the analysis to respective voxels of the 3 D analysis region. Unlike conventional 2 D entropy imaging, the present disclosure applies a 3D window-based PDF estimation across spatial and frequency domains, providing voxel-wise entropy mapping.

Inventors

Chul Hong Kim
Hyunhee KIM
Eunwoo PARK

Assignees

POSTECH Research and Business Development Foundation

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251105
Priority Date: 20241106

Claims (11)

1 . A lesion characterization apparatus comprising: a storage configured to store at least one instruction; and a processor configured to execute the at least one instruction to perform analysis, wherein the processor is configured to: record a three-dimensional ( 3 D) ultrasound image in the storage, replace a first physical quantity for each center position of the 3 D ultrasound image with a second physical quantity reflecting peripheral information of the center position to generate a reconstructed image mapped to each position, and provide lesion characterization information based on the reconstructed image.
2 . A lesion characterization apparatus comprising: a storage configured to store at least one instruction; and a processor configured to execute the at least one instruction to perform analysis, wherein the processor is configured to: record an ultrasound image in the storage, generate a probability density function with respect to physical quantities for each center position of the ultrasound image and peripheral positions thereof, and record the probability density function in the storage, calculate a Shannon entropy for each center position based on the probability density function, generate a reconstructed image based on the Shannon entropy, and provide lesion characterization information based on the reconstructed image.
3 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to set a three-dimensional window defining the center position and a peripheral information region, and record information on the three-dimensional window in the storage, and wherein the probability density function represents a probability distribution of physical quantities corresponding to positions included in the three-dimensional window.
4 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a display, wherein the processor is configured to display the reconstructed image on the display as an ultrasound B-mode (brightness mode) image or an ultrasound C-scan (cross-section scan) image format.
5 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: receive a plurality of B-mode ultrasound signals scanned in a direction perpendicular to a B-mode image surface, assign coordinates corresponding to the scanning direction to the respective B-mode ultrasound signals to generate the 3 D ultrasound image.
6 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: receive a plurality of B-mode ultrasound signals scanned at predetermined time intervals, assign time-axis coordinates corresponding to the time intervals to the respective B-mode ultrasound signals to generate the 3 D ultrasound image.
7 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: receive an ultrasound radio-frequency (RF) signal, and perform in-phase and quadrature (IQ) demodulation on the RF signal to generate first-stage processed data, perform beamforming on the first-stage processed data to generate second-stage processed data, and perform decimation on the second-stage processed data to generate an analysis reference image.
8 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: receive an ultrasound RF signal, and perform beamforming on the RF signal to generate first-stage processed data, perform in-phase and quadrature (IQ) demodulation on the first-stage processed data to generate second-stage processed data, and perform decimation on the second-stage processed data to generate an analysis reference image.
9 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to perform singular value decomposition (SVD) on the 3 D ultrasound image to generate an analysis reference image.
10 . The lesion characterization apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to: generate the probability density function for each center position and peripheral positions thereof using at least one of sound-velocity measurement, attenuation-coefficient analysis, Nakagami analysis, entropy analysis, scatterer-density analysis, and scatterer-size analysis, calculate the Shannon entropy in a frequency domain based on the probability density functions, derive the Shannon entropy for each frequency band, and calculate numerical values quantitatively evaluating similarity between a lesion region and a peripheral region based on the derived entropies, to generate the reconstructed image.
11 . A lesion characterization method performed by a lesion characterization apparatus, the method comprising: recording an ultrasound image in a storage; generating a probability density function with respect to physical quantities for each center position of the ultrasound image and peripheral positions thereof, and recording the probability density function in the storage; calculating a Shannon entropy for each center position based on the probability density function; generating a reconstructed image based on the Shannon entropy; and providing lesion characterization information based on the reconstructed image.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to Korean patent applications number 10-2024-0156065 filed on November 6, 2024 and 10-2025-0160962 filed on October 30, 2025, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a lesion characterization apparatus and a lesion characterization method using a three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound image. 2. Related Art Conventional three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging techniques mainly focus on providing structural images of lesions, and thus have limitations in effectively characterizing regions having physical properties different from those of a lesion or a peripheral region. Therefore, it is difficult to precisely analyze physical properties to detect a lesion at an early stage or to accurately identify abnormal tissues. In addition, conventional ultrasound imaging technology can analyze physical properties only within an arbitrarily set region of interest (ROI), resulting in insufficient detailed analysis of the entire image. For example, ultrasound elastography requires a process of physically deforming tissue, necessitating additional equipment and procedures, which leads to a complicated analysis process and considerable time consumption. There is a quantitative ultrasound (qUS) method that analyzes using only conventional ultrasound B-mode; however, this method has the drawbacks of reduced resolution in analysis results and the inability to observe differences between the periphery region and the lesion in the image, providing only numerical values representing the overall tissue characteristics. SUMMARY An object of the present disclosure is to provide a lesion characterization apparatus and a lesion characterization method for analyzing three-dimensional ultrasound signals to quantitatively and reproducibly characterize the physical properties of a lesion. Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a lesion characterization apparatus and a lesion characterization method for precisely performing lesion characterization by combining probability density function–based and entropy analyses in both spatial and frequency domains, thereby simultaneously analyzing signal and frequency characteristics of a lesion. A lesion characterization apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure for solving the above technical problem includes: a storage configured to store at least one instruction; and a processor configured to execute the at least one instruction to perform analysis, wherein the processor is configured to record a three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound image in the storage, replace a first physical quantity for each center position of the 3D ultrasound image with a second physical quantity reflecting peripheral information of the center position to generate a reconstructed image mapped to each position, and provide lesion characterization information based on the reconstructed image. In addition, a lesion characterization apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure for solving the above technical problem includes a storage configured to store at least one instruction; and a processor configured to execute the at least one instruction to perform analysis, wherein the processor is configured to record an ultrasound image in the storage, generate a probability density function with respect to physical quantities for each center position of the ultrasound image and peripheral positions thereof, and record the probability density function in the storage, calculate a Shannon entropy for each center position based on the probability density function, generate a reconstructed image based on the Shannon entropy, and provide lesion characterization information based on the reconstructed image. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the processor may set a three-dimensional window defining the center position and a peripheral information region, and record information on the three-dimensional window in the storage, wherein the probability density function may represent a probability distribution of physical quantities corresponding to positions included in the three-dimensional window. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus further includes a display unit, and the processor may display the reconstructed image on the display as an ultrasound B-mode (brightness mode) image or an ultrasound C-scan (cross-section scan) image format. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the processor may receive a plurality of B-mode ultrasound signals scanned in a direction perpendicular to a B-mode image surface, assign coordinates corresponding to the scanning direction to the respective B-mode ultrasound signals to generate the 3D ultrasound image. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the processor may receive a