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Riemer K, Tan Q, Morse S, Bau L, Toulemonde M, Yan J, Zhu J, Wang B, Taylor L, Lerendegui M, Wu Q, Stride E, Dunsby C, Weinberg PD, Tang MX. 3D Acoustic Wave Sparsely Activated Localization Microscopy With Phase Change Contrast Agents. Invest Radiol 2024; 59:379-390. [PMID: 37843819 DOI: 10.1097/rli.0000000000001033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to demonstrate 3-dimensional (3D) acoustic wave sparsely activated localization microscopy (AWSALM) of microvascular flow in vivo using phase change contrast agents (PCCAs). MATERIALS AND METHODS Three-dimensional AWSALM using acoustically activable PCCAs was evaluated on a crossed tube microflow phantom, the kidney of New Zealand White rabbits, and the brain of C57BL/6J mice through intact skull. A mixture of C 3 F 8 and C 4 F 10 low-boiling-point fluorocarbon gas was used to generate PCCAs with an appropriate activation pressure. A multiplexed 8-MHz matrix array connected to a 256-channel ultrasound research platform was used for transmitting activation and imaging ultrasound pulses and recording echoes. The in vitro and in vivo echo data were subsequently beamformed and processed using a set of customized algorithms for generating 3D super-resolution ultrasound images through localizing and tracking activated contrast agents. RESULTS With 3D AWSALM, the acoustic activation of PCCAs can be controlled both spatially and temporally, enabling contrast on demand and capable of revealing 3D microvascular connectivity. The spatial resolution of the 3D AWSALM images measured using Fourier shell correlation is 64 μm, presenting a 9-time improvement compared with the point spread function and 1.5 times compared with half the wavelength. Compared with the microbubble-based approach, more signals were localized in the microvasculature at similar concentrations while retaining sparsity and longer tracks in larger vessels. Transcranial imaging was demonstrated as a proof of principle of PCCA activation in the mouse brain with 3D AWSALM. CONCLUSIONS Three-dimensional AWSALM generates volumetric ultrasound super-resolution microvascular images in vivo with spatiotemporal selectivity and enhanced microvascular penetration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Riemer
- From the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom (K.R., Q.T., S.M., M.T., J.Y., J.Z., B.W., L.T., M.L., P.D.W., M.-X.T.); NDORMS, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (L.B., Q.W., E.S.); and Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom (C.D.)
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Mori N, Li L, Matsuda M, Mori Y, Mugikura S. Prospects of perfusion contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CE-US) in diagnosing axillary lymph node metastases in breast cancer: a comparison with lymphatic CE-US. J Med Ultrason (2001) 2024:10.1007/s10396-024-01444-w. [PMID: 38642268 DOI: 10.1007/s10396-024-01444-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 02/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/22/2024]
Abstract
Accurate diagnosis of lymph node (LN) metastasis is vital for prognosis and treatment in patients with breast cancer. Imaging 1modalities such as ultrasound (US), MRI, CT, and 18F-FDG PET/CT are used for preoperative assessment. While conventional US is commonly recommended due to its resolution and sensitivity, it has limitations such as operator subjectivity and difficulty detecting small metastases. This review shows the microanatomy of axillary LNs to enhance accurate diagnosis and the characteristics of contrast-enhanced US (CE-US), which utilizes intravascular microbubble contrast agents, making it ideal for vascular imaging. A significant focus of this review is on distinguishing between two types of CE-US techniques for axillary LN evaluation: perfusion CE-US and lymphatic CE-US. Perfusion CE-US is used to assess LN metastasis via transvenous contrast agent administration, while lymphatic CE-US is used to identify sentinel LNs and diagnose LN metastasis through percutaneous contrast agent administration. This review also highlights the need for future research to clarify the distinction between studies involving "apparently enlarged LNs" and "clinical node-negative" cases in perfusion CE-US research. Such research standardization is essential to ensure accurate diagnostic performance in various clinical studies. Future studies should aim to standardize CE-US methods for improved LN metastasis diagnosis, not only in breast cancer but also across various malignancies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naoko Mori
- Department of Radiology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1-1 Hondo, Akita, Akita, 010-8543, Japan.
| | - Li Li
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba-Ku, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
| | - Masazumi Matsuda
- Department of Radiology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1-1 Hondo, Akita, Akita, 010-8543, Japan
| | - Yu Mori
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba-Ku, Sendai, 980-8575, Japan
| | - Shunji Mugikura
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba-Ku, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan
- Division of Image Statistics, Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
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Zhang C, Lei S, Ma A, Wang B, Wang S, Liu J, Shang D, Zhang Q, Li Y, Zheng H, Ma T. Evaluation of tumor microvasculature with 3D ultrasound localization microscopy based on 2D matrix array. Eur Radiol 2024:10.1007/s00330-023-10039-x. [PMID: 38265473 DOI: 10.1007/s00330-023-10039-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Revised: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Evaluation of tumor microvascular morphology is of great significance in tumor diagnosis, therapeutic effect prediction, and surgical planning. Recently, two-dimensional ultrasound localization microscopy (2DULM) has demonstrated its superiority in the field of microvascular imaging. However, it suffers from planar dependence and is unintuitive. We propose a novel three-dimensional ultrasound localization microscopy (3DULM) to avoid these limitations. METHODS We investigated 3DULM based on a 2D array for tumor microvascular imaging. After intravenous injection of contrast agents, all elements of the 2D array transmit and receive signals to ensure a high and stable frame rate. Microbubble signal extraction, filtering, positioning, tracking, and other processing were used to obtain a 3D vascular map, flow velocity, and flow direction. To verify the effectiveness of 3DULM, it was validated on double helix tubes and rabbit VX2 tumors. Cisplatin was used to verify the ability of 3DULM to detect microvascular changes during tumor treatment. RESULTS In vitro, the sizes measured by 3DULM at 3 mm and 13 mm were 178 [Formula: see text] and 182 [Formula: see text], respectively. In the rabbit tumors, we acquired 9000 volumes to reveal vessels about 30 [Formula: see text] in diameter, which surpasses the diffraction limit of ultrasound in traditional ultrasound imaging, and the results matched with micro-angiography. In addition, there were significant changes in vascular density and curvature between the treatment and control groups. CONCLUSIONS The effectiveness of 3DULM was verified in vitro and in vivo. Hence, 3DULM may have potential applications in tumor diagnosis, tumor treatment evaluation, surgical protocol guidance, and cardiovascular disease. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT 3D ultrasound localization microscopy is highly sensitive to microvascular changes; thus, it has clinical potential for tumor diagnosis and treatment evaluation. KEY POINTS • 3D ultrasound localization microscopy is demonstrated on double helix tubes and rabbit VX2 tumors. • 3D ultrasound localization microscopy can reveal vessels about 30 [Formula: see text] in diameter-far smaller than traditional ultrasound. • This form of imaging has potential applications in tumor diagnosis, tumor treatment evaluation, surgical protocol guidance, and cardiovascular disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Changlu Zhang
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
- University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100000, China
| | - Shuang Lei
- School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Aiqing Ma
- Nanomedicine and Nanoformulations Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
| | - Bing Wang
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
| | - Shuo Wang
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
| | - Jiamei Liu
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
| | - Dongqing Shang
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
- University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100000, China
| | - Qi Zhang
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
| | - Yongchuan Li
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
| | - Hairong Zheng
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
- University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100000, China
| | - Teng Ma
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100000, China.
