Evaluating Spatial Coverage of Breast Examination with Free-hand Ultrasound Transducer

Ultrasound examination plays an important role in both breast cancer screening and diagnostics. One of the drawbacks of the US examination is the uncertainty whether the whole breast was scanned. The proposed paper addresses the methodology how the completeness of the examination can be efficiently evaluated. We propose an affordable solution for simultaneously tracking and grabbing a video from a free-hand 2D ultrasound transducer during standard breast examinations by means of the probe motion tracking. From the recorded data we calculate duration in seconds, for which every part of the examined region has been captured and perform algorithmically local 3D reconstruction. Thus the system can inform the specialist performing the exam about regions that were insufficiently examined and minimize the risk of not detecting developing harmful lesions. The measure for the evaluation and comparison of the individual examinations is proposed. The functionality of the method is illustrated.