Prospects for ultrasonic spectroscopy and spectral imaging of abdominal tissues

Tendinopathy discrimination by use of spatial frequency parameters in ultrasound B-mode images

The structural characteristics of a healthy tendon are related to the anisotropic speckle patterns observed in ultrasonic images. This speckle orientation is disrupted upon damage to the tendon structure as observed in patients with tendinopathy. Quantification of the structural appearance of tendon shows promise in creating a tool for diagnosing, prognosing, or measuring changes in tendon organization over time. The current work describes a first step taken towards this goal-classification of Achilles tendon images into tendinopathy and control categories. Eight spatial frequency parameters were extracted from regions of interest on tendon images, filtered and classified using linear discriminant analysis. Resulting algorithms had better than 80% accuracy in categorizing tendon image kernels as tendinopathy or control. Tendon images categorized wrongly provided for an interesting clinical association between incorrect classification of tendinopathy kernels as control and the symptom and clinical time history based inclusion criteria. To assess intersession reliability of image acquisition, the first 10 subjects were imaged twice during separate sessions. Test-retest of repeated measures was excellent (tau = 0.996, ICC = (2, 1) = 0.73 with one outlier) indicating a general consistency in imaging techniques.

Experimental validation of the use of Kramers-Kronig relations to eliminate the phase sheet ambiguity in broadband phase spectroscopy

The technique of broadband phase spectroscopy proposed in 1978 by Sachse and Pao [J. Appl. Phys. 49, 4320-4327 (1978)] determines the phase velocity as a function of frequency from the Fourier transforms of a received reference and through-sample signal. Although quite successful, this approach can be influenced by an ambiguity in the phase velocity calculation which stems from the boundedness of the inverse tangent operation used to calculate phase. Several empirical approaches to resolve the phase ambiguity have been reported. An alternative approach that has not previously been considered appeals to the causal nature of the measurements. This article experimentally validates a method which uses the causally consistent Kramers-Kronig relations to eliminate the ambiguity in phase spectroscopy-derived phase velocity calculations. Broadband pulse and narrow-band tone burst measurements were performed on three gelatin-based phantoms containing different concentrations of graphite particles (0%, 10%, and 20% by volume). The phantoms were constructed to have attenuation coefficients which vary approximately linear-with-frequency, a dependence exhibited by many soft tissues. The narrow-band phase velocity measurements do not suffer from a phase ambiguity, and thus they serve as a "gold standard" against which the broadband phase velocity measurements are compared. The experimental results illustrate that using the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relations in conjunction with phase spectroscopy-derived phase velocity measurements is an effective means by which to resolve the phase sheet ambiguity in broadband phase spectroscopy.

Liver tumors: utility of characterization at dual-frequency US

PURPOSE

To evaluate the potential utility of a technique for analysis of ultrasonographic (US) images obtained at two center frequencies in a phantom model and in a clinical study of liver tumors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A US phantom was built that contained target regions with polystyrene scatterers both smaller and larger than scatterers in the background material. High- and low-frequency US images of target regions were obtained, and changes in the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the targets relative to the background were determined. In a clinical evaluation, 12 hemangiomas, 13 liver metastases, one adenoma, and two hepatomas were evaluated in a similar manner, and the results were correlated with the histologic findings in resected lesions.

RESULTS

For targets containing scatterers smaller than those in the background, there was an increase in CNR of higher frequency images. The converse was true for target regions having scatterers larger than those in the background. Liver metastases generally showed an increase in CNR of higher frequency images, whereas hemangiomas generally showed somewhat decreased CNR of higher frequency images, differing significantly from metastases (P < .01-.001).

CONCLUSION

Changes in CNRs of relatively high- and low-frequency US images may give useful information on the frequency dependence of backscattering, which is descriptive of the histologic findings in lesions and which is not evident with conventional US images.

Effects of tissue anisotropy on the spectral characteristics of ultrasonic backscatter measured with a clinical imaging system

In this paper, we report the effects of inherent tissue anisotropy on the spectral properties of backscattered ultrasound when measured with a commercially-available imaging system. We insonified five specimens of bovine tendon immersed in a water tank and rotated in 10 degrees increments while being imaged with a Hewlett-Packard Sonos 1500 system. The backscattered RF signals corresponding to each angle of insonification were digitized and the spectral characteristics of the backscattered ultrasound were determined. The mean anisotropy, defined as the average difference between values at perpendicular and parallel insonification, for band-limited estimates of backscattered power, centroid frequency, upper-band to lower-band power ratio, and upper-band to total-band power ratio were found to be 24.6 +/- 1.1 dB, 142 +/- 27 kHz, 32 +/- 13%, and 22 +/- 5%, respectively (mean +/- SE). The magnitude of each of these backscatter spectral parameters was larger at perpendicular insonification compared with the corresponding values at parallel insonification, consistent with previous measurements of the inherent anisotropy of ultrasonic attenuation and backscatter in tissue.

Lesion contrast enhancement in medical ultrasound imaging

Methods for improving the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of low-contrast lesions in medical ultrasound imaging are described. Differences in the frequency spectra and amplitude distributions of the lesion and its surroundings can be used to increase the CNR of the lesion relative to the background. Automated graylevel mapping is used in combination with a contrast-weighted form of frequency-diversity speckle reduction. In clinical studies, the techniques have yielded mean CNR improvements of 3.2 dB above ordinary frequency-diversity imaging and 5.6 dB over sharper conventional images, with no post-processing graylevel mapping.

Ultrasonic characterization of tissues via backscatter frequency dependence

Phantom and patient studies were performed to assess the potential of backscatter frequency dependence as a useful parameter for tissue characterization. A commercial phased-array ultrasonic scanner was adapted to allow digitization of the intermediate-frequency ultrasonic data. Studies of agar phantoms containing polystyrene microspheres with 3.5 and 5 MHz transducers indicated the ability for robust differentiation of phantoms having different scatterer size and frequency dependence, based on calculated differences in mean frequencies of backscattered spectra. Using a 3.5-MHz probe, significantly lower mean frequency of ultrasound backscattered from cirrhotic, compared to normal, liver tissue was noted. Studies of benign and malignant liver tumors (hemangiomas and metastases, respectively) indicated differences in frequency content of these tumors, compared to the adjacent normal liver, that were statistically significant for 3.5-MHz data.