A composite high-frame-rate system for clinical cardiovascular imaging

Wang, Shougang; Lee, Wei-Ning; Provost, Jean; Luo, Jianwen; Konofagou, Elisa E.

doi:10.1109/tuffc.921

Cited by 91 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…The quality of cardiac strain estimation can be increased using frame rates higher than those achieved by conventional imaging due to lower signal decorrelation [3]. Previous studies have shown that a higher frame rate can be achieved with methods such as multi-line acquisition [4, 5], multi-line transmit [6, 7], or ecg-gated acquisitions [8]. Multi-line transmit is prone to cross-talk artifacts and ecg-gated acquisitions can produce breathing or inconsistent heartbeats artifacts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cardiac Strain Imaging With Coherent Compounding of Diverging Waves

Grondin

Sayseng

Konofagou

2017

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

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Current methods of cardiac strain imaging at high frame rate suffer from motion matching artifacts or poor lateral resolution. Coherent compounding has been shown to improve echocardiographic image quality while maintaining high frame rate but has never been used to image cardiac strain. However, myocardial velocity can have an impact on coherent compounding due to displacements between frames. The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility and performance of coherent compounding for cardiac strain imaging at a low and a high myocardial velocity. Left ventricular contraction in short-axis view was modeled as an annulus with radial thickening and circumferential rotation. Simulated radiofrequency channel data with a cardiac phased array were obtained using three different beamforming methods: single diverging wave, coherent compounding of diverging waves and conventional focusing. Axial and lateral displacements and strains as well as radial strains were estimated and compared to their true value. In vivo feasibility of cardiac strain imaging with coherent compounding was performed and compared to single diverging wave imaging. At low myocardial velocities, the axial, lateral and radial strain relative error for 9 compounded waves (16.3%, 40.4%, 18.9%) were significantly lower than those obtained with single diverging wave imaging (19.9%, 80.3%, 30.6%) and closer to that obtained with conventional focusing (16.7%, 43.7%, 16.0%). In vivo left-ventricular radial strains exhibited higher quality with 9 compounded waves than with single diverging wave imaging. These results indicate that cardiac strain can be imaged using coherent compounding of diverging waves with a better performance than with single diverging wave imaging while maintaining a high frame rate and therefore has the potential to improve diagnosis of myocardial strain-based cardiac diseases.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cardiac Strain Imaging With Coherent Compounding of Diverging Waves

Grondin

Sayseng

Konofagou

2017

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

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“…Of the two, it is often the decorrelation induced by very large strains that is more detrimental to strain estimation in cardiac applications. One particular focus of researchers for many years has been framerate, since the smaller inter-frame (incremental) strains imaged at higher framerates exhibit less RF signal decorrelation, and hence better motion estimation (Alam and Ophir, 1997; Chen et al, 2009; D’hooge et al, 2000; Hasegawa and Kanai, 2011; Wang et al, 2008). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic precision analysis of 2D cardiac strain estimationin vivo

2014

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Ultrasonic strain imaging has been applied to echocardiography and carries great potential to be used as a tool in the clinical setting. Two-dimensional (2-D) strain estimation may be useful when studying the heart due to the complex, three-dimensional deformation of the cardiac tissue. Increasing the framerate used for motion estimation, i.e. motion estimation rate (MER), has been shown to improve the precision of the strain estimation, although maintaining the spatial resolution necessary to view the entire heart structure in a single heartbeat remains challenging at high MERs. Two previously developed methods, the temporally unequispaced acquisition sequence (TUAS) and the diverging beam sequence (DBS), have been used in the past to successfully estimate in vivo axial strain at high MERs without compromising spatial resolution. In this study, a stochastic assessment of 2-D strain estimation precision is performed in vivo for both sequences at varying MERs (65, 272, 544, 815 Hz for TUAS; 250, 500, 1000, 2000 Hz for DBS). 2-D incremental strains were estimated in five healthy volunteers using a normalized cross-correlation function and a least-squares strain estimator. Both sequences were shown capable of estimating 2-D incremental strains in vivo. The conditional expected value of the elastographic signal-to-noise ratio (E(SNRe|ε)) was used to compare strain estimation precision of both sequences at multiple MERs over a wide range of clinical strain values. The results here indicate that axial strain estimation precision is much more dependent on MER than lateral strain estimation, while lateral estimation is more affected by strain magnitude. MER should be increased at least above 544 Hz to avoid suboptimal axial strain estimation. Radial and circumferential strain estimations were influenced by the axial and lateral strain in different ways. Furthermore, the TUAS and DBS were found to be of comparable precision at similar MERs.

