Patent ID: 8556814

Claim:
A method for measuring a fetal parameter from three-dimensional ultrasound data, the method comprising: obtaining the three-dimensional ultrasound data representing a patient; applying a machine-trained classifier to the three-dimensional ultrasound data, the machine-trained classifier comprising a combination of a joint classifier for a plurality of fetal anatomies, including a first fetal anatomy, the first fetal anatomy being detected as a function of detection of a location of another fetal anatomy, and a sequence of marginal machine-trained classifiers to the three-dimensional ultrasound data, a first of the marginal machine-trained classifiers for translation of the first fetal anatomy within a volume represented by the three-dimensional ultrasound data, a second of the marginal machine-trained classifiers for rotation of the first fetal anatomy within the volume, and a third of the marginal machine-trained classifiers for scale of the first fetal anatomy within the volume, the third marginal machine-trained classifier for the scale corresponding to determining a size of the first fetal anatomy within the volume; detecting the first fetal anatomy as a function of the applying; wherein each stage in the sequence of marginal machine-trained classifiers searches through multiple locations in the three-dimensional ultrasound data to identify the locations with higher probabilities for the location of fetal anatomies and further removes false locations remaining from a previous stage in the sequence of marginal machine trained classifiers; wherein each of the fetal anatomies are detected by applying any numbers of degrees of freedom in the marginal machine-trained classifiers for translation, rotation and scaling; measuring the fetal parameter associated with the first fetal anatomy, the measuring providing a value of the fetal parameter; and displaying the value.