Pub Date : 2024-06-19DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3416512
Mostafa Amin Naji;Iman Taghavi;Erik Vilain Thomsen;Niels Bent Larsen;Jørgen Arendt Jensen
Velocity estimation in ultrasound imaging is a technique to measure the speed and direction of blood flow. The flow velocity in small blood vessels, i.e., arterioles, venules, and capillaries, can be estimated using super-resolution ultrasound imaging (SRUS). However, the vessel width in SRUS is relatively small compared with the full-width-half-maximum of the ultrasound beam in the elevation direction, which directly impacts the velocity estimation. By taking into consideration the small vessel widths in SRUS, it is hypothesized that the velocity is underestimated in 2-D SRUS when the vessel diameter is smaller than the full width at half maximum elevation resolution of the transducer (FWHMy). A theoretical model is introduced to show that the velocity of a 3-D parabolic velocity profile is underestimated by up to 33% in 2-D SRUS, if the width of the vessel is smaller than FWHMy. This model was tested using Field II simulations and 3-D-printed micro-flow hydrogel phantom measurements. A Verasonics Vantage 256 scanner and a GE L8-18i-D linear array transducer with FWHMy of approximately $770~mu {m}$ at the elevation focus were used in the simulations and measurements. Simulations of different parabolic velocity profiles showed that the velocity underestimation was 36.8% $pm ~1.5$ % (mean ± standard deviation). The measurements showed that the velocity was underestimated by 30% $pm ~6.9$ %. Moreover, the results of vessel diameters, ranging from $0.125times $ FWHMy to $3times $ FWHMy, indicate that velocities are estimated according to the theoretical model. The theoretical model can, therefore, be used for the compensation of velocity estimates under these circumstances.
超声成像中的速度估算是一种测量血流速度和方向的技术。超分辨率超声成像（SRUS）可估算小血管（即动脉、静脉和毛细血管）中的流速。然而，与超声波束在仰角方向的全宽-半最大值（FWHMy）相比，SRUS 中的血管宽度相对较小，这直接影响了流速的估算。考虑到 SRUS 中的血管宽度较小，假设当血管直径小于 FWHMy 时，二维超分辨率超声成像中的速度会被低估。引入的理论模型表明，如果血管宽度小于 FWHMy，二维 SRUS 中三维抛物线速度曲线的速度会被低估 33%。该模型通过 Field II 仿真和三维打印微流水凝胶模型测量进行了测试。模拟和测量中使用了 Verasonics Vantage 256™ 扫描仪和 GE L8-18i-D 线性阵列换能器，在仰角焦点处的 FWHMy 约为 770 μm。对不同抛物线速度剖面的模拟显示，速度低估率为 36.8%±1.5%（平均值±标准偏差）。测量结果显示，速度被低估了 30%±6.9%。此外，血管直径从 0.125×FWHMy 到 3×FWHMy 的结果表明，速度是根据理论模型估算的。因此，在这种情况下，理论模型可用于补偿速度估计值。
{"title":"Underestimation of Flow Velocity in 2-D Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging","authors":"Mostafa Amin Naji;Iman Taghavi;Erik Vilain Thomsen;Niels Bent Larsen;Jørgen Arendt Jensen","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3416512","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3416512","url":null,"abstract":"Velocity estimation in ultrasound imaging is a technique to measure the speed and direction of blood flow. The flow velocity in small blood vessels, i.e., arterioles, venules, and capillaries, can be estimated using super-resolution ultrasound imaging (SRUS). However, the vessel width in SRUS is relatively small compared with the full-width-half-maximum of the ultrasound beam in the elevation direction, which directly impacts the velocity estimation. By taking into consideration the small vessel widths in SRUS, it is hypothesized that the velocity is underestimated in 2-D SRUS when the vessel diameter is smaller than the full width at half maximum elevation resolution of the transducer (FWHMy). A theoretical model is introduced to show that the velocity of a 3-D parabolic velocity profile is underestimated by up to 33% in 2-D SRUS, if the width of the vessel is smaller than FWHMy. This model was tested using Field II simulations and 3-D-printed micro-flow hydrogel phantom measurements. A Verasonics Vantage 256 scanner and a GE L8-18i-D linear array transducer with FWHMy of approximately \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$770~mu {m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 at the elevation focus were used in the simulations and measurements. Simulations of different parabolic velocity profiles showed that the velocity underestimation was 36.8% \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$pm ~1.5$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000% (mean ± standard deviation). The measurements showed that the velocity was underestimated by 30% \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$pm ~6.9$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000%. Moreover, the results of vessel diameters, ranging from \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$0.125times $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 FWHMy to \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$3times $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 FWHMy, indicate that velocities are estimated according to the theoretical model. The theoretical model can, therefore, be used for the compensation of velocity estimates under these circumstances.