Apparatus and methods for monitoring pregnancy or labour are disclosed. In one embodiment the apparatus includes an electromyography (EMG) sensor having two or more EMG electrodes to monitor fetal or maternal activity during pregnancy or labour and one or more position sensors to monitor the relative positioning of the two or more EMG electrodes during the fetal or maternal activity. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a monitoring device to be placed on a body and having a plurality of sensors integrated into the monitoring device, the plurality of sensors including at least: a first sensor configured to detect a first type of signal from the body indicative of a first type of fetal or maternal activity during pregnancy or labour; and a second sensor configured to detect a second type of signal from the body, different from the first type of signal, also indicative of the first type of fetal or maternal activity during pregnancy or labour.

Disclosed is a computer-implemented method for determining an ovarian follicle count and size (diameter) from a pair of 2-D transvaginal ultrasound scans. The method comprises receiving the pair of 2-D (two-dimensional) transvaginal ultrasound scans, each scan comprising a plurality of 2-D ultrasound images captured along a translation direction of an ultrasound probe used to capture said scan, the respective translation directions being at least approximately orthogonal, and for each of said scans, the method further comprising detecting candidate follicles in the plurality of 2-D ultrasound images of the at least one 2-D transvaginal ultrasound scan; and segmenting the detected candidate follicles to determine an average diameter for each candidate follicle; selecting the 2-D transvaginal ultrasound scan including the candidate follicle having the largest average diameter; and presenting the determined average diameters and the segmentations of the detected candidate follicles of the selected 2-D transvaginal ultrasound scan. A computer program product, ultrasound image processing device and ultrasound imaging system adapted to implement this method are also disclosed.

Described herein are accelerator devices for providing a couplant while moving an ultrasound probe over a surface. The devices may include a reservoir configured to hold ultrasound couplant. The reservoir may attach to a probe so as to dispense the couplant at one or more locations along a perimeter of the probe while moving the ultrasound probe over the surface. The devices may additionally, or alternatively, include a membrane configured to hold ultrasound couplant. The membrane may charge a couplant layer of an ultrashield prior to or while moving the ultrasound probe over a surface during an ultrasound procedure.

An ultrasound image processing apparatus (200) is disclosed for obtaining a biometric measurement of an anatomical feature of interest from a 3D ultrasound image. The apparatus comprises a display apparatus (50) communicatively coupled to a processor arrangement (210) adapted to render a volumetric ultrasound image (300) from the 3-D ultrasound image and control the display apparatus to display said rendered image; receive a plurality of user inputs (303) highlighting the anatomical feature of interest, each input corresponding to a pixel of the displayed volumetric ultrasound image; estimate a depth of each of said pixels in the volumetric ultrasound image (300); define a 3-D path (307) in the volumetric ultrasound image based on the received user inputs along said estimated depths; perform a processing operation based on the defined 3-D path; and control the display apparatus to display the processing operation result, wherein the processing operation based on the defined 3-D path comprises at least one of a measurement of a length of the 3-D path (307); a reorientation of the rendered volumetric ultrasound image (300); and a generation of a 2-D image slice (400) of the 3-D ultrasound image based on the defined 3-D path. Also disclosed are an ultrasound imaging system including such an ultrasound image processing apparatus, a computer-implemented method and a computer program product for implementing this method on a computer.

A computer implemented method is provided for processing a 3D fetal ultrasound image. A 3D fetal ultrasound image is obtained (either acquired or received from memory), and the spine is detected within the image. This enables a first reference axis to be defined. A second reference axis is defined perpendicular to the first reference axis, and the 3D fetal ultrasound image is updated (e.g. rotated in 3D space) using the first and second reference axes and an up/down (elevation) orientation detection. This provides a normalization of the orientation of the image, so that a machine learning approach is better able to identify landmarks within new images.

A cervical probe, outfitted with a tactile sensor array and an ultrasound transducer, is designed for simultaneous collection of stress and ultrasound strain data from the same cervical sector. The gathered stress and strain data from multiple cervical sectors are sent to a data processor, which calculates cervical elasticity as a strain-to-stress ratio. Subsequently, an average stress-to-strain ratio is compared to a predetermined cutoff value to predict preterm birth at 24-28 gestational weeks.

Methods and systems are provided for an automated ultrasound exam. In one example, a method includes identifying a view plane of interest based on one or more 3D ultrasound images, obtaining a view plane image including the view plane of interest from a 3D volume of ultrasound data of a patient, where the one or more 3D ultrasound images are generated from the 3D volume of ultrasound data, segmenting an anatomical region of interest (ROI) within the view plane image to generate a contour of the anatomical ROI, and displaying the contour on the view plane image.

A multi-modality cancer screening and diagnosis system is provided that allows cancer screening and diagnosis of a patient using at least two different and sequential three-dimensional imaging techniques without patient repositioning. The system includes a first three-dimensional image acquisition device, a second three-dimensional image acquisition device having a probe with a transmitter mounted thereon, and a positioning paddle for positioning and immobilizing an object to be imaged during the cancer screening and diagnosis procedure. The positioning paddle is designed to facilitate visualization of the breast in both three-dimensional modalities without movement of the patient, and preferably is designed to position the patient with comfort during a diagnosis procedure which uses both imaging modalities.

A method and apparatus of examining fetal hearts includes obtaining ultrasound data of a fetal heart to generate fetal heart images, displaying different marked sample images of a fetal heart and at respective cardiac phases, each marking a different feature of a fetal heart at a respective marked location, and sequentially presenting one of the different marked sample images to a user along with one of the fetal heart images that is a similar view. As each of the different marked sample images is sequentially presented, a user is prompted to mark the different feature in a respective fetal heart image based on its marked location to create a plurality of marked fetal heart images, and a geometric model of the heart is generated based on the marked fetal heart images, from which fetal echocardiography views can be extracted. The fetal echocardiography views of the fetal heart are displayed.

A patch sensor adapted to process echo information to generate a first type of medical data and/or a second, different type of medical data using a respective processing pathway. A communications module of the patch sensor is adapted to be switchable between a first mode, in which only the first type of medical data is transmitted to a medical device, and a second mode, in which at least the second type of medical data is transmitted to the 5 medical device. The first type of medical data occupies a smaller bandwidth (during transmittal) than the second type of medical data.