Design and Implementation of a Modular and Scalable Research Platform for Ultrasound Computed Tomography

Song, Junjie; Zhang, Qiude; Zhou, Liang; Quan, Zhaohui; Wang, Shanshan; Liu, Zhaohui; Fang, Xiaoyue; Wu, Yue; Yang, Quan; Yin, Hang; Ding, Mingyue; Yuchi, Ming

doi:10.1109/tuffc.2021.3105691

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such demanding requirements strongly influence both the hardware and the digital architecture of a scanner. Typically, hardwarebased scanners use modular architectures [11,43], in which each module manages part of the channels to fit the real-time constraints. Modularity, anyway, also increases the complexity of the system, and special attention must be taken to efficiently distribute the computational and data transfer loads.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Requirements and Hardware Limitations of High-Frame-Rate 3-D Ultrasound Imaging Systems

et al. 2022

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The spread of high frame rate and 3-D imaging techniques has raised pressing requirements for ultrasound systems. In particular, the processing power and data transfer rate requirements may be so demanding to hinder the real-time (RT) implementation of such techniques. This paper first analyzes the general requirements involved in RT ultrasound systems. Then, it identifies the main bottlenecks in the receiving section of a specific RT scanner, the ULA-OP 256, which is one of the most powerful available open scanners and may therefore be assumed as a reference. This case study has evidenced that the “star” topology, used to digitally interconnect the system’s boards, may easily saturate the data transfer bandwidth, thus impacting the achievable frame/volume rates in RT. The architecture of the digital scanner was exploited to tackle the bottlenecks by enabling a new “ring“ communication topology. Experimental 2-D and 3-D high-frame-rate imaging tests were conducted to evaluate the frame rates achievable with both interconnection modalities. It is shown that the ring topology enables up to 4400 frames/s and 510 volumes/s, with mean increments of +230% (up to +620%) compared to the star topology.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Requirements and Hardware Limitations of High-Frame-Rate 3-D Ultrasound Imaging Systems

et al. 2022

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“…Another practical USCT design that has been employed by multiple groups involves a circular ring-array containing elevation-focused transducer elements [24], [25], [31]- [33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few examples that employ this configuration include the SoftVue system (Delphinus Medical Technologies, Inc, Novi, MI, USA), approved by the Food and Drug Administration for screening of women with dense breast tissue and diagnostic use for all women [34], the UltraLucid system developed by Song et al [25] and a brain imaging system developed by Guasch et al [3], [29], [30]. The ring-array system enables acquisition of ultrasound measurements at multiple vertical positions by translating the ring of transducers vertically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of an elevation-focused transducer model for three-dimensional full-waveform inversion in ultrasound computed tomography

Li¹,

Villa²,

Duric³

et al. 2022

Medical Imaging 2022: Ultrasonic Imaging and Tomography

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Ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) is an emerging medical imaging modality that holds great promise for improving human health. Full-waveform inversion (FWI)-based image reconstruction methods account for the relevant wave physics to produce high spatial resolution images of the acoustic properties of the breast tissues. A practical USCT design employs a circular ring-array comprised of elevation-focused ultrasonic transducers, and volumentric imaging is achieved by translating the ring-array orthogonally to the imaging plane. In commonly deployed slice-by-slice (SBS) reconstruction approaches, the three-dimensional (3D) volume is reconstructed by stacking together two-dimensional (2D) images reconstructed for each position of the ring-array. A limitation of the SBS reconstruction approach is that it does not account for 3D wave propagation physics and the focusing properties of the transducers, which can result in significant image artifacts and inaccuracies. To perform 3D image reconstruction when elevation-focused transducers are employed, a numerical description of the focusing properties of the transducers should be included in the forward model. To address this, a 3D computational model of an elevation-focused transducer is developed to enable 3D FWI-based reconstruction methods to be deployed in ring-array-based USCT. The focusing is achieved by applying a spatially varying temporal delay to the ultrasound pulse (emitter mode) and recorded signal (receiver mode). The proposed numerical transducer model is quantitatively validated and employed in computer-simulation studies that demonstrate its use in image reconstruction for ringarray USCT.

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“…DRAMI’NSKI S.A. developed the ultrasound tomography scanner model that is used for in vivo imaging analysis [ 16 ]. Professor Ming Yue Ding’s team developed a new USCT research system called Ultralucid with a high degree of scalability and flexibility [ 17 ]. Although linear arrays are commonly used for ultrasound imaging, most breast imaging systems use the ring array.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on the Multi-Element Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique in Breast Ultrasound Imaging, Based on the Ring Array

Zhang

Shao

et al. 2022

Micromachines

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As a widely clinical detection method, ultrasonography (US) has been applied to the diagnosis of breast cancer. In this paper, the multi-element synthetic aperture focusing (M-SAF) is applied to the ring array of breast ultrasonography (US) imaging, which addresses the problem of low imaging quality due to the single active element for each emission and the reception in the synthetic aperture focusing. In order to determine the optimal sub-aperture size, the formula is derived for calculating the internal sound pressure of the ring array with a 200 mm diameter, and the sound pressure distribution is analyzed. The ring array with 1024 elements (1024 ring array) is established in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6, and the optimal sub-aperture size is 16 elements, according to the sound field beam simulation and the directivity research. Based on the existing experimental conditions, the ring array with 256 elements (256 ring array) is simulated and verified by experiments. The simulation has a spatial resolution evaluation in the k-Wave toolbox, and the experiment uses nylon rope and breast model imaging. The results show that if the sub-aperture size has four elements, the imaging quality is the highest. Specifically, the spatial resolution is the best, and the sound pressure amplitude and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are maintained at a high level in the reconstructed image. The optimal sub-aperture theory is verified by the two kinds of ring arrays, which also provide a theoretical basis for the application of the multi-element synthetic aperture focusing technology (M-SAF) in ring arrays.

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Design and Implementation of a Modular and Scalable Research Platform for Ultrasound Computed Tomography

Cited by 15 publications

References 41 publications

Requirements and Hardware Limitations of High-Frame-Rate 3-D Ultrasound Imaging Systems

Requirements and Hardware Limitations of High-Frame-Rate 3-D Ultrasound Imaging Systems

Investigation of an elevation-focused transducer model for three-dimensional full-waveform inversion in ultrasound computed tomography

Research on the Multi-Element Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique in Breast Ultrasound Imaging, Based on the Ring Array

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