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 12: Breaking the Resolution Barrier in Ultrasound","pages":"1844-1854"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141426796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can produce cavitation, which requires monitoring for specific applications such as sonoporation, targeted drug delivery, or histotripsy. Passive acoustic mapping has been proposed in the literature as a method for monitoring cavitation, but it lacks spatial resolution, primarily in the axial direction, due to the absence of a time reference. This is a common issue with passive imaging compared to standard pulse-echo ultrasound. In order to improve the axial resolution, we propose an adaptation of the cross spectral matrix fitting (CMF) method for passive cavitation imaging, which is based on the resolution of an inverse problem with different regularizations that promote sparsity in the reconstructed cavitation maps: Elastic Net (CMF-ElNet) and sparse Total Variation (CMF-spTV). The results from both simulated and experimental data are presented and compared to state-of-the-art approaches, such as the frequential delay-and-sum (DAS) and the frequential robust capon beamformer (RCB). We show the interest of the method for improving the axial resolution, with an axial full width half maximum (FWHM) divided by 3 and 5 compared to RCB and DAS, respectively. Moreover, CMF-based methods improve contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) by more than 15 dB in experimental conditions compared to RCB. We also show the advantage of the sparse Total Variation (spTV) prior over Elastic Net (ElNet) when dealing with cloud-shaped cavitation sources, that can be assumed as sparse grouped sources.
高强度聚焦超声（HIFU）会产生空化现象，需要对其进行监测，以用于声波修复、靶向给药或组织切削等特定应用。文献中已经提出了被动声学绘图作为监测空化的方法，但由于缺乏时间参考，这种方法缺乏空间分辨率，主要是在轴向。与标准脉冲回波超声相比，这是被动成像的一个常见问题。为了提高轴向分辨率，我们提出了一种适用于被动空化成像的跨谱矩阵拟合（CMF）方法，该方法以解决反问题为基础，并采用不同的正则化处理，以提高重建空化图的稀疏性：弹性网（CMF-ElNet）和稀疏总变异（CMF-spTV）。我们展示了模拟和实验数据的结果，并将其与最先进的方法进行了比较，如频率延迟和（DAS）和频率鲁棒卡蓬波束成形器（RCB）。我们展示了该方法在提高轴向分辨率方面的优势，与 RCB 和 DAS 相比，轴向半宽最大值（FWHM）分别降低了 3 和 5。此外，与 RCB 相比，基于 CMF 的方法在实验条件下可将对比度与噪声比 (CNR) 提高 15 dB 以上。我们还展示了在处理云形空化源时，稀疏总变异先验比弹性网更有优势，因为云形空化源可以假定为稀疏分组源。
{"title":"An Inverse Method Using Cross-Spectral Matrix Fitting for Passive Cavitation Imaging","authors":"Célestine Lachambre;Adrian Basarab;Jean-Christophe Béra;Barbara Nicolas;François Varray;Bruno Gilles","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3416813","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3416813","url":null,"abstract":"High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can produce cavitation, which requires monitoring for specific applications such as sonoporation, targeted drug delivery, or histotripsy. Passive acoustic mapping has been proposed in the literature as a method for monitoring cavitation, but it lacks spatial resolution, primarily in the axial direction, due to the absence of a time reference. This is a common issue with passive imaging compared to standard pulse-echo ultrasound. In order to improve the axial resolution, we propose an adaptation of the cross spectral matrix fitting (CMF) method for passive cavitation imaging, which is based on the resolution of an inverse problem with different regularizations that promote sparsity in the reconstructed cavitation maps: Elastic Net (CMF-ElNet) and sparse Total Variation (CMF-spTV). The results from both simulated and experimental data are presented and compared to state-of-the-art approaches, such as the frequential delay-and-sum (DAS) and the frequential robust capon beamformer (RCB). We show the interest of the method for improving the axial resolution, with an axial full width half maximum (FWHM) divided by 3 and 5 compared to RCB and DAS, respectively. Moreover, CMF-based methods improve contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) by more than 15 dB in experimental conditions compared to RCB. We also show the advantage of the sparse Total Variation (spTV) prior over Elastic Net (ElNet) when dealing with cloud-shaped cavitation sources, that can be assumed as sparse grouped sources.