Intelligent navigation to improve obstetrical sonography

Abstract

'Manual navigation' by the operator is the standard method used to obtain information from two-dimensional and volumetric sonography. Two-dimensional sonography is highly operator dependent and requires

Fetal Intelligent Navigation Echocardiography (FINE) Detects 98% of Congenital Heart Disease

“…Such training occurred in a 2-day period and included: 1) attending didactic lectures on FINE; and 2) review of 16 previously acquired STIC volume datasets of normal fetal hearts using the FINE method. Specifically, the following features of FINE were reviewed during the training period (Table 1): 55,76,77,79 1) intelligent navigation technology; 2) STICLoop ™ and STICLoop criteria; 3) Anatomic Box® (learning how to identify and mark anatomical structures of the fetal heart); 4) diagnostic planes; 5) automatic labeling and its features; 6) Virtual Intelligent Sonographer Assistance (VIS-Assistance®) and its advantages in providing additional information, as well as how to perform double and triple VIS-Assistance; 80 and 7) intelligent and marking alerts. Moreover, the same investigator was provided a written manual on FINE and underwent a practical session on how to technically use the system (e.g.…”

“…For each STIC volume, VIS-Assistance videoclips were observed in their entirety for all nine fetal echocardiography views since this feature of FINE: 76,77 1) improves the success of obtaining the fetal echocardiography view of interest; 2) allows operator-independent sonographic navigation and exploration of surrounding structures in the diagnostic plane (i.e. a ‘virtual’ sonographer); and 3) can show the appropriate azimuth.…”

“…69–75 STIC technology allows the acquisition of a volume dataset of the fetal heart, in which cardiac planes may be extracted and displayed in any orientation. 43,55 However, the use of software to perform manual navigation 76 through such volume datasets is time consuming, highly operator dependent, and requires a thorough knowledge of cardiac anatomy. 77–79 As a result, this process is difficult and impractical, especially when the fetal heart is abnormal.…”

“…66,76–80 Therefore, such method can simplify examination of the fetal heart and reduce operator dependency. Indeed, studies have reported that FINE applied to STIC volume datasets can successfully generate nine fetal echocardiography views in 96–100% 79 and 98–100% 77,78 of normal hearts in the second and third trimesters.…”

Medical ultrasound diagnosis in the near future as we move toward the era of the singularity

“…In prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of a fetus, however, fetal lie, presentation, and position can affect the configuration of standard diagnostic planes. Yeo and Romero proposed the term 'intelligent navigation' to refer to a new method of interrogation of a volume dataset whereby identification and selection of key anatomical landmarks allow the system to: (1) generate a geometrical reconstruction of the organ of interest and (2) automatically navigate, find, extract, and specify diagnostic planes [2,3]. They accomplished this using an operatorindependent algorithm and developed fetal intelligent navigation echocardiography (FINE) based on STIC datasets.…”