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Deng L, Lea-Banks H, Jones RM, O’Reilly MA, Hynynen K. Three-dimensional super resolution ultrasound imaging with a multi-frequency hemispherical phased array. Med Phys 2023; 50:7478-7497. [PMID: 37702919 PMCID: PMC10872837 DOI: 10.1002/mp.16733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND High resolution imaging of the microvasculature plays an important role in both diagnostic and therapeutic applications in the brain. However, ultrasound pulse-echo sonography imaging the brain vasculatures has been limited to narrow acoustic windows and low frequencies due to the distortion of the skull bone, which sacrifices axial resolution since it is pulse length dependent. PURPOSE To overcome the detect limit, a large aperture 256-module sparse hemispherical transmit/receive array was used to visualize the acoustic emissions of ultrasound-vaporized lipid-coated decafluorobutane nanodroplets flowing through tube phantoms and within rabbit cerebral vasculature in vivo via passive acoustic mapping and super resolution techniques. METHODS Nanodroplets were vaporized with 55 kHz burst-mode ultrasound (burst length = 145 μs, burst repetition frequency = 9-45 Hz, peak negative acoustic pressure = 0.10-0.22 MPa), which propagates through overlying tissues well without suffering from severe distortions. The resulting emissions were received at a higher frequency (612 or 1224 kHz subarray) to improve the resulting spatial resolution during passive beamforming. Normal resolution three-dimensional images were formed using a delay, sum, and integrate beamforming algorithm, and super-resolved images were extracted via Gaussian fitting of the estimated point-spread-function to the normal resolution data. RESULTS With super resolution techniques, the mean lateral (axial) full-width-at-half-maximum image intensity was 16 ± 3 (32 ± 6) μm, and 7 ± 1 (15 ± 2) μm corresponding to ∼1/67 of the normal resolution at 612 and 1224 kHz, respectively. The mean positional uncertainties were ∼1/350 (lateral) and ∼1/180 (axial) of the receive wavelength in water. In addition, a temporal correlation between nanodroplet vaporization and the transmit waveform shape was observed, which may provide the opportunity to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in future studies. CONCLUSIONS Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of vaporizing nanodroplets via low frequency ultrasound and simultaneously performing spatial mapping via passive beamforming at higher frequencies to improve the resulting spatial resolution of super resolution imaging techniques. This method may enable complete four-dimensional vascular mapping in organs where a hemispherical array could be positioned to surround the target, such as the brain, breast, or testicles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lulu Deng
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
| | - Harriet Lea-Banks
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
| | - Ryan M. Jones
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
| | - Meaghan A. O’Reilly
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L7, Canada
| | - Kullervo Hynynen
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L7, Canada
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3E2, Canada
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Yu X, Luan S, Lei S, Huang J, Liu Z, Xue X, Ma T, Ding Y, Zhu B. Deep learning for fast denoising filtering in ultrasound localization microscopy. Phys Med Biol 2023; 68:205002. [PMID: 37703894 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/acf98f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
Objective.Addition of a denoising filter step in ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) has been shown to effectively reduce the error localizations of microbubbles (MBs) and achieve resolution improvement for super-resolution ultrasound (SR-US) imaging. However, previous image-denoising methods (e.g. block-matching 3D, BM3D) requires long data processing times, making ULM only able to be processed offline. This work introduces a new way to reduce data processing time through deep learning.Approach.In this study, we propose deep learning (DL) denoising based on contrastive semi-supervised network (CS-Net). The neural network is mainly trained with simulated MBs data to extract MB signals from noise. And the performances of CS-Net denoising are evaluated in bothin vitroflow phantom experiment andin vivoexperiment of New Zealand rabbit tumor.Main results.Forin vitroflow phantom experiment, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of single microbubble image are 26.91 dB and 4.01 dB, repectively. Forin vivoanimal experiment , the SNR and CNR were 12.29 dB and 6.06 dB. In addition, single microvessel of 24μm and two microvessels separated by 46μm could be clearly displayed. Most importantly,, the CS-Net denoising speeds forin vitroandin vivoexperiments were 0.041 s frame-1and 0.062 s frame-1, respectively.Significance.DL denoising based on CS-Net can improve the resolution of SR-US as well as reducing denoising time, thereby making further contributions to the clinical real-time imaging of ULM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangyang Yu
- Shool of Integrated Circuit, Wuhan National Laboratory for optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Shunyao Luan
- Shool of Integrated Circuit, Wuhan National Laboratory for optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Shuang Lei
- Shool of Integrated Circuit, Wuhan National Laboratory for optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Jing Huang
- Shool of Integrated Circuit, Wuhan National Laboratory for optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Zeqing Liu
- Shool of Integrated Circuit, Wuhan National Laboratory for optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Xudong Xue
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Hubei Cancer Hospital, TongJi Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China
| | - Teng Ma
- The Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, People's Republic of China
| | - Yi Ding
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Hubei Cancer Hospital, TongJi Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China
| | - Benpeng Zhu
- Shool of Integrated Circuit, Wuhan National Laboratory for optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
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You Q, Lowerison MR, Shin Y, Chen X, Sekaran NVC, Dong Z, Llano DA, Anastasio MA, Song P. Contrast-Free Super-Resolution Power Doppler (CS-PD) Based on Deep Neural Networks. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 2023; 70:1355-1368. [PMID: 37566494 PMCID: PMC10619974 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2023.3304527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/13/2023]
Abstract
Super-resolution ultrasound microvessel imaging based on ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) is an emerging imaging modality that is capable of resolving micrometer-scaled vessels deep into tissue. In practice, ULM is limited by the need for contrast injection, long data acquisition, and computationally expensive postprocessing times. In this study, we present a contrast-free super-resolution power Doppler (CS-PD) technique that uses deep networks to achieve super-resolution with short data acquisition. The training dataset is comprised of spatiotemporal ultrafast ultrasound signals acquired from in vivo mouse brains, while the testing dataset includes in vivo mouse brain, chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), and healthy human subjects. The in vivo mouse imaging studies demonstrate that CS-PD could achieve an approximate twofold improvement in spatial resolution when compared with conventional power Doppler. In addition, the microvascular images generated by CS-PD showed good agreement with the corresponding ULM images as indicated by a structural similarity index of 0.7837 and a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 25.52. Moreover, CS-PD was able to preserve the temporal profile of the blood flow (e.g., pulsatility) that is similar to conventional power Doppler. Finally, the generalizability of CS-PD was demonstrated on testing data of different tissues using different imaging settings. The fast inference time of the proposed deep neural network also allows CS-PD to be implemented for real-time imaging. These features of CS-PD offer a practical, fast, and robust microvascular imaging solution for many preclinical and clinical applications of Doppler ultrasound.
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Zhang G, Liao C, Hu JR, Hu HM, Lei YM, Harput S, Ye HR. Nanodroplet-Based Super-Resolution Ultrasound Localization Microscopy. ACS Sens 2023; 8:3294-3306. [PMID: 37607403 DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.3c00418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
Over the past decade, super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy (SR-ULM) has revolutionized ultrasound imaging with its capability to resolve the microvascular structures below the ultrasound diffraction limit. The introduction of this imaging technique enables the visualization, quantification, and characterization of tissue microvasculature. The early implementations of SR-ULM utilize microbubbles (MBs) that require a long image acquisition time due to the requirement of capturing sparsely isolated microbubble signals. The next-generation SR-ULM employs nanodroplets that have the potential to significantly reduce the image acquisition time without sacrificing the resolution. This review discusses various nanodroplet-based ultrasound localization microscopy techniques and their corresponding imaging mechanisms. A summary is given on the preclinical applications of SR-ULM with nanodroplets, and the challenges in the clinical translation of nanodroplet-based SR-ULM are presented while discussing the future perspectives. In conclusion, ultrasound localization microscopy is a promising microvasculature imaging technology that can provide new diagnostic and prognostic information for a wide range of pathologies, such as cancer, heart conditions, and autoimmune diseases, and enable personalized treatment monitoring at a microlevel.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ge Zhang
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430080, People's Republic of China
- Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430065, People's Republic of China
- Physics for Medicine Paris, Inserm U1273, ESPCI Paris, PSL University, CNRS, Paris 75015, France
| | - Chen Liao
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430080, People's Republic of China
- Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430065, People's Republic of China
| | - Jun-Rui Hu
- Department of Pharmacy, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, People's Republic of China
| | - Hai-Man Hu
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, People's Republic of China
| | - Yu-Meng Lei
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430080, People's Republic of China
| | - Sevan Harput
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, London South Bank University, London SE1 0AA, U.K
| | - Hua-Rong Ye
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430080, People's Republic of China
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Yan J, Wang B, Riemer K, Hansen-Shearer J, Lerendegui M, Toulemonde M, Rowlands CJ, Weinberg PD, Tang MX. Fast 3D Super-Resolution Ultrasound With Adaptive Weight-Based Beamforming. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2023; 70:2752-2761. [PMID: 37015124 PMCID: PMC7614997 DOI: 10.1109/tbme.2023.3263369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/01/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Super-resolution ultrasound (SRUS) imaging through localising and tracking sparse microbubbles has been shown to reveal microvascular structure and flow beyond the wave diffraction limit. Most SRUS studies use standard delay and sum (DAS) beamforming, where high side lobes and broad main lobes make isolation and localisation of densely distributed bubbles challenging, particularly in 3D due to the typically small aperture of matrix array probes. METHOD This study aimed to improve 3D SRUS by implementing a new fast 3D coherence beamformer based on channel signal variance. Two additional fast coherence beamformers, that have been implemented in 2D were implemented in 3D for the first time as comparison: a nonlinear beamformer with p-th root compression and a coherence factor beamformer. The 3D coherence beamformers, together with DAS, were compared in computer simulation, on a microflow phantom and in vivo. RESULTS Simulation results demonstrated that all three adaptive weight-based beamformers can narrow the main lobe, suppress the side lobes, while maintaining the weaker scatter signals. Improved 3D SRUS images of microflow phantom and a rabbit kidney within a 3-second acquisition were obtained using the adaptive weight-based beamformers, when compared with DAS. CONCLUSION The adaptive weight-based 3D beamformers can improve the SRUS and the proposed variance-based beamformer performs best in simulations and experiments. SIGNIFICANCE Fast 3D SRUS would significantly enhance the potential utility of this emerging imaging modality in a broad range of biomedical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jipeng Yan
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Bingxue Wang
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Kai Riemer
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Joseph Hansen-Shearer
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Marcelo Lerendegui
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Matthieu Toulemonde
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | | | - Peter D. Weinberg
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Meng-Xing Tang
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
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Yang W, Qiu C, Zhai J, Zhang W, Huang C, Shao J, Zhang J, Chen S, Miao X, Chen P, Wei B, Ren J, Wei H. Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction mediates PDE5i/NO integration for cavernosum remodeling and penile rehabilitation. Bioeng Transl Med 2023; 8:e10568. [PMID: 37693040 PMCID: PMC10486332 DOI: 10.1002/btm2.10568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2022] [Revised: 03/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Erectile dysfunction (ED) caused by cavernous nerve injury (CNI) is refractory to heal mainly ascribed to the adverse remodeling of the penis induced by ineffectual microvascular perfusion, fibrosis, and neurotrophins scarcity in cavernosum. Phosphodiesterase type V inhibitors (PDE5i) have been regarded as an alternative candidate drug for avoiding penile neuropathy. However, the therapeutic efficacy is severely limited due to poor accumulation under systemic medication and endogenous nitric oxide (NO) deficiency in cavernosum. Herein, an innovative liposomal microbubble (MB) loaded with both Sildenafil (one of PDE5i) and NO was designed. Ultrasound-targeted MB destruction (UTMD)-mediated efficient release and integration erectogenic agents into corpus cavernosum with high biosafety. On a bilateral CNI rat model, the multifunctional MB-cooperated UTMD improved microvascular perfusion in penis, simultaneously, alleviated hypoxia and oxidative stress, indicating successful activation of NO-cyclic guanosine monophosphate pathway. Also, evaluation of the endothelial/muscular composition, intracavernosal pressure, and neural integrity in the penis proved that coordinated intervention reversed the abnormal structural remodeling and promoted the recovery of functional erection. Our work demonstrates that MB loading Sildenafil and NO combined with UTMD hold great promise to "awaken" the efficacy of PDE5i in neurogenic ED, which provided a superior option for ensuring penile rehabilitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wende Yang
- Department of Gastrointestinal SurgeryThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Chen Qiu
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) ImagingThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
- Department of UltrasoundThe Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Jiancheng Zhai
- Department of Gastrointestinal SurgeryThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Wei Zhang
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) ImagingThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Chengwu Huang
- Department of RadiologyMayo Clinic College of Medicine and ScienceRochesterMinnesotaUSA
| | - Jun Shao
- Department of Gastrointestinal SurgeryThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Jingke Zhang
- Department of RadiologyMayo Clinic College of Medicine and ScienceRochesterMinnesotaUSA
| | - Shigao Chen
- Department of RadiologyMayo Clinic College of Medicine and ScienceRochesterMinnesotaUSA
| | - Xiaoyan Miao
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) ImagingThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Peng Chen
- Department of Gastrointestinal SurgeryThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Bo Wei
- Department of Gastrointestinal SurgeryThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Jie Ren
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) ImagingThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Hongbo Wei
- Department of Gastrointestinal SurgeryThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‐sen UniversityGuangzhouChina
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Dencks S, Schmitz G. Ultrasound localization microscopy. Z Med Phys 2023; 33:292-308. [PMID: 37328329 PMCID: PMC10517400 DOI: 10.1016/j.zemedi.2023.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Revised: 01/24/2023] [Accepted: 02/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (ULM) is an emerging technique that provides impressive super-resolved images of microvasculature, i.e., images with much better resolution than the conventional diffraction-limited ultrasound techniques and is already taking its first steps from preclinical to clinical applications. In comparison to the established perfusion or flow measurement methods, namely contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and Doppler techniques, ULM allows imaging and flow measurements even down to the capillary level. As ULM can be realized as a post-processing method, conventional ultrasound systems can be used for. ULM relies on the localization of single microbubbles (MB) of commercial, clinically approved contrast agents. In general, these very small and strong scatterers with typical radii of 1-3 µm are imaged much larger in ultrasound images than they actually are due to the point spread function of the imaging system. However, by applying appropriate methods, these MBs can be localized with sub-pixel precision. Then, by tracking MBs over successive frames of image sequences, not only the morphology of vascular trees but also functional information such as flow velocities or directions can be obtained and visualized. In addition, quantitative parameters can be derived to describe pathological and physiological changes in the microvasculature. In this review, the general concept of ULM and conditions for its applicability to microvessel imaging are explained. Based on this, various aspects of the different processing steps for a concrete implementation are discussed. The trade-off between complete reconstruction of the microvasculature and the necessary measurement time as well as the implementation in 3D are reviewed in more detail, as they are the focus of current research. Through an overview of potential or already realized preclinical and clinical applications - pathologic angiogenesis or degeneration of vessels, physiological angiogenesis, or the general understanding of organ or tissue function - the great potential of ULM is demonstrated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefanie Dencks
- Lehrstuhl für Medizintechnik, Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
| | - Georg Schmitz
- Lehrstuhl für Medizintechnik, Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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11
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Song P, Rubin JM, Lowerison MR. Super-resolution ultrasound microvascular imaging: Is it ready for clinical use? Z Med Phys 2023; 33:309-323. [PMID: 37211457 PMCID: PMC10517403 DOI: 10.1016/j.zemedi.2023.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Revised: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
The field of super-resolution ultrasound microvascular imaging has been rapidly growing over the past decade. By leveraging contrast microbubbles as point targets for localization and tracking, super-resolution ultrasound pinpoints the location of microvessels and measures their blood flow velocity. Super-resolution ultrasound is the first in vivo imaging modality that can image micron-scale vessels at a clinically relevant imaging depth without tissue destruction. These unique capabilities of super-resolution ultrasound provide structural (vessel morphology) and functional (vessel blood flow) assessments of tissue microvasculature on a global and local scale, which opens new doors for many enticing preclinical and clinical applications that benefit from microvascular biomarkers. The goal of this short review is to provide an update on recent advancements in super-resolution ultrasound imaging, with a focus on summarizing existing applications and discussing the prospects of translating super-resolution imaging to clinical practice and research. In this review, we also provide brief introductions of how super-resolution ultrasound works, how does it compare with other imaging modalities, and what are the tradeoffs and limitations for an audience who is not familiar with the technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengfei Song
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States; Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States; Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States.
| | - Jonathan M Rubin
- Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
| | - Matthew R Lowerison
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States
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12
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Guo X, Ta D, Xu K. Frame rate effects and their compensation on super-resolution microvessel imaging using ultrasound localization microscopy. Ultrasonics 2023; 132:107009. [PMID: 37060620 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultras.2023.107009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2023] [Revised: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 04/07/2023] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) breaks the diffraction limit and allows imaging microvasculature at micrometric resolution while preserving the penetration depth. Frame rate plays an important role for high-quality ULM imaging, but there is still a lack of review and investigation of the frame rate effects on ULM. This work aims to clarify how frame rate influences the performance of ULM, including the effects of microbubble detection, localization and tracking. The performance of ULM was evaluated using an in vivo rat brain dataset (15.6 MHz, 3 tilted plane waves (-5°, 0°, +5°), at a compounded frame rate of 1000 Hz) with different frame rates. Quantification methods, including Fourier ring correlation and saturation parameter, were applied to analyze the spatial resolution and reconstruction efficiency, respectively. In addition, effects on each crucial step in ULM processing were further analyzed. Results showed that when frame rates dropped from 1000 Hz to 250 Hz, the spatial resolution deteriorated from 9.9 μm to 15.0 μm. Applying a velocity constraint was able to improve the ULM performance, but inappropriate constraint may artificially result in high apparent resolution. For the dataset, compared with the results of 1000 Hz frame rate, the velocity was underestimated at 100 Hz with 47.18% difference and the saturation was reduced from 55.00% at 1000 Hz to 43.34% at 100 Hz. Analysis showed that inadequate frame rate generated unreliable microbubble detection, localization and tracking as well as incomplete track reconstruction, resulting in the deterioration in spatial resolution, the underestimation in velocity measurement and the decrease in saturation. Finally, a guidance of determining the frame rate requirement was discussed by considering the required spatial sampling points based on vessel morphology, clutter filtering method, tracking algorithm and acquisition time, which provides indications for future clinical application of ULM method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xingyi Guo
- Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China; State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems, Fudan University, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Dean Ta
- Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China; State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems, Fudan University, Shanghai 201203, China; Yiwu Research Institute of Fudan University, Zhejiang 322000, China
| | - Kailiang Xu
- Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China; State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems, Fudan University, Shanghai 201203, China; Yiwu Research Institute of Fudan University, Zhejiang 322000, China.
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13
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Ferroni G, Sabeti S, Abdus-Shakur T, Scalise L, Carter JM, Fazzio RT, Larson NB, Fatemi M, Alizad A. Noninvasive prediction of axillary lymph node breast cancer metastasis using morphometric analysis of nodal tumor microvessels in a contrast-free ultrasound approach. Breast Cancer Res 2023; 25:65. [PMID: 37296471 PMCID: PMC10257266 DOI: 10.1186/s13058-023-01670-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Changes in microcirculation of axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) may indicate metastasis. Reliable noninvasive imaging technique to quantify such variations is lacking. We aim to develop and investigate a contrast-free ultrasound quantitative microvasculature imaging technique for detection of metastatic ALN in vivo. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The proposed ultrasound-based technique, high-definition microvasculature imaging (HDMI) provides superb images of tumor microvasculature at sub-millimeter size scales and enables quantitative analysis of microvessels structures. We evaluated the new HDMI technique on 68 breast cancer patients with ultrasound-identified suspicious ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes recommended for fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). HDMI was conducted before the FNAB and vessel morphological features were extracted, analyzed, and the results were correlated with the histopathology. RESULTS Out of 15 evaluated quantitative HDMI biomarkers, 11 were significantly different in metastatic and reactive ALNs (10 with P << 0.01 and one with 0.01 < P < 0.05). We further showed that through analysis of these biomarkers, a predictive model trained on HDMI biomarkers combined with clinical information (i.e., age, node size, cortical thickness, and BI-RADS score) could identify metastatic lymph nodes with an area under the curve of 0.9 (95% CI [0.82,0.98]), sensitivity of 90%, and specificity of 88%. CONCLUSIONS The promising results of our morphometric analysis of HDMI on ALNs offer a new means of detecting lymph node metastasis when used as a complementary imaging tool to conventional ultrasound. The fact that it does not require injection of contrast agents simplifies its use in routine clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Ferroni
- Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Soroosh Sabeti
- Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Tasneem Abdus-Shakur
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, 200 1st. St. SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Lorenzo Scalise
- Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Science, Marche Polytechnic University, 60131, Ancona, Italy
| | - Jodi M Carter
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, USA
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Robert T Fazzio
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, 200 1st. St. SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Nicholas B Larson
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Mostafa Fatemi
- Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Azra Alizad
- Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, 200 1st. St. SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
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14
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Lei S, Zhang C, Zhu B, Gao Z, Zhang Q, Liu J, Li Y, Zheng H, Ma T. In vivo ocular microvasculature imaging in rabbits with 3D ultrasound localization microscopy. Ultrasonics 2023; 133:107022. [PMID: 37178486 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultras.2023.107022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 04/15/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Morphological and hemodynamic changes in the ocular vasculature are important signs of various ocular diseases. The evaluation of the ocular microvasculature with high resolution is valuable in comprehensive diagnoses. However, it is difficult for current optical imaging techniques to visualize the posterior segment and retrobulbar microvasculature due to the limited penetration depth of light, particularly when the refractive medium is opaque. Thus, we have developed a 3D ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) imaging method to visualize the ocular microvasculature in rabbits with micron-scale resolution. We used a 32 × 32 matrix array transducer (center frequency: 8 MHz) with a compounding plane wave sequence and microbubbles. Block-wise singular value decomposition spatiotemporal clutter filtering and block-matching 3D denoising were implemented to extract the flowing microbubble signals at different imaging depths with high signal-to-noise ratios. The center points of microbubbles were localized and tracked in 3D space to achieve the micro-angiography. The in vivo results demonstrate the ability of 3D ULM to visualize the microvasculature of the eye in rabbits, where vessels down to 54 μm were successfully revealed. Moreover, the microvascular maps indicated the morphological abnormalities in the eye with retinal detachment. This efficient modality shows potential for use in the diagnosis of ocular diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuang Lei
- School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China; Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Changlu Zhang
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Benpeng Zhu
- School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
| | - Zeping Gao
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Qi Zhang
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; National Innovation Center for Advanced Medical Devices, Shenzhen 518126, China
| | - Jiamei Liu
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; National Innovation Center for Advanced Medical Devices, Shenzhen 518126, China
| | - Yongchuan Li
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Hairong Zheng
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Teng Ma
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; National Innovation Center for Advanced Medical Devices, Shenzhen 518126, China.
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15
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Suarez AC, Hammel JH, Munson JM. Modeling lymphangiogenesis: Pairing in vitro and in vivo metrics. Microcirculation 2023; 30:e12802. [PMID: 36760223 PMCID: PMC10121924 DOI: 10.1111/micc.12802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Revised: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Lymphangiogenesis is the mechanism by which the lymphatic system develops and expands new vessels facilitating fluid drainage and immune cell trafficking. Models to study lymphangiogenesis are necessary for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms and to identify or test new therapeutic agents that target lymphangiogenesis. Across the lymphatic literature, multiple models have been developed to study lymphangiogenesis in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, lymphangiogenesis can be modeled with varying complexity, from monolayers to hydrogels to explants, with common metrics for characterizing proliferation, migration, and sprouting of lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) and vessels. In comparison, in vivo models of lymphangiogenesis often use genetically modified zebrafish and mice, with in situ mouse models in the ear, cornea, hind leg, and tail. In vivo metrics, such as activation of LECs, number of new lymphatic vessels, and sprouting, mirror those most used in vitro, with the addition of lymphatic vessel hyperplasia and drainage. The impacts of lymphangiogenesis vary by context of tissue and pathology. Therapeutic targeting of lymphangiogenesis can have paradoxical effects depending on the pathology including lymphedema, cancer, organ transplant, and inflammation. In this review, we describe and compare lymphangiogenic outcomes and metrics between in vitro and in vivo studies, specifically reviewing only those publications in which both testing formats are used. We find that in vitro studies correlate well with in vivo in wound healing and development, but not in the reproductive tract or the complex tumor microenvironment. Considerations for improving in vitro models are to increase complexity with perfusable microfluidic devices, co-cultures with tissue-specific support cells, the inclusion of fluid flow, and pairing in vitro models of differing complexities. We believe that these changes would strengthen the correlation between in vitro and in vivo outcomes, giving more insight into lymphangiogenesis in healthy and pathological states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aileen C. Suarez
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA
- Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Department of Biomedical Engineering & Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
| | - Jennifer H. Hammel
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA
- Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Department of Biomedical Engineering & Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
| | - Jennifer M. Munson
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA
- Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Department of Biomedical Engineering & Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
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16
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Deng Q, Xie J, Kong S, Tang T, Zhou J. Long-Term Retention Microbubbles with Three-Layer Structure for Floating Intravesical Instillation Delivery. Small 2023; 19:e2205630. [PMID: 36634975 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202205630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 11/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Intravesical instillation is an effective treatment for bladder cancer. However, clinical anticancer agents always suffer rapid excretion by periodic urination, leading to low therapeutic efficacy. Prolonging the retention time of drugs in the bladder is the key challenge for intravesical instillation treatment. Herein, a facile and powerful surface cross-linking-freeze drying strategy is proposed to generate ultra-stable albumin bovine air microbubbles (BSA-MBs) that can float and adhere to the bladder wall to overcome the excretion of urination and exhibit a remarkable property of long-term retention in the bladder. More noteworthy, BSA-MBs are endowed with a specific three-layer structure, namely, the outer membrane, middle drug loading layer and inner air core, which makes them have a low density to easily float and possess a high drug loading capacity. Based on their unique superiorities, the therapeutic potential of doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded BSA-MBs (DOX-MBs) is exemplified by intravesical instillation for bladder cancer. After injection into the bladder, DOX-MBs can remain in the bladder for a long time and sustain the release of DOX in urine, exhibiting potent anticancer efficacy. Consequently, the prolonged retention of BSA-MBs in the bladder renders them as an effective floating drug delivery system for intravesical instillation therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiurong Deng
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, China
| | - Junyi Xie
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, China
| | - Shuying Kong
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, China
| | - Tianmin Tang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, China
| | - Jianhua Zhou
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, China
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17
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Riemer K, Toulemonde M, Yan J, Lerendegui M, Stride E, Weinberg PD, Dunsby C, Tang MX. Fast and Selective Super-Resolution Ultrasound In Vivo With Acoustically Activated Nanodroplets. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 2023; 42:1056-1067. [PMID: 36399587 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2022.3223554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Perfusion by the microcirculation is key to the development, maintenance and pathology of tissue. Its measurement with high spatiotemporal resolution is consequently valuable but remains a challenge in deep tissue. Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (ULM) provides very high spatiotemporal resolution but the use of microbubbles requires low contrast agent concentrations, a long acquisition time, and gives little control over the spatial and temporal distribution of the microbubbles. The present study is the first to demonstrate Acoustic Wave Sparsely-Activated Localization Microscopy (AWSALM) and fast-AWSALM for in vivo super-resolution ultrasound imaging, offering contrast on demand and vascular selectivity. Three different formulations of acoustically activatable contrast agents were used. We demonstrate their use with ultrasound mechanical indices well within recommended safety limits to enable fast on-demand sparse activation and destruction at very high agent concentrations. We produce super-localization maps of the rabbit renal vasculature with acquisition times between 5.5 s and 0.25 s, and a 4-fold improvement in spatial resolution. We present the unique selectivity of AWSALM in visualizing specific vascular branches and downstream microvasculature, and we show super-localized kidney structures in systole (0.25 s) and diastole (0.25 s) with fast-AWSALM outperforming microbubble based ULM. In conclusion, we demonstrate the feasibility of fast and selective imaging of microvascular dynamics in vivo with subwavelength resolution using ultrasound and acoustically activatable nanodroplet contrast agents.
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18
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Deng Q, Mi J, Dong J, Chen Y, Chen L, He J, Zhou J. Superiorly Stable Three-Layer Air Microbubbles Generated by Versatile Ethanol-Water Exchange for Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Theranostics. ACS Nano 2023; 17:263-274. [PMID: 36354372 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c07300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Microbubbles have been widely used as ultrasound contrast agents in clinical diagnosis. Moreover, most current preparation methods for microbubbles are uncontrollable, and the as-obtained microbubbles are unstable in aqueous solution or under ultrasound. Here, we report a strategy to prepare superiorly stable microbubbles with three-layer structures by the ethanol-water exchange. This versatile method can also be applied to prepare different kinds of protein microbubbles with various sizes for advanced biomedical applications. To demonstrate this, the protein air microbubbles are created, which is stable in water for several days with intact structures and exhibits excellent contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging. Moreover, the protein air microbubbles can also deliver a mass of drugs while maintaining their stable structures, making them a platform for ultrasound imaging-guided drug delivery. The versatile protein air microbubbles have great potential for the design and application of theranostic platforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiurong Deng
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Jiaomei Mi
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Jianpei Dong
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Yin Chen
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Lanxi Chen
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Jinxu He
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou510006, China
| | - Jianhua Zhou
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou510006, China
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19
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Gu W, Li B, Luo J, Yan Z, Ta D, Liu X. Ultrafast Ultrasound Localization Microscopy by Conditional Generative Adversarial Network. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 2023; 70:25-40. [PMID: 36383598 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2022.3222534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) overcomes the acoustic diffraction limit and enables the visualization of microvasculature at subwavelength resolution. However, challenges remain in ultrafast ULM implementation, where short data acquisition time, efficient data processing speed, and high imaging resolution need to be considered simultaneously. Recently, deep learning (DL)-based methods have exhibited potential in speeding up ULM imaging. Nevertheless, a certain number of ultrasound (US) data ( L frames) are still required to accumulate enough localized microbubble (MB) events, leading to an acquisition time within a time span of tens of seconds. To further speed up ULM imaging, in this article, we present a new DL-based method, termed as ULM-GAN. By using a modified conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) framework, ULM-GAN is able to reconstruct a superresolution image directly from a temporal mean low-resolution (LR) image generated by averaging l -frame raw US images with l being significantly smaller than L . To evaluate the performance of ULM-GAN, a series of numerical simulations and phantom experiments are both implemented. The results of the numerical simulations demonstrate that when performing ULM imaging, ULM-GAN allows ∼ 40 -fold reduction in data acquisition time and ∼ 61 -fold reduction in computational time compared with the conventional Gaussian fitting method, without compromising spatial resolution according to the resolution scaled error (RSE). For the phantom experiments, ULM-GAN offers an implementation of ULM with ultrafast data acquisition time ( ∼ 0.33 s) and ultrafast data processing speed ( ∼ 0.60 s) that makes it promising to observe rapid biological activities in vivo.
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20
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Zhu J, Zhang C, Christensen-Jeffries K, Zhang G, Harput S, Dunsby C, Huang P, Tang MX. Super-Resolution Ultrasound Localization Microscopy of Microvascular Structure and Flow for Distinguishing Metastatic Lymph Nodes - An Initial Human Study. Ultraschall Med 2022; 43:592-598. [PMID: 36206774 DOI: 10.1055/a-1917-0016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Detecting and distinguishing metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) from those with benign lymphadenopathy are crucial for cancer diagnosis and prognosis but remain a clinical challenge. A recent advance in super-resolution ultrasound (SRUS) through localizing individual microbubbles has broken the diffraction limit and tracking enabled in vivo noninvasive imaging of vascular morphology and flow dynamics at a microscopic level. In this study we hypothesize that SRUS enables quantitative markers to distinguish metastatic LNs from benign ones in patients with lymphadenopathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS Clinical contrast-enhanced ultrasound image sequences of LNs from 6 patients with lymph node metastasis and 4 with benign lymphadenopathy were acquired and motion-corrected. These were then used to generate super-resolution microvascular images and super-resolved velocity maps. From these SRUS images, morphological and functional measures were obtained including micro-vessel density, fractal dimension, mean flow speed, and Local Flow Direction Irregularity (LFDI) measuring the variance in local flow direction. These measures were compared between pathologically proven reactive and metastasis LNs. RESULTS Our initial results indicate that the difference in the indicator of flow irregularity (LFDI) derived from the SRUS images is statistically significant between the two groups. The LFDI is 60% higher in metastatic LNs compared with reactive nodes. CONCLUSION This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of super-resolution ultrasound for clinical imaging of lymph nodes and the potential of using the irregularity of local blood flow directions afforded by SRUS for the characterization of LNs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaqi Zhu
- Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| | - Chao Zhang
- Department of Ultrasound, Zhejiang University School of Medicine Second Affiliated Hospital, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Kirsten Christensen-Jeffries
- Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London School of Medical Education, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| | - Ge Zhang
- Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| | - Sevan Harput
- Division of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, London South Bank University, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| | - Christopher Dunsby
- Physics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| | - Pintong Huang
- Department of Ultrasound, Zhejiang University School of Medicine Second Affiliated Hospital, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Meng-Xing Tang
- Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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21
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Zhang W, Huang C, Yin T, Miao X, Deng H, Zheng R, Ren J, Chen S. Ultrasensitive US Microvessel Imaging of Hepatic Microcirculation in the Cirrhotic Rat Liver. Radiology 2022; 307:e220739. [PMID: 36413130 DOI: 10.1148/radiol.220739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Background Liver microcirculation dysfunction plays a vital role in the occurrence and development of liver diseases, and thus, there is a clinical need for in vivo, noninvasive, and quantitative evaluation of liver microcirculation. Purpose To evaluate the feasibility of ultrasensitive US microvessel imaging (UMI) in the visualization and quantification of hepatic microvessels in healthy and cirrhotic rats. Materials and Methods In vivo studies were performed to image hepatic microvasculature by means of laparotomy in Sprague-Dawley rats (five cirrhotic and five control rats). In vivo conventional power Doppler US and ex vivo micro-CT were performed for comparison. UMI-based quantifications of perfusion, tortuosity, and integrity of microvessels were compared between the control and cirrhotic groups by using the Wilcoxon test. Spearman correlations between quantification parameters and pathologic fibrosis, perfusion function, and hepatic hypoxia were evaluated. Results UMI helped detect minute vessels below the liver capsule, as compared with conventional power Doppler US and micro-CT. With use of UMI, lower perfusion indicated by vessel density (median, 22% [IQR, 20%-28%] vs 41% [IQR, 37%-46%]; P = .008) and fractional moving blood volume (FMBV) (median, 6.4% [IQR, 4.8%-8.6%] vs 13% [IQR, 12%-14%]; P = .008) and higher tortuosity indicated by the sum of angles metric (SOAM) (median, 3.0 [IQR, 2.9-3.0] vs 2.7 [IQR, 2.6-2.9]; P = .008) were demonstrated in the cirrhotic rat group compared with the control group. Vessel density (r = 0.85, P = .003), FMBV (r = 0.86, P = .002), and median SOAM (r = -0.83, P = .003) showed strong correlations with pathologically derived vessel density labeled with dextran. Vessel density (r = -0.81, P = .005) and median SOAM (r = 0.87, P = .001) also showed strong correlations with hepatic tissue hypoxia. Conclusion Contrast-free ultrasensitive US microvessel imaging provided noninvasive in vivo imaging and quantification of hepatic microvessels in cirrhotic rat liver. © RSNA, 2022 Supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Fetzer in this issue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Zhang
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
| | - Chengwu Huang
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
| | - Tinghui Yin
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
| | - Xiaoyan Miao
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
| | - Huan Deng
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
| | - Rongqin Zheng
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
| | - Jie Ren
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
| | - Shigao Chen
- From the Department of Ultrasound, Laboratory of Novel Optoacoustic (Ultrasonic) Imaging, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Rd, Guangzhou 510630, China (W.Z., T.Y., X.M., H.D., R.Z., J.R.); and Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, Minn (C.H., S.C.)
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Zhang G, Lei YM, Li N, Yu J, Jiang XY, Yu MH, Hu HM, Zeng SE, Cui XW, Ye HR. Ultrasound super-resolution imaging for differential diagnosis of breast masses. Front Oncol 2022; 12:1049991. [PMID: 36408165 PMCID: PMC9669901 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.1049991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Ultrasound imaging has been widely used in breast cancer screening. Recently, ultrasound super-resolution imaging (SRI) has shown the capability to break the diffraction limit to display microvasculature. However, the application of SRI on differential diagnosis of breast masses remains unknown. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the feasibility and clinical value of SRI for visualizing microvasculature and differential diagnosis of breast masses. METHODS B mode, color-Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) images of 46 patients were collected respectively. SRI were generated by localizations of each possible contrast signals. Micro-vessel density (MVD) and microvascular flow rate (MFR) were calculated from SRI and time to peak (TTP), peak intensity (PI) and area under the curve (AUC) were obtained by quantitative analysis of CEUS images respectively. Pathological results were considered as the gold standard. Independent chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed using these parameters to examine the correlation. RESULTS The results showed that SRI technique could be successfully applied on breast masses and display microvasculature at a significantly higher resolution than the conventional CDFI and CEUS images. The results showed that the PI, AUC, MVD and MFR of malignant breast masses were significantly higher than those of benign breast masses, while TTP was significantly lower than that of benign breast masses. Among all five parameters, MVD showed the highest positive correlation with the malignancy of breast masses. CONCLUSIONS SRI is able to successfully display the microvasculature of breast masses. Compared with CDFI and CEUS, SRI can provide additional morphological and functional information for breast masses. MVD has a great potential in assisting the differential diagnosis of breast masses as an important imaging marker.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ge Zhang
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Yu-Meng Lei
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Nan Li
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Jing Yu
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xian-Yang Jiang
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Mei-Hui Yu
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Hai-Man Hu
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shu-E Zeng
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Hubei Cancer Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xin-Wu Cui
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Hua-Rong Ye
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
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Zhang G, Yu J, Lei YM, Hu JR, Hu HM, Harput S, Guo ZZ, Cui XW, Ye HR. Ultrasound super-resolution imaging for the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules: A pilot study. Front Oncol 2022; 12:978164. [PMID: 36387122 PMCID: PMC9647016 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.978164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Ultrasound imaging provides a fast and safe examination of thyroid nodules. Recently, the introduction of super-resolution imaging technique shows the capability of breaking the Ultrasound diffraction limit in imaging the micro-vessels. The aim of this study was to evaluate its feasibility and value for the differentiation of thyroid nodules. METHODS In this study, B-mode, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and color Doppler flow imaging examinations were performed on thyroid nodules in 24 patients. Super-resolution imaging was performed to visualize the microvasculature with finer details. Microvascular flow rate (MFR) and micro-vessel density (MVD) within thyroid nodules were computed. The MFR and MVD were used to differentiate the benign and malignant thyroid nodules with pathological results as a gold standard. RESULTS Super-resolution imaging (SRI) technique can be successfully applied on human thyroid nodules to visualize the microvasculature with finer details and obtain the useful clinical information MVD and MFR to help differential diagnosis. The results suggested that the mean value of the MFR within benign thyroid nodule was 16.76 ± 6.82 mm/s whereas that within malignant thyroid was 9.86 ± 4.54 mm/s. The mean value of the MVD within benign thyroid was 0.78 while the value for malignant thyroid region was 0.59. MFR and MVD within the benign thyroid nodules were significantly higher than those within the malignant thyroid nodules respectively (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates the feasibility of ultrasound super-resolution imaging to show micro-vessels of human thyroid nodules via a clinical ultrasound platform. The important imaging markers, such as MVD and MFR, can be derived from SRI to provide more useful clinical information. It has the potential to be a new tool for aiding differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ge Zhang
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, Wuhan University of science and technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Jing Yu
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Yu-Meng Lei
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Jun-Rui Hu
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
| | - Hai-Man Hu
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Sevan Harput
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, London South Bank University, London, United Kingdom
| | - Zhen-Zhong Guo
- Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, Wuhan University of science and technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xin-Wu Cui
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Hua-Rong Ye
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
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Yan J, Zhang T, Broughton-Venner J, Huang P, Tang MX. Super-Resolution Ultrasound Through Sparsity-Based Deconvolution and Multi-Feature Tracking. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 2022; 41:1938-1947. [PMID: 35171767 PMCID: PMC7614417 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2022.3152396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Ultrasound super-resolution imaging through localisation and tracking of microbubbles can achieve sub-wave-diffraction resolution in mapping both micro-vascular structure and flow dynamics in deep tissue in vivo. Currently, it is still challenging to achieve high accuracy in localisation and tracking particularly with limited imaging frame rates and in the presence of high bubble concentrations. This study introduces microbubble image features into a Kalman tracking framework, and makes the framework compatible with sparsity-based deconvolution to address these key challenges. The performance of the method is evaluated on both simulations using individual bubble signals segmented from in vivo data and experiments on a mouse brain and a human lymph node. The simulation results show that the deconvolution not only significantly improves the accuracy of isolating overlapping bubbles, but also preserves some image features of the bubbles. The combination of such features with Kalman motion model can achieve a significant improvement in tracking precision at a low frame rate over that using the distance measure, while the improvement is not significant at the highest frame rate. The in vivo results show that the proposed framework generates SR images that are significantly different from the current methods with visual improvement, and is more robust to high bubble concentrations and low frame rates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jipeng Yan
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Tao Zhang
- Second Affiliate Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, 313000
| | - Jacob Broughton-Venner
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
| | - Pintong Huang
- Second Affiliate Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, 313000
| | - Meng-Xing Tang
- Ultrasound Lab for Imaging and Sensing, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ
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25
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Taghavi I, Andersen SB, Hoyos CAV, Schou M, Gran F, Hansen KL, Nielsen MB, Sørensen CM, Stuart MB, Jensen JA. Ultrasound super-resolution imaging with a hierarchical Kalman tracker. Ultrasonics 2022; 122:106695. [PMID: 35149256 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultras.2022.106695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Revised: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Microbubble (MB) tracking plays an important role in ultrasound super-resolution imaging (SRI) by enabling velocity estimation and improving image quality. This work presents a new hierarchical Kalman (HK) tracker to achieve better performance at scenarios with high concentrations of MBs and high localization uncertainty. The method attempts to follow MBs with different velocity ranges using different Kalman filters. An extended simulation framework for evaluating trackers is also presented and used for comparison of the proposed HK tracker with the nearest-neighbor (NN) and Kalman (K) trackers. The HK tracks were most similar to the ground truth with the highest Jaccard similarity coefficient in 79% of the scenarios and the lowest root-mean-square error in 72% of the scenarios. The HK tracker reconstructed vessels with a more accurate diameter. In a scenario with an uncertainty of 51.2μm in MB localization, a vessel diameter of 250μm was estimated as 257μm by HK tracker, compared with 329μm and 389μm for the K and NN trackers. In the same scenario, the HK tracker estimated MB velocities with a relative bias down to 1.7% and a relative standard deviation down to 8.3%. Finally, the different tracking techniques were applied to in vivo data from rat kidneys, and trends similar to the simulations were observed. Conclusively, the results showed an improvement in tracking performance, when the HK tracker was employed in comparison with the NN and K trackers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iman Taghavi
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, DK 2800, Kgs. Lyngby Denmark.
| | - Sofie Bech Andersen
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DK 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Rigshospitalet, DK 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, DK 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | | | - Mikkel Schou
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, DK 2800, Kgs. Lyngby Denmark.
| | | | - Kristoffer Lindskov Hansen
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Rigshospitalet, DK 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, DK 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Michael Bachmann Nielsen
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Rigshospitalet, DK 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, DK 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | | | - Matthias Bo Stuart
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, DK 2800, Kgs. Lyngby Denmark.
| | - Jørgen Arendt Jensen
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, DK 2800, Kgs. Lyngby Denmark.
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Porte C, Kiessling F. [Super-resolution ultrasound imaging : Methods and applications]. Radiologe 2022; 62:467-474. [PMID: 35380263 DOI: 10.1007/s00117-022-00995-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
CLINICAL/METHODICAL ISSUE The microvasculature plays an important role in many pathologic conditions but cannot be characterized in high resolution via conventional ultrasound methods. STANDARD RADIOLOGICAL METHODS Doppler-based techniques, contrast-enhanced sonography as well as dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are commonly used to characterize tissue vascularization. However, these techniques cannot visualize the microvasculature adequately. METHODICAL INNOVATION Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) consists of contrast-enhanced ultrasound measurements in combination with a complex post-processing algorithm which detects microbubbles with high precision. The vasculature can then be visualized by accumulating the microbubble positions in a final image. PERFORMANCE Compared to conventional ultrasound techniques, ULM improves the image resolution by a factor of more than 10. This currently results in resolutions down to 10 µm and allows, therefore, the visualization of capillaries and the assessment of their perfusion. Also, this does not lead to a reduction of the penetration depth or the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). ACHIEVEMENT The method enables the visualization of vascular structures in unsurpassed detail and has the potential to offer new possibilities for the diagnosis of various diseases and for gaining insights into physiological processes. However, ULM is not commercially available yet but is intensely being tested in clinical studies. PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS ULM could potentially be applied to all fields in which the vasculature is relevant. Current fields of application include oncology, nephrology, and neurological research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Céline Porte
- Institut für Experimentelle Molekulare Bildgebung, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Center for Biohybrid Medical Systems, Forckenbeckstraße 55, 52074, Aachen, Deutschland
| | - Fabian Kiessling
- Institut für Experimentelle Molekulare Bildgebung, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Center for Biohybrid Medical Systems, Forckenbeckstraße 55, 52074, Aachen, Deutschland.
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Robin J, Ozbek A