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 8","pages":"995-1005"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141426771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zebrafish has been considered as an essential small-animal model for investigating the mechanism of heart regeneration. Due to the small size of zebrafish heart, high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) imaging is often required for in vivo evaluations of its dynamic functions. Although commercial HFUS systems are available for myocardial velocity and strain measurement, only the outer myocardial region can be quantified due to the complex structure of zebrafish heart. In this study, a high-resolution 2-D myocardial tissue Doppler and strain imaging based on ultrafast HFUS imaging was developed for zebrafish heart imaging during heart regeneration. The cardiac flow region was first extracted to recognize the myocardial region, and the myocardial velocity and strain were then determined through vector Doppler estimation. Adult AB-line zebrafish was used for in vivo experiments, and cryoinjury was induced in the apical region of the heart. Both the myocardial velocity and strain of the whole ventricle after cryoinjury were directly visualized over 28 days. Myocardial velocity (during later diastolic motion) and strain, respectively, were significantly decreased (anterior wall: −2.0 mm/s and −3.3%; apical region: −2.0 mm/s and −4.5%; and posterior wall (PW): −1.7 mm/s and −4.3%) at the first three days after cryoinjury, which indicates weak myocardial beating due to heart injury. However, these all returned to the baseline values at 14 days after cryoinjury. All of the experimental results indicate that the proposed method is a useful tool for heart regeneration studies in adult zebrafish. In particular, it allows for the noninvasive evaluation of regional dynamic heart function.
{"title":"High-Resolution Tissue Doppler and Strain Imaging for Adult Zebrafish Myocardial Tissue Through Ultrafast High-Frequency Ultrasound Vector Doppler Estimation","authors":"Hsin Huang;Alexander Machikhin;De-Quan Chen;Chih-Chung Huang","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3414856","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3414856","url":null,"abstract":"Zebrafish has been considered as an essential small-animal model for investigating the mechanism of heart regeneration. Due to the small size of zebrafish heart, high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) imaging is often required for in vivo evaluations of its dynamic functions. Although commercial HFUS systems are available for myocardial velocity and strain measurement, only the outer myocardial region can be quantified due to the complex structure of zebrafish heart. In this study, a high-resolution 2-D myocardial tissue Doppler and strain imaging based on ultrafast HFUS imaging was developed for zebrafish heart imaging during heart regeneration. The cardiac flow region was first extracted to recognize the myocardial region, and the myocardial velocity and strain were then determined through vector Doppler estimation. Adult AB-line zebrafish was used for in vivo experiments, and cryoinjury was induced in the apical region of the heart. Both the myocardial velocity and strain of the whole ventricle after cryoinjury were directly visualized over 28 days. Myocardial velocity (during later diastolic motion) and strain, respectively, were significantly decreased (anterior wall: −2.0 mm/s and −3.3%; apical region: −2.0 mm/s and −4.5%; and posterior wall (PW): −1.7 mm/s and −4.3%) at the first three days after cryoinjury, which indicates weak myocardial beating due to heart injury. However, these all returned to the baseline values at 14 days after cryoinjury. All of the experimental results indicate that the proposed method is a useful tool for heart regeneration studies in adult zebrafish. In particular, it allows for the noninvasive evaluation of regional dynamic heart function.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 8","pages":"1006-1018"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141320779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Intraventricular vector flow mapping (iVFM) seeks to enhance and quantify color Doppler in cardiac imaging. In this study, we propose novel alternatives to the traditional iVFM optimization scheme using physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) and a physics-guided nnU-Net-based supervised approach. When evaluated on simulated color Doppler images derived from a patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and in vivo Doppler acquisitions, both the approaches demonstrate comparable reconstruction performance to the original iVFM algorithm. The efficiency of PINNs is boosted through dual-stage optimization and pre-optimized weights. On the other hand, the nnU-Net method excels in generalizability and real-time capabilities. Notably, nnU-Net shows superior robustness on sparse and truncated Doppler data while maintaining independence from explicit boundary conditions. Overall, our results highlight the effectiveness of these methods in reconstructing intraventricular vector blood flow. The study also suggests potential applications of PINNs in ultrafast color Doppler imaging and the incorporation of fluid dynamics equations to derive biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases based on blood flow.
