3-D <i>In Vitro</i> Acoustic Super-Resolution and Super-Resolved Velocity Mapping Using Microbubbles

Christensen-Jeffries, Kirsten; Brown, Jemma; Aljabar, Paul; Tang, Meng‐Xing; Dunsby, Christopher; Eckersley, Robert J.

doi:10.1109/tuffc.2017.2731664

Cited by 51 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In ultrasound imaging, a similar improvement in resolution obtained through the localization of microbubbles was demonstrated in-vitro by several teams [[4], [5], [6]]. In-vivo, ultrasound localization microscopy has highlighted and separated blood vessels much smaller than the wavelength in the rat brain [ [7], [8]], ear [9], kidney [ [10], [11]] and in implanted tumor in mice [12]. A comprehensive review of ultrasound localization microscopy and super-resolution was recently published [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Ultrafast 3D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy Using a 32 $\times$ 32 Matrix Array

Heiles

Correia

Hingot

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

106

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Ultrasound Localization Microscopy can map blood vessels with a resolution much smaller than the wavelength by localizing microbubbles. Current implementations of the technique are limited to 2-D planes or small fields of view in 3D. These suffer from minute-long acquisitions, out-of-plane microbubbles and tissue motion. In this study, we exploit the recent development of 4D ultrafast ultrasound imaging to insonify an isotropic volume up to 20000 times per second and perform localization microscopy in the three dimensions. Specifically, a 32x32 elements, 9-MHz matrix-array probe connected to a 1024-channel programmable ultrasound scanner was used to achieve sub-wavelength volumetric imaging of both the structure and vector flow of a complex 3D structure (a main canal branching out into two side canals). To cope with the large volumes and the need to localize the bubbles in the three dimensions, novel algorithms were developed based on deconvolution of the beamformed microbubble signal. For tracking, individual particles were paired following a Munkres assignment method and velocimetry was done following a Lagrangian approach. ULM was able to clearly represent the 3D shape of the structure with a sharp delineation of canal edges (as small as 230 µm) and separate them with a spacing as low as 52µm. The compounded volume rate of 500Hz was sufficient to describe velocities in the [2.5-150] mm/s range and to reduce the maximum acquisition time to 12s. This study demonstrates the feasibility of in vitro 3D ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy and opens up the way towards in vivo volumetric ULM.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Ultrafast 3D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy Using a 32 $\times$ 32 Matrix Array

Heiles

Correia

Hingot

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In practice, this enforces a limit of the channels at most being in a few planes, and true 3D replication of structures will be very limited. Other examples of phantoms consisting of tubes have been presented by Viessmann et al (3 mm diameter) [5] and by Christensen-Jeffries et al (200 µm diameter) [6]. These structures are larger than the vessels of interest, which would be smaller than 100 µm in diameter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printed Calibration Micro-phantoms for Validation of Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging

Ommen

Schou

Beers³

et al. 2019

2019 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS)

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This study evaluates the use of 3D printed phantoms for super-resolution ultrasound imaging (SRI) algorithm calibration. Stereolithography is used for printing calibration phantoms containing eight randomly placed scatterers of nominal size 205 µm × 205 µm × 200 µm. The purpose is to provide a stable reference for validating new ultrasonic imaging techniques such as SRI. SRI algorithm calibration is demonstrated by imaging a phantom using a λ/2 pitch 3 MHz 62+62 row-column addressed (RCA) ultrasound probe. As the imaging wavelength is larger than the dimensions of the scatterers, they will appear as single point spread functions in the generated volumes. The scatterers are placed with a minimum separation of 3 mm to avoid overlap of the point spread functions of the scatterers. 640 volumes containing the phantom features are generated, with an intervolume uniaxial movement of 12.5 µm, emulating a flow velocity of 2 mm/s at a volume frequency of 160 Hz. A superresolution pipeline is applied to the obtained volumes to localise the positions of the scatterers and track them across the 640 volumes. The standard deviation of the variation in the scatterer positions along each track is used as an estimate of the precision of the super-resolution algorithm, and was found to be between the two limiting estimates of (x, y, z) = (17.7, 27.6, 9.5) µm and (x, y, z) = (17.3, 19.3, 8.7) µm. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the use of 3D printed phantoms for determining the precision of super-resolution algorithms.

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“…However, in practice this imposes a limit of the channels being in a single plane. Other examples of phantoms consisting of tubes have been presented in [5] (3 mm diameter) and [6] (200 µm diameter). In both cases this is larger than the vessels of interest, which are less than 20 µm in diameter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printed Flow Phantoms with Fiducial Markers for Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging

Ommen

Schou

Zhang

et al. 2018

2018 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS)

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The improved resolution provided by ultrasound super-resolution imaging (SRI) sets new demands on the fabrication of phantoms for the validation and verification of the technique. Phantoms should resemble tissue and replicate the 3D nature of tissue vasculature at the microvascular scale. This paper presents a potential method for creating complex 3D phantoms, via 3D printing of water-filled polymer networks. By using a custom-built stereolithographic printer, projected light of the desired patterns converts an aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) solution into a hydrogel, a material capable of containing 75 wt% of water. Due to the hydrogel mainly consisting of water, it will, from an acoustical point of view, respond very similar to tissue. A method for printing cavities as small as (100 µm) 3 is demonstrated, and a 3D printed flow phantom containing channels with cross sections of (200 µm) 2 is presented. The designed structures are geometrically manufactured with a 2% increase in dimensions. The potential for further reduction of the flow phantom channels size, makes 3D printing a promising method for obtaining microvascular-like structures.

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3-D In Vitro Acoustic Super-Resolution and Super-Resolved Velocity Mapping Using Microbubbles

Cited by 51 publications

References 33 publications

Ultrafast 3D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy Using a 32 $\times$ 32 Matrix Array

Ultrafast 3D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy Using a 32 $\times$ 32 Matrix Array

3D Printed Calibration Micro-phantoms for Validation of Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging

3D Printed Flow Phantoms with Fiducial Markers for Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging

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