Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wang, Diya
• Hu, Hong
• Zhang, Xinyu
• Su, Qiang
• Liu, Runna
• Zhong, Hui
• Lu, Shukuan
• Wang, Supin
• Wan, Mingxi

Titel

Bubble‐echo based deconvolution of contrast‐enhanced ultrasound imaging: Simulation and experimental validations

Ist Teil von

• Medical physics (Lancaster), 2018-09, Vol.45 (9), p.4094-4103

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Purpose Improvement of both the imaging resolution and the contrast‐to‐tissue ratio (CTR) is a current emphasis of contrast‐enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for microvascular perfusion imaging. Based on the strong nonlinear characteristics of contrast agents, the CTRs have been significantly enhanced using various advanced CEUS methods. However, the imaging resolution of these methods is limited by the finite bandwidth of the imaging process. This study aimed to propose a bubble‐echo based deconvolution (BED) method for CEUS with both improved resolution and CTR. Method The method is built on a modified convolution model and uses novel bubble‐echo based point‐spread‐functions to reconstruct the images by regularized inverse Wiener filtering. Performances of the proposed BED for three CEUS modes are investigated through simulations and in vivo perfusion experiments. Results BED of fundamental imaging was found to have the highest improvement in imaging resolution with the resolution gain up to 2.0 ± 0.2 times, which was comparable to the approved cepstrum‐based deconvolution (CED). BED of second‐harmonic imaging had the best performance in CTR with an enhancement of 9.8 ± 2.3 dB, which was much higher than CED. Pulse inversion BED had both a better resolution and a higher CTR. Conclusion All results indicate that BED could obtain CEUS image with both an improved resolution and a high CTR, which has important significance to microvascular perfusion evaluation in deep tissue.