{"title":"Physics-Guided Neural Networks for Intraventricular Vector Flow Mapping","authors":"Hang Jung Ling;Salomé Bru;Julia Puig;Florian Vixège;Simon Mendez;Franck Nicoud;Pierre-Yves Courand;Olivier Bernard;Damien Garcia","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3411718","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3411718","url":null,"abstract":"Intraventricular vector flow mapping (iVFM) seeks to enhance and quantify color Doppler in cardiac imaging. In this study, we propose novel alternatives to the traditional iVFM optimization scheme using physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) and a physics-guided nnU-Net-based supervised approach. When evaluated on simulated color Doppler images derived from a patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and in vivo Doppler acquisitions, both the approaches demonstrate comparable reconstruction performance to the original iVFM algorithm. The efficiency of PINNs is boosted through dual-stage optimization and pre-optimized weights. On the other hand, the nnU-Net method excels in generalizability and real-time capabilities. Notably, nnU-Net shows superior robustness on sparse and truncated Doppler data while maintaining independence from explicit boundary conditions. Overall, our results highlight the effectiveness of these methods in reconstructing intraventricular vector blood flow. The study also suggests potential applications of PINNs in ultrafast color Doppler imaging and the incorporation of fluid dynamics equations to derive biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases based on blood flow.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 11","pages":"1377-1388"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141300544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Super-resolution ultrasound imaging using the erythrocytes (SURE) has recently been introduced. The method uses erythrocytes as targets instead of fragile microbubbles (MBs). The abundance of erythrocyte scatterers makes it possible to acquire SURE data in just a few seconds compared with several minutes in ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) using MBs. A high number of scatterers can reduce the acquisition time; however, the tracking of uncorrelated and high-density scatterers is quite challenging. This article hypothesizes that it is possible to detect and track erythrocytes as targets to obtain vascular flow images. A SURE tracking pipeline is used with modules for beamforming, recursive synthetic aperture (SA) imaging, motion estimation, echo canceling, peak detection, and recursive nearest-neighbor (NN) tracker. The SURE tracking pipeline is capable of distinguishing the flow direction and separating tubes of a simulated Field II phantom with 125–25- $mu text { m}$ wall-to-wall tube distances, as well as a 3-D printed hydrogel micr-flow phantom with 100–60- $mu text { m}$ wall-to-wall channel distances. The comparison of an in vivo SURE scan of a Sprague-Dawley rat kidney with ULM and micro-computed tomography (CT) scans with voxel sizes of 26.5 and $5~mu text { m}$ demonstrated consistent findings. A microvascular structure composed of 16 vessels exhibited similarities across all imaging modalities. The flow direction and velocity profiles in the SURE scan were found to be concordant with those from ULM.
