Filtering and scan conversion of 3D displacement vectors from a 4D curvilinear transducer

3D real time ultrasound elastography is quickly becoming a viable clinical tool. Motorized curvilinear transducers are often employed when obtaining 3D data. As a result of transducer geometry, the subsequent filtering and scan conversion of displacement data is non-trivial, and an algorithm has been developed to transform the displacement vectors to Cartesian positions and convert the motion vectors to Cartesian components, while applying appropriate pre-filtering. The method has been validated and found to be computationally efficient. The approach described here can be employed for any 3D transducer geometry, opening the field for the use of many types of 3D transducers for real-time elastography measurements.