In Vivo Application of Short-Lag Spatial Coherence and Harmonic Spatial Coherence Imaging in Fetal Ultrasound

Kakkad, Vaibhav; Dahl, Jeremy J.; Ellestad, Sarah; Trahey, Gregg E.

doi:10.1177/0161734614547281

Cited by 24 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…It is difficult to classify these as either MBs or noise in the absence of a ground truth. However, their high amplitude and low spatial coherence are consistent with noise that mimics desired targets of interest (e.g., tissue) we have seen in other applications [49], [56].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

“…SLSC is a promising approach for molecular CEUS imaging because signals from point sources such as MBs have higher spatial coherence than signals from diffuse scatterers (e.g., tissue) and from incoherent noise (e.g., reverberation clutter) [42]–[45]. SLSC has been shown to be more robust to noisy imaging conditions than DAS in simulations and in vivo [46], [47], and when used together with harmonic imaging [48], [49].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improved Sensitivity in Ultrasound Molecular Imaging With Coherence-Based Beamforming

Hyun

Abou‐Elkacem

Pérez

et al. 2018

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

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Ultrasound molecular imaging (USMI) is accomplished by detecting microbubble (MB) contrast agents that have bound to specific biomarkers, and can be used for a variety of imaging applications, such as the early detection of cancer. USMI has been widely utilized in preclinical imaging in mice; however, USMI in humans can be challenging because of the low concentration of bound MBs and the signal degradation caused by the presence of heterogenous soft tissue between the transducer and the lesion. Short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) beamforming has been proposed as a robust technique that is less affected by poor signal quality than standard delay-and-sum (DAS) beamforming. In this paper, USMI performance was assessed using contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging combined with DAS (conventional CEUS) and with SLSC (SLSC-CEUS). Each method was characterized by flow channel phantom experiments. In a USMI-mimicking phantom, SLSC-CEUS was found to be more robust to high levels of additive thermal noise than DAS, with a 6dB SNR improvement when the thermal noise level was +6dB or higher. However, SLSC-CEUS was also found to be insensitive to increases in MB concentration, making it a poor choice for perfusion imaging. USMI performance was also measured in vivo using VEGFR2-targeted MBs in mice with subcutaneous human hepatocellular carcinoma tumors, with clinical imaging conditions mimicked using a porcine tissue layer between the tumor and the transducer. SLSC-CEUS improved the SNR in each of ten tumors by an average of 41%, corresponding to 3.0dB SNR. These results indicate that the SLSC beamformer is well-suited for USMI applications because of its high sensitivity and robust properties under challenging imaging conditions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Sensitivity in Ultrasound Molecular Imaging With Coherence-Based Beamforming

Hyun

Abou‐Elkacem

Pérez

et al. 2018

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

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“…In addition, it can provide satisfactory contrast and lesion detectability even under a low signal-to-noise (SNR) condition [3]. Previous research has proven that the SLSC imaging can be applied to clinical research and has the potential of obtaining better imaging quality [4–6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-lag spatial coherence imaging using minimum variance beamforming on dual apertures

Wang

et al. 2019

BioMed Eng OnLine

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Background Short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) imaging, a newly proposed ultrasound imaging scheme, can offer a higher lesion detectability than conventional B-mode imaging. It requires a high focusing quality which can be satisfied by the synthetic aperture imaging mode. However, traditional nonadaptive synthesis for the SLSC still offers an unsatisfactory resolution. The spatial coherence estimation on the receive aperture cannot fully utilize the coherence information in two-dimensional (2D) echo data. Methods To overcome these drawbacks, an improved SLSC scheme with adaptive synthesis on dual apertures is proposed in this paper. The minimum variance (MV) beamformer is applied in synthesizing both the receiving and transmitting apertures, while the SLSC function is estimated on both apertures as well. In this way, the resolution is enhanced by the MV implementation, while the coherence in dual apertures is fully utilized. Results Simulations, phantom experiments, and in vivo studies are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves the best performance in terms of the contrast ratio (CR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and the speckle signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Specifically, compared with the delay-and-sum (DAS) method, the proposed method achieves 42.5% higher CR, 412.7% higher CNR, and 402.9% higher speckle SNR in simulations. The resolution is also better than the DAS and conventional SLSC beamformers. Conclusions The proposed method is a promising technique for improving the SLSC imaging quality and can provide better visualization for medical diagnosis.

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“…These improvements were both statistically and clinically significant [2]. The mean contrast of anechoic targets in poor-quality fetal images was improved from 15 dB to 27 dB with SLSC beamforming [9]. In addition, the SLSC liver images of 17 patients demonstrated sharper delineation of blood vessel walls, suppressed clutter inside the vessel lumen, and reduced speckle-like texture in surrounding tissue compared with matched B-mode images, with mean contrast and CNR improvements of 6.78 dB and 1.13, respectively [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the SLSC liver images of 17 patients demonstrated sharper delineation of blood vessel walls, suppressed clutter inside the vessel lumen, and reduced speckle-like texture in surrounding tissue compared with matched B-mode images, with mean contrast and CNR improvements of 6.78 dB and 1.13, respectively [3]. In all of these clinical applications, a harmonic imaging counterpart to SLSC imaging outperformed conventional harmonic imaging [3], [6], [9], [10], which is a widely accepted clutter-reduction approach that is not always sufficient [11], [12]. Thus, this coherence-based beamforming approach primarily aims to improve clinical cases where existing clutter reduction methods fail.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolution and brightness characteristics of short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) images

Bell

Dahl

Trahey

2015

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

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We previously described a novel beamforming method that images the spatial correlation of an echo wave field with demonstrated applications to clutter reduction in high-noise environments. In this paper, several characteristics of the resolution and brightness of short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) images formed by this method are compared with B-mode images formed by conventional delay-and-sum beamforming methods. Point target widths were measured to estimate resolution, the autocorrelation of image texture was measured to estimate texture size, and the contrast (i.e., brightness ratio) of clinically relevant targets was assessed. SLSC images demonstrate improved resolution and contrast with increasing values of channel noise and clutter, whereas B-mode resolution was degraded in the presence of high noise (i.e., > −12 dB channel noise-to-signal ratios) and high clutter magnitudes (i.e., > −21 dB relative to point target magnitude). Lateral resolution in SLSC images was improved with increasing lag value, whereas axial resolution was degraded with increasing correlation kernel length. The texture size of SLSC images was smaller than that of matched B-mode images. Results demonstrate that the resolution and contrast of coherence-based images depend on a range of parameters, but are generally superior to those of matched B-mode images under challenging imaging conditions.

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In Vivo Application of Short-Lag Spatial Coherence and Harmonic Spatial Coherence Imaging in Fetal Ultrasound

Cited by 24 publications

References 32 publications

Improved Sensitivity in Ultrasound Molecular Imaging With Coherence-Based Beamforming

Improved Sensitivity in Ultrasound Molecular Imaging With Coherence-Based Beamforming

Short-lag spatial coherence imaging using minimum variance beamforming on dual apertures

Resolution and brightness characteristics of short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) images

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