ScanAhead: Simplifying standard plane acquisition of fetal head ultrasound.
Authors
Affiliations (5)
Affiliations (5)
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7DQ, United Kingdom; School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TW, United Kingdom. Electronic address: [email protected].
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7DQ, United Kingdom; Department of Eye and Vision Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
- Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 9DU, United Kingdom; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Israel.
- Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 9DU, United Kingdom.
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7DQ, United Kingdom.
Abstract
The fetal standard plane acquisition task aims to detect an Ultrasound (US) image characterized by specified anatomical landmarks and appearance for assessing fetal growth. However, in practice, due to variability in human operator skill and possible fetal motion, it can be challenging for a human operator to acquire a satisfactory standard plane. To support a human operator with this task, this paper first describes an approach to automatically predict the fetal head standard plane from a video segment approaching the standard plane. A transformer-based image predictor is proposed to produce a high-quality standard plane by understanding diverse scales of head anatomy within the US video frame. Because of the visual gap between the video frames and standard plane image, the predictor is equipped with an offset adaptor that performs domain adaption to translate the off-plane structures to the anatomies that would usually appear in a standard plane view. To enhance the anatomical details of the predicted US image, the approach is extended by utilizing a second modality, US probe movement, that provides 3D location information. Quantitative and qualitative studies conducted on two different head biometry planes demonstrate that the proposed US image predictor produces clinically plausible standard planes with superior performance to comparative published methods. The results of dual-modality solution show an improved visualization with enhanced anatomical details of the predicted US image. Clinical evaluations are also conducted to demonstrate the consistency between the predicted echo textures and the expected echo patterns seen in a typical real standard plane, which indicates its clinical feasibility for improving the standard plane acquisition process.