Efficiency of ultrasound training simulators: method for assessing image realism.

Although ultrasound has become an important imaging modality within several medical professions, the benefit of ultrasound depends to some degree on the skills of the person operating the probe and interpreting the image. For some applications, the possibility to educate operators in a clinical setting is limited, and the use of training simulators is considered an alternative approach for learning basic skills. To ensure the quality of simulator-based training, it is important to produce simulated ultrasound images that resemble true images to a sufficient degree. This article describes a method that allows corresponding true and simulated ultrasound images to be generated and displayed side by side in real time, thus facilitating an interactive evaluation of ultrasound simulators in terms of image resemblance, real-time characteristics and man-machine interaction. The proposed method could be used to study the realism of ultrasound simulators and how this realism affects the quality of training, as well as being a valuable tool in the development of simulation algorithms.

Real-time ultrasound simulation using the GPU.

Ultrasound simulators can be used for training ultrasound image acquisition and interpretation. In such simulators, synthetic ultrasound images must be generated in real time. Anatomy can be modeled by computed tomography (CT). Shadows can be calculated by combining reflection coefficients and depth dependent, exponential attenuation. To include speckle, a pre-calculated texture map is typically added. Dynamic objects must be simulated separately. We propose to increase the speckle realism and allow for dynamic objects by using a physical model of the underlying scattering process. The model is based on convolution of the point spread function (PSF) of the ultrasound scanner with a scatterer distribution. The challenge is that the typical field-of-view contains millions of scatterers which must be selected by a virtual probe from an even larger body of scatterers. The main idea of this paper is to select and sample scatterers in parallel on the graphic processing unit (GPU). The method was used to image a cyst phantom and a movable needle. Speckle images were produced in real time (more than 10 frames per second) on a standard GPU. The ultrasound images were visually similar to images calculated by a reference method.

Interactive development of a CT-based tissue model for ultrasound simulation.

The objective of this study was to make an interactive method for development of a tissue model, based on anatomical information in computed tomography (CT) images, for use in an ultrasound simulator for training or surgical pre-planning. The method consisted of (1) comparison of true ultrasound B-mode images with corresponding ultrasound-like images, and (2) modification of tissue properties to decrease the difference between these images. Ultrasound-like images that reproduced many, but not all the properties of corresponding true ultrasound images were generated. The tissue model could be used for real-time simulation of ultrasound-like B-mode images on a moderately priced computer.