{"title":"Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging Using the Erythrocytes—Part II: Velocity Images","authors":"Mostafa Amin Naji;Iman Taghavi;Mikkel Schou;Sebastian Kazmarek PræSius;Lauge Naur Hansen;Nathalie Sarup Panduro;Sofie Bech Andersen;Stinne Byrholdt Søgaard;Carsten Gundlach;Hans Martin Kjer;Borislav Gueorguiev Tomov;Erik Vilain Thomsen;Michael Bachmann Nielsen;Niels Bent Larsen;Anders Bjorholm Dahl;Charlotte Mehlin Sørensen;Jørgen Arendt Jensen","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3411795","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3411795","url":null,"abstract":"Super-resolution ultrasound imaging using the erythrocytes (SURE) has recently been introduced. The method uses erythrocytes as targets instead of fragile microbubbles (MBs). The abundance of erythrocyte scatterers makes it possible to acquire SURE data in just a few seconds compared with several minutes in ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) using MBs. A high number of scatterers can reduce the acquisition time; however, the tracking of uncorrelated and high-density scatterers is quite challenging. This article hypothesizes that it is possible to detect and track erythrocytes as targets to obtain vascular flow images. A SURE tracking pipeline is used with modules for beamforming, recursive synthetic aperture (SA) imaging, motion estimation, echo canceling, peak detection, and recursive nearest-neighbor (NN) tracker. The SURE tracking pipeline is capable of distinguishing the flow direction and separating tubes of a simulated Field II phantom with 125–25-\u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$mu text { m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 wall-to-wall tube distances, as well as a 3-D printed hydrogel micr-flow phantom with 100–60-\u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$mu text { m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 wall-to-wall channel distances. The comparison of an in vivo SURE scan of a Sprague-Dawley rat kidney with ULM and micro-computed tomography (CT) scans with voxel sizes of 26.5 and \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$5~mu text { m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 demonstrated consistent findings. A microvascular structure composed of 16 vessels exhibited similarities across all imaging modalities. The flow direction and velocity profiles in the SURE scan were found to be concordant with those from ULM.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 8","pages":"945-959"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10552297","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141300546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A new approach for vascular super-resolution (SR) imaging using the erythrocytes as targets (SUper-Resolution ultrasound imaging of Erythrocytes (SURE) imaging) is described and investigated. SURE imaging does not require fragile contrast agent bubbles, making it possible to use the maximum allowable mechanical index (MI) for ultrasound scanning for an increased penetration depth. A synthetic aperture (SA) ultrasound sequence was employed with 12 virtual sources (VSs) using a 10-MHz GE L8-18i-D linear array hockey stick probe. The axial resolution was ${1.20}lambda ~text {(185.0}~mu $ m) and the lateral resolution was ${1.50}lambda ~text {(231.3}~mu $ m). Field IIpro simulations were conducted on 12.5- $mu $ m radius vessel pairs with varying separations. A vessel pair with a separation of $70~mu $ m could be resolved, indicating a SURE image resolution below half a wavelength. A Verasonics research scanner was used for the in vivo experiments to scan the kidneys of Sprague-Dawley rats for up to 46 s to visualize their microvasculature by processing from 0.1 up to 45 s of data for SURE imaging and for 46.8 s for SR imaging with a SonoVue contrast agent. Afterward, the renal vasculature was filled with the ex vivo micro-computed tomography (CT) contrast agent Microfil, excised, and scanned in a micro-CT scanner at both a 22.6- $mu $ m voxel size for 11 h and for 20 h in a 5- $mu $ m voxel size for validating the SURE images. Comparing the SURE and micro-CT images revealed that vessels with a diameter of $28~mu $ m, five times smaller than the ultrasound wavelength, could be detected, and the dense grid of microvessels in the full kidney was shown for scan times between 1 and 10 s. The vessel structure in the cortex was also similar to the SURE and SR images. Fourier ring correlation (FRC) indicated a resolution capability of $29~mu $ m. SURE images are acquired in seconds rather than minutes without any patient preparation or contrast injection, making the method translatable to clinical use.
