Pipeline for the quantification of cardiac strain based on optical flow using 4D ultrasound data

4D ultrasound has the potential to provide complex temporal information needed for the proper diagnosis of cardiac pathologies. The objective of this study is to demonstrate a potential pipeline for the clinical evaluation of 4D cardiac strain using only 4D (RT3D) ultrasound data. First, 4D cardiac ultrasound data is collected using a Siemens SC2000 Ultrasound machine. Then, the raw Rho-Theta data is down-sampled into Cartesian space, and de-noised using an anisotropic diffusion filter. A mask of the myocardium is semi-automatically segmented, based on which a motion field is extracted using an optical flow algorithm. Finally, the computed strain measurements are overlaid on the original images and the myocardium mask.