The present invention relates to a monitoring apparatus (101) for monitoring an ablation procedure. The monitoring apparatus (101) comprises an ultrasound signal providing unit for providing an ultrasound signal that depends on received echo series of an object (4) that is ablated. The monitoring apparatus (101) further comprises an ablation depth determination unit (103) for determining an ablation depth from the provided ultrasound signal. The ablation depth can be determined directly from the ultrasound signal and is an important parameter while performing an ablation procedure. For example, it can be used for determining the progress of ablation within the object (4) and for determining when the ablation has reached a desired progression.

Provided is a non-invasive system and method of determining muscle tissue size based on image processing. The method includes receiving at least one ultrasound scan image of at least a portion of a skin layer as disposed above one or more additional tissue layers, the image provided by a plurality of pixels. The method continues by introducing noise into the pixels of the image and thresholding the pixels of the image to provide a binary image having a plurality of structural elements of different sizes. The method continues with morphing the structural elements of the binary image to remove small structural elements and connect large structural elements. With this resulting image, the method distinguishes muscle tissue from remaining elements and determines the muscle tissue size. Associated apparatuses and computer program products are also disclosed.

An ultrasound apparatus includes a touch screen configured to display, on an ultrasound image, a touch recognition region of an object used as a measurement mark; and a controller configured to move the object and the touch recognition region, in response to an input for touching and dragging the touch recognition region, to detect, from a portion of the ultrasound image which corresponds to the touch recognition region, a line formed by connecting points at which a brightness variation of a pixel is greater than a threshold value, and to move the object to a position of the detected line by using coordinates of the detected line.

The invention relates to a sheath (10) for an endoscopic ultrasound probe, comprising: a first flexible portion (10a) suited to surrounding a catheter (4) of the ultrasound probe, made of a material suited to allowing ultrasounds to pass, having a closed distal end, a second portion (10b) suited to surrounding a handle (2) and a cable (3) for electrically connecting the probe to an ultrasound station, and a fitting (11) arranged between the first and the second portion (10a, 10b), said fitting (11) being suited to being removably attached to the handle (2).

Provided is a non-invasive system and method of determining muscle tissue quality based on image processing. The non-invasive system and method includes determining muscle intramuscular fat content. The methods includes receiving at least one ultrasound scan image of at least a portion of a skin layer as disposed above one or more additional tissue layers, the skin layer defining a horizontal axis and the image provided by a plurality of pixels. The method continues by blurring the pixels of the image and thresholding the pixels of the image to provide an image having a plurality of structural elements of different sizes and gray scale. The method continues with morphing the structural elements of the image to remove small structural elements and connect large structural elements. With this resulting image, the method distinguishes muscle tissue from remaining elements. A ratio of black to white elements is evaluated to determine the muscle tissue quality or intramuscular fat content. Associated apparatuses and computer program products are also disclosed.

Provided is a non-invasive system and method of determining pennation angle and/or fascicle length based on image processing. An ultrasound scan image is processed to facilitate distinguishing of muscle fiber and tendon. The processed ultrasound scan image is then analyzed. The pennation angle and/or fascicle length is determined based on the analysis. An example method includes receiving an ultrasound scan image of at least a portion of a skin layer as disposed above one or more additional tissue layers, the image provided by a plurality of pixels. The method continues by introducing noise into the pixels of the image and thresholding the pixels of the image to provide a binary image having a plurality of structural elements of different sizes. The method continues with morphing the structural elements of the binary image to remove small structural elements and connect large structural elements. With this resulting image, the method distinguishes muscle fiber and tendon from remaining elements and determines the pennation angle and/or the fascicle length from the muscle fiber and the tendon. Associated apparatuses and computer program products are also disclosed.

A method and apparatus for generating a shear wave. The method comprises: transducers transmit ultrasound waves to a region of interest once; the ultrasound waves focus on at least two focal points in an acoustic field; and with shear wave sources corresponding to the at least two focal points that propagates in a direction perpendicular to a transmission direction of the ultrasound waves. A method and apparatus for detecting an ultrasound elasticity of a shear wave discloses, in a same ultrasound transmission, multiple focal points are gathered in an acoustic field by the ultrasound waves, under the joint effect of the multiple focal points, and a shear wave zone propagated in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the ultrasound waves is transmitted is formed, so as to expand a propagation range of the shear wave in a tissue, so that detecting ultrasound waves can perform elasticity detection on the tissue in a large range.

Methods and systems are provided for automatically characterizing contrast agent microbubbles in contrast-enhanced ultrasound images. In one example, a method includes generating, via a contrast bubble model, a density map of contrast agent microbubbles in a region of interest (ROI) of a contrast-enhanced ultrasound image and displaying the density map on a display device.

According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry calculates, based on a region of interest set in a mammographic image, a first distance from the region of interest to a body surface on the mammographic image, and displays, in an ultrasound image, a marker indicating a position of the region of interest as viewed in a depth direction based on the first distance.

A bioelectric current estimation method includes acquiring position information of a nerve in a measurement target region of a subject for which magnetic data is measured with a magnetic sensor, the position information of the nerve being acquired based on a nerve image included in a morphological image of the measurement target region; acquiring a positional relationship between a position of the nerve and a position of the magnetic sensor, based on the acquired position information of the nerve and position information of the magnetic sensor when the magnetic sensor is positioned to face the measurement target region; and estimating a neural activity current, which is generated in association with neural activity of the subject, based on the acquired positional relationship and the magnetic data of the measurement target region measured by the magnetic sensor.