{"title":"Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging Using the Erythrocytes—Part I: Density Images","authors":"Jørgen Arendt Jensen;Mostafa Amin Naji;Sebastian Kazmarek Præsius;Iman Taghavi;Mikkel Schou;Lauge Naur Hansen;Sofie Bech Andersen;Stinne Byrholdt Søgaard;Nathalie Sarup Panduro;Charlotte Mehlin Sørensen;Michael Bachmann Nielsen;Carsten Gundlach;Hans Martin Kjer;Anders Bjorholm Dahl;Borislav Gueorguiev Tomov;Martin Lind Ommen;Niels Bent Larsen;Erik Vilain Thomsen","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3411711","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3411711","url":null,"abstract":"A new approach for vascular super-resolution (SR) imaging using the erythrocytes as targets (SUper-Resolution ultrasound imaging of Erythrocytes (SURE) imaging) is described and investigated. SURE imaging does not require fragile contrast agent bubbles, making it possible to use the maximum allowable mechanical index (MI) for ultrasound scanning for an increased penetration depth. A synthetic aperture (SA) ultrasound sequence was employed with 12 virtual sources (VSs) using a 10-MHz GE L8-18i-D linear array hockey stick probe. The axial resolution was \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>${1.20}lambda ~text {(185.0}~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m) and the lateral resolution was \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>${1.50}lambda ~text {(231.3}~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m). Field IIpro simulations were conducted on 12.5-\u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m radius vessel pairs with varying separations. A vessel pair with a separation of \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$70~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m could be resolved, indicating a SURE image resolution below half a wavelength. A Verasonics research scanner was used for the in vivo experiments to scan the kidneys of Sprague-Dawley rats for up to 46 s to visualize their microvasculature by processing from 0.1 up to 45 s of data for SURE imaging and for 46.8 s for SR imaging with a SonoVue contrast agent. Afterward, the renal vasculature was filled with the ex vivo micro-computed tomography (CT) contrast agent Microfil, excised, and scanned in a micro-CT scanner at both a 22.6-\u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m voxel size for 11 h and for 20 h in a 5-\u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m voxel size for validating the SURE images. Comparing the SURE and micro-CT images revealed that vessels with a diameter of \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$28~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m, five times smaller than the ultrasound wavelength, could be detected, and the dense grid of microvessels in the full kidney was shown for scan times between 1 and 10 s. The vessel structure in the cortex was also similar to the SURE and SR images. Fourier ring correlation (FRC) indicated a resolution capability of \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$29~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m. SURE images are acquired in seconds rather than minutes without any patient preparation or contrast injection, making the method translatable to clinical use.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 8","pages":"925-944"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10552252","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141300545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-10DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3406071
{"title":"IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Publication Information","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3406071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3406071","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 6","pages":"C2-C2"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10552445","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141304118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ultrasound elastography is a noninvasive medical imaging technique that maps viscoelastic properties to characterize tissues and diseases. Elastography can be divided into two classes in a broad sense: strain elastography (SE), which relies on Hooke’s law to delineate strain as a surrogate for elasticity, and shear-wave elastography (SWE), which tracks the propagation of shear waves (SWs) in tissues to estimate the elasticity. As tracking the displacement field in the temporal or spatial domain is an inevitable step of both SE and SWE, the success is contingent on the displacement estimation accuracy. Recent reviews mostly focused on clinical applications of elastography, disregarding advances in displacement tracking algorithms. Here, we comprehensively review the recently proposed displacement estimation algorithms applied to both SE and SWE. In addition to cross correlation, block-matching-based (i.e., window-based), model-based, energy-based, and deep learning-based tracking techniques, we review large and lateral displacement tracking, adaptive beamforming, data enhancement, and noise-suppression algorithms facilitating better displacement estimation. We also discuss the simulation models for displacement tracking validation, clinical translation and validation of displacement tracking methods, performance evaluation metrics, and publicly available codes and data for displacement tracking in elastography. Finally, we provide experiential opinions on different tracking algorithms, list the limitations of the current state of elastographic tracking, and comment on possible future research.
