INTRAVASCULAR ULTRASOUND IMAGING

An image processing apparatus (10) is disclosed that comprises a processor arrangement (16) adapted to receive image data corresponding to a region of interest (1) of a patient's cardiovascular system, said image data comprising a temporal sequence (15) of intravascular ultrasound images acquired (150) at different phases of at least one cardiac cycle of said patient, said intravascular ultrasound images imaging overlapping volumes of the patient's cardiovascular system; implement a spatial reordering process of said temporal sequence of intravascular ultrasound images by evaluating the image data to select at least one spatial reference (6, Vref) associated with said temporal sequence of intravascular ultrasound images; estimating a distance to the at least one spatial reference for each of the intravascular ultrasound images of said temporal sequence; and reordering said temporal sequence of intravascular ultrasound images into a spatial sequence of intravascular ultrasound images based on the estimated distances; and generate an output comprising said spatial sequence of intravascular ultrasound images. Also disclosed are a method and computer program product to configure an image processing apparatus accordingly.