ULA-OP: an advanced open platform for ultrasound research

Tortoli, Piero; Bassi, Luca; Boni, Enrico; Dallai, Alessandro; Guidi, Francesco; Ricci, Stefano

doi:10.1109/tuffc.2009.1303

Cited by 207 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Such a rapid surge of interest is technically attributed to two engineering innovation trends. First, in the past decade, reconfigurable ultrasound scanners have become more prevalent [19][20][21][22][23][24], as opposed to non-programmable clinical systems that are designed via an embedded system approach [25]. These open-architecture systems have enabled researchers to readily implement different variants of unfocused pulsing sequences that are essential for realizing HiFRUS [26].…”

Section: A Synopsis Of High Frame Rate Ultrasound Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Riding the Plane Wave: Considerations for In Vivo Study Designs Employing High Frame Rate Ultrasound

Hughson

2018

Applied Sciences

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Advancements in diagnostic ultrasound have allowed for a rapid expansion of the quantity and quality of non-invasive information that clinical researchers can acquire from cardiovascular physiology. The recent emergence of high frame rate ultrasound (HiFRUS) is the next step in the quantification of complex blood flow behavior, offering angle-independent, high temporal resolution data in normal physiology and clinical cases. While there are various HiFRUS methods that have been tested and validated in simulations and in complex flow phantoms, there is a need to expand the field into more rigorous in vivo testing for clinical relevance. In this tutorial, we briefly outline the major advances in HiFRUS, and discuss practical considerations of participant preparation, experimental design, and human measurement, while also providing an example of how these frameworks can be immediately applied to in vivo research questions. The considerations put forward in this paper aim to set a realistic framework for research labs which use HiFRUS to commence the collection of human data for basic science, as well as for preliminary clinical research questions.

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Section: A Synopsis Of High Frame Rate Ultrasound Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Riding the Plane Wave: Considerations for In Vivo Study Designs Employing High Frame Rate Ultrasound

Hughson

2018

Applied Sciences

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“…The in vivo experiment was performed using a 64-channel ULA-OP system [29,30] equipped with a 192-element LA435 linear array transducer (Esaote SpA, Florence, Italy) with a 200 µm pitch. The cine loops were collected at 1500 Hz using a single plane wave transmission; the 64-line frames were beamformed using delay-and-sum with dynamic apodization having the f-number equal to 2.…”

Section: Cine Loopsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Iterative 2D Tissue Motion Tracking in Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging

et al. 2018

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Abstract:In order to study longitudinal movement and intramural shearing of the arterial wall with a Lagrangian viewpoint using ultrafast ultrasound imaging, a new tracking scheme is required. We propose the use of an iterative tracking scheme based on temporary down-sampling of the frame-rate, anteroposterior tracking, and unbiased block-matching using two kernels per position estimate. The tracking scheme was evaluated on phantom B-mode cine loops and considered both velocity and displacement for a range of down-sampling factors (k = 1-128) at the start of the iterations. The cine loops had a frame rate of 1300-1500 Hz and were beamformed using delay-and-sum. The evaluation on phantom showed that both the mean estimation errors and the standard deviations decreased with an increasing initial down-sampling factor, while they increased with an increased velocity or larger pitch. A limited in vivo study shows that the major pattern of movement corresponds well with state-of-the-art low frame rate motion estimates, indicating that the proposed tracking scheme could enable the study of longitudinal movement of the intima-media complex using ultrafast ultrasound imaging, and is one step towards estimating the propagation velocity of the longitudinal movement of the arterial wall.

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“…There are several open-source software initiatives (like PLUS) or multiplefocus ultrasound control systems (like Vanderbilt's OpenSource Small-Animal MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound System), or articles suggesting electronic architectures for ultrasound systems. In 2009, Tortoli et al [18,21] created an open 64-channel platform, but with a relatively complex architecture. A simpler 4-channel acquisition setup was built with an annular array, but with no automatic movement.…”

Section: Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arduino-Like Development Kit for Single-Element Ultrasound Imaging

Jonveaux

2017

Journal of Open Hardware

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An open-source software ecosystem for ultrasound imaging is widely available to developers, however, limited resources can be found on the open-hardware side. The focus of this work was to develop an easy-to-use platform kit (hardware and software) for providing the community a complete experimental setup for ultrasound imaging at a low cost, without the need for expensive and non-modifiable specific equipment. The goal of this work resembles the needs of medical systems in the 80's where analog techniques using single-sensor devices were prominent. To this end, two open-source, arduino-like modules have been developed for building a simple, yet complete, single-channel analog front-end system, where all the intermediary signals are readily accessible by the user. A single-channel architecture avoids the beamforming overhead, though it limits the quality of the captured image, and brings simplicity to the system. The modules were tested using re-purposed ultrasound mechanical probes, as well as non-medical transducers. Furthermore, different digital acquisition systems were utilized for providing the images of interest. The developed modules can also be used in Radio Frequency (RF) projects, non-destructive testing and control projects, as well as in low-cost medical imaging projects on non-living samples.

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ULA-OP: an advanced open platform for ultrasound research

Cited by 207 publications

References 22 publications

Riding the Plane Wave: Considerations for In Vivo Study Designs Employing High Frame Rate Ultrasound

Riding the Plane Wave: Considerations for In Vivo Study Designs Employing High Frame Rate Ultrasound

Iterative 2D Tissue Motion Tracking in Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging

Arduino-Like Development Kit for Single-Element Ultrasound Imaging

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