超声弹性成像技术是一种非侵入性医学成像技术，通过绘制粘弹性特性图来描述组织和疾病的特征。从广义上讲，弹性成像可分为两类：应变弹性成像（SE）和剪切波弹性成像（SWE），前者依靠胡克定律来确定应变，作为弹性的代用指标；后者则跟踪剪切波在组织中的传播来估计弹性。由于在时间或空间域跟踪位移场是 SE 和 SWE 的必然步骤，因此其成功与否取决于位移估计的准确性。近期的综述大多集中于弹性成像的临床应用，而忽略了位移跟踪算法的进展。在此，我们全面回顾了最近提出的应用于 SE 和 SWE 的位移估计算法。除了交叉相关、块匹配（即基于窗口）、基于模型、基于能量和基于深度学习的跟踪技术外，我们还综述了大位移和横向位移跟踪、自适应波束成形、数据增强和噪声抑制算法，以促进更好的位移估计。我们还讨论了位移跟踪验证的模拟模型、位移跟踪方法的临床转化和验证、性能评估指标以及弹性成像中位移跟踪的公开可用代码和数据。最后，我们就不同的跟踪算法提供了经验意见，列出了弹性成像跟踪现状的局限性，并对未来可能的研究发表了评论。
{"title":"Displacement Tracking Techniques in Ultrasound Elastography: From Cross Correlation to Deep Learning","authors":"Md Ashikuzzaman;Arnaud Héroux;An Tang;Guy Cloutier;Hassan Rivaz","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3410671","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3410671","url":null,"abstract":"Ultrasound elastography is a noninvasive medical imaging technique that maps viscoelastic properties to characterize tissues and diseases. Elastography can be divided into two classes in a broad sense: strain elastography (SE), which relies on Hooke’s law to delineate strain as a surrogate for elasticity, and shear-wave elastography (SWE), which tracks the propagation of shear waves (SWs) in tissues to estimate the elasticity. As tracking the displacement field in the temporal or spatial domain is an inevitable step of both SE and SWE, the success is contingent on the displacement estimation accuracy. Recent reviews mostly focused on clinical applications of elastography, disregarding advances in displacement tracking algorithms. Here, we comprehensively review the recently proposed displacement estimation algorithms applied to both SE and SWE. In addition to cross correlation, block-matching-based (i.e., window-based), model-based, energy-based, and deep learning-based tracking techniques, we review large and lateral displacement tracking, adaptive beamforming, data enhancement, and noise-suppression algorithms facilitating better displacement estimation. We also discuss the simulation models for displacement tracking validation, clinical translation and validation of displacement tracking methods, performance evaluation metrics, and publicly available codes and data for displacement tracking in elastography. Finally, we provide experiential opinions on different tracking algorithms, list the limitations of the current state of elastographic tracking, and comment on possible future research.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 7","pages":"842-871"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10551279","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141283555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-05DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3409638
Ellen Yeats;Ning Lu;Greyson Stocker;Mahmoud Komaiha;Jonathan R. Sukovich;Zhen Xu;Timothy L. Hall
Histotripsy is a noninvasive ablation technique that focuses ultrasound pulses into the body to destroy tissues via cavitation. Heterogeneous acoustic paths through tissue introduce phase errors that distort and weaken the focus, requiring additional power output from the histotripsy transducer to perform therapy. This effect, termed phase aberration, limits the safety and efficacy of histotripsy ablation. It has been shown in vitro that the phase errors from aberration can be corrected by receiving the acoustic signals emitted by cavitation. For transabdominal histotripsy in vivo, however, cavitation-based aberration correction (AC) is complicated by acoustic signal clutter and respiratory motion. This study develops a method that enables robust, effective cavitation-based AC in vivo and evaluates its efficacy in the swine liver. The method begins with a high-speed pulsing procedure to minimize the effects of respiratory motion. Then, an optimal phase correction is obtained in the presence of acoustic clutter by filtering with the singular value decomposition (SVD). This AC method reduced the power required to generate cavitation in the liver by 26% on average (range: 0%–52%) and required ~2 s for signal acquisition and processing per focus location. These results suggest that the cavitation-based method could enable fast and effective AC for transabdominal histotripsy.
{"title":"In Vivo Cavitation-Based Aberration Correction of Histotripsy in Porcine Liver","authors":"Ellen Yeats;Ning Lu;Greyson Stocker;Mahmoud Komaiha;Jonathan R. Sukovich;Zhen Xu;Timothy L. Hall","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3409638","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3409638","url":null,"abstract":"Histotripsy is a noninvasive ablation technique that focuses ultrasound pulses into the body to destroy tissues via cavitation. Heterogeneous acoustic paths through tissue introduce phase errors that distort and weaken the focus, requiring additional power output from the histotripsy transducer to perform therapy. This effect, termed phase aberration, limits the safety and efficacy of histotripsy ablation. It has been shown in vitro that the phase errors from aberration can be corrected by receiving the acoustic signals emitted by cavitation. For transabdominal histotripsy in vivo, however, cavitation-based aberration correction (AC) is complicated by acoustic signal clutter and respiratory motion. This study develops a method that enables robust, effective cavitation-based AC in vivo and evaluates its efficacy in the swine liver. The method begins with a high-speed pulsing procedure to minimize the effects of respiratory motion. Then, an optimal phase correction is obtained in the presence of acoustic clutter by filtering with the singular value decomposition (SVD). This AC method reduced the power required to generate cavitation in the liver by 26% on average (range: 0%–52%) and required ~2 s for signal acquisition and processing per focus location. These results suggest that the cavitation-based method could enable fast and effective AC for transabdominal histotripsy.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 8","pages":"1019-1029"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141261749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-04DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3409518
Hanyue Shangguan;Billy Y. S. Yiu;Adrian J. Y. Chee;Alfred C. H. Yu
In the development of ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) methods, appropriate test beds are needed to facilitate algorithmic performance calibration. Here, we present the design of a new ULM-compatible microvascular phantom with a forked, V-shaped wall-less flow channel pair ( $250~mu $ m channel width) that is bifurcated at a separation rate of $50~mu $ m/mm. The lumen core was fabricated using additive manufacturing, and it was molded within a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) tissue-mimicking slab using the lost-core casting method. Measured using optical microscopy, the lumen core’s flow channel width was found to be $252~pm ~15~mu $ m with a regression-derived flow channel separation gradient of $50.89~mu $ m/mm. The new phantom’s applicability in ULM performance analysis was demonstrated by feeding microbubble (MB) contrast flow (1.67 to $167~mu $ L/s flow rates) through the phantom’s inlet and generating ULM images with a previously reported method. Results showed that, with longer acquisition times (10 s or longer), ULM image quality was expectedly improved, and the variance of ULM-derived flow channel measurements was reduced. Also, at axial depths near the lumen’s bifurcation point, the current ULM algorithm showed difficulty in properly discerning between the two flow channels because of the narrow channel-to-channel separation distance. Overall, the new phantom serves well as a calibration tool to test the performance of ULM methods in resolving small vasculature.
{"title":"A Forked Microvascular Phantom for Ultrasound Localization Microscopy Investigations","authors":"Hanyue Shangguan;Billy Y. S. Yiu;Adrian J. Y. Chee;Alfred C. H. Yu","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3409518","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3409518","url":null,"abstract":"In the development of ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) methods, appropriate test beds are needed to facilitate algorithmic performance calibration. Here, we present the design of a new ULM-compatible microvascular phantom with a forked, V-shaped wall-less flow channel pair (\u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$250~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m channel width) that is bifurcated at a separation rate of \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$50~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m/mm. The lumen core was fabricated using additive manufacturing, and it was molded within a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) tissue-mimicking slab using the lost-core casting method. Measured using optical microscopy, the lumen core’s flow channel width was found to be \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$252~pm ~15~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m with a regression-derived flow channel separation gradient of \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$50.89~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000m/mm. The new phantom’s applicability in ULM performance analysis was demonstrated by feeding microbubble (MB) contrast flow (1.67 to \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$167~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000L/s flow rates) through the phantom’s inlet and generating ULM images with a previously reported method. Results showed that, with longer acquisition times (10 s or longer), ULM image quality was expectedly improved, and the variance of ULM-derived flow channel measurements was reduced. Also, at axial depths near the lumen’s bifurcation point, the current ULM algorithm showed difficulty in properly discerning between the two flow channels because of the narrow channel-to-channel separation distance. Overall, the new phantom serves well as a calibration tool to test the performance of ULM methods in resolving small vasculature.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"71 7","pages":"887-896"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10547348","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141247750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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