High performance ultrasound simulation using Monte-Carlo simulation: a GPU ray-tracing implementation

TOMAS PEREZ-CAMBET; VITALE, SANTIAGO; IGNACIO LARRABIDE

Congreso; 16th International Symposium on Medical Information Processing and Analysis; 2020

Medical ultrasound has gained relevance in medical diagnosis, procedure guidance and emergentology. It is a low cost, safe and non-invasive practice, while obtaining real-time results. Limitations on working hours and ultrasound equipment have made simulation the main alternative for training, since it eliminates the need for a real ultrasound machine and allows the modeling of a large number of case studies. Patient 11 from the 3D-IRCADb-01 CT-scans data-set was used to generate corresponding OBJ mesh files. A JSON file carries relevant information of the scene and tissues involved in it. Monte-Carlo simulation over GPU is used to improve ray tracing performance on a deterministic surface model. An improvement in ray tracing performance and throughput is achieved by the presented model. In execution cases presented, a minimum global acceleration of 30% is reached, while reducing ray tracing times by at least 80%. Monte-Carlo simulation allows a more realistic image generation than the previous deterministic model. Low memory usage gives room to implement the remaining stages of the process on GPU. A correct parametrization of tissues is required in order to achieve improved image quality.