Real-Time Sagittal Plane Navigation in Ultrasound Imaging

A method includes obtaining a 3-D volume of anatomy including at least the structure of interest. The method further includes acquiring, with an array of an ultrasound probe, a real-time 2-D ultrasound image of the structure of interest in a cavity parallel to a longitudinal axis of the ultrasound probe. The method further includes calculating a metric from a 2-D plane extracted from the 3D volume and the real-time 2-D ultrasound sagittal image. The metric identifies a plane, from sagittal planes of the 3D volume, and a position within the plane, that best fits the real-time 2-D ultrasound sagittal image. The method further includes identifying a current location of the ultrasound probe with respect to the anatomy based on the identified position.