Patent ID: 8047991

Claim:
A method for automatic identification of orientation in medical diagnostic ultrasound, the method comprising: obtaining ultrasound data representing a multi-dimensional region bounded by a tissue structure; determining locations associated with the multi-dimensional region as a function of the ultrasound data; and determining an orientation of the tissue structure as a function of the locations; wherein determining the orientation comprises iteratively performing a morphological skeleton operation on the locations, a skeletal line being an output of the performing of a last of the iterations such that a result of the last iteration, without further processing, of the morphological skeleton operation is an internal line of the multi-dimensional region, the multi-dimensional region shrunk down to the internal line by the morphological skeleton operation, the internal line being thinner along a length of the internal line than regions of flow on each of opposite sides of the internal line, the regions of flow within the multi-dimensional region bounded by the tissue structure, the regions of flow being areas thicker than the internal line along the length of the internal line such that the internal line is spaced away from the bounding tissue structure along the entire length by the regions of flow.