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“…In the field of ultrasound elasticity imaging, numerous software beamforming techniques utilizing various transmit sequences have also been developed and implemented into commercial scanners to achieve high imaging rates and resolution such as composite imaging [55], plane-wave [56] or divergent transmit beam [57, 58]. High frame rate elasticity imaging has demonstrated a promising clinical value in quantitative imaging of tissue viscoelasticity with estimation of motion generated by external compression or acoustic radiation force such as Transient Elastography [59, 60], Shear Wave Imaging (SSI) [56, 61], Elastography [62], ARFI imaging [63], and Harmonic Motion Imaging [64].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sparse Matrix Beamforming and Image Reconstruction for 2-D HIFU Monitoring Using Harmonic Motion Imaging for Focused Ultrasound (HMIFU) With In Vitro Validation

Hou

Provost

Grondin

et al. 2014

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

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Harmonic Motion Imaging for Focused Ultrasound (HMIFU) is a recently developed High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment monitoring method. HMIFU utilizes an Amplitude-Modulated (fAM = 25 Hz) HIFU beam to induce a localized focal oscillatory motion, which is simultaneously estimated and imaged by confocally-aligned imaging transducer. HMIFU feasibilities have been previously shown in silico, in vitro, and in vivo in 1-D or 2-D monitoring of HIFU treatment. The objective of this study is to develop and show the feasibility of a novel fast beamforming algorithm for image reconstruction using GPU-based sparse-matrix operation with real-time feedback. In this study, the algorithm was implemented onto a fully integrated, clinically relevant HMIFU system composed of a 93-element HIFU transducer (fcenter = 4.5MHz) and coaxially-aligned 64-element phased array (fcenter = 2.5MHz) for displacement excitation and motion estimation, respectively. A single transmit beam with divergent beam transmit was used while fast beamforming was implemented using a GPU-based delay-and-sum method and a sparse-matrix operation. Axial HMI displacements were then estimated from the RF signals using a 1-D normalized cross-correlation method and streamed to a graphic user interface. The present work developed and implemented a sparse matrix beamforming onto a fully-integrated, clinically relevant system, which can stream displacement images up to 15 Hz using a GPU-based processing, an increase of 100 fold in rate of streaming displacement images compared to conventional CPU-based conventional beamforming and reconstruction processing. The achieved feedback rate is also currently the fastest and only approach that does not require interrupting the HIFU treatment amongst the acoustic radiation force based HIFU imaging techniques. Results in phantom experiments showed reproducible displacement imaging, and monitoring of twenty two in vitro HIFU treatments using the new 2D system showed a consistent average focal displacement decrease of 46.7±14.6% during lesion formation. Complementary focal temperature monitoring also indicated an average rate of displacement increase and decrease with focal temperature at 0.84±1.15 %/ °C, and 2.03± 0.93%/ °C, respectively. These results reinforce the HMIFU capability of estimating and monitoring stiffness related changes in real time. Current ongoing studies include clinical translation of the presented system for monitoring of HIFU treatment for breast and pancreatic tumor applications.

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A composite high-frame-rate system for clinical cardiovascular imaging

Cited by 91 publications

References 46 publications

Cardiac Strain Imaging With Coherent Compounding of Diverging Waves

Cardiac Strain Imaging With Coherent Compounding of Diverging Waves

Stochastic precision analysis of 2D cardiac strain estimationin vivo

Sparse Matrix Beamforming and Image Reconstruction for 2-D HIFU Monitoring Using Harmonic Motion Imaging for Focused Ultrasound (HMIFU) With In Vitro Validation

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