A novel breast ultrasound system for providing coronal images: system development and feasibility study

Breast ultrasound images along coronal plane contain important diagnosis information. However, conventional clinical 2D ultrasound cannot provide such images. In order to solve this problem, we developed a novel ultrasound system aimed at providing breast coronal images. In this system, a spatial sensor was fixed on an ultrasound probe to obtain the image spatial data. A narrow-band rendering method was used to form coronal images based on B-mode images and their corresponding spatial data. Software was developed for data acquisition, processing, rendering and visualization. In phantom experiments, 20 inclusions with different size (5-20 mm) were measured using this new system. The results obtained by the new method well correlated with those measured by a micrometer (y=1.0147x, R(2)=0.9927). The phantom tests also showed that this system had excellent intra- and inter-operator repeatability (ICC>0.995). Three subjects with breast lesions were scanned in vivo using this new system and a commercially available three-dimensional (3D) probe. The average scanning times for the two systems were 64 s and 74 s, respectively. The results revealed that this new method required shorter scanning time. The tumor sizes measured on the coronal plane provided by the new method were smaller by 5.6-11.9% in comparison with the results of the 3D probe. The phantom tests and preliminary subject tests indicated the feasibility of this system for clinical applications by providing additional information for clinical breast ultrasound diagnosis.