Deep learning-based plane pose regression in obstetric ultrasound

In obstetric ultrasound (US) scanning, the learner's ability to mentally build a three-dimensional (3D) map of the fetus from a two-dimensional (2D) US image represents a major challenge in skill acquisition. We aim to build a US plane localisation system for 3D visualisation, training, and guidance without integrating additional sensors.

We propose a regression convolutional neural network (CNN) using image features to estimate the six-dimensional pose of arbitrarily oriented US planes relative to the fetal brain centre. The network was trained on synthetic images acquired from phantom 3D US volumes and fine-tuned on real scans. Training data was generated by slicing US volumes into imaging planes in Unity at random coordinates and more densely around the standard transventricular (TV) plane.

With phantom data, the median errors are 0.90 mm/1.17[Formula: see text] and 0.44 mm/1.21[Formula: see text] for random planes and planes close to the TV one, respectively. With real data, using a different fetus with the same gestational age (GA), these errors are 11.84 mm/25.17[Formula: see text]. The average inference time is 2.97 ms per plane.

The proposed network reliably localises US planes within the fetal brain in phantom data and successfully generalises pose regression for an unseen fetal brain from a similar GA as in training. Future development will expand the prediction to volumes of the whole fetus and assess its potential for vision-based, freehand US-assisted navigation when acquiring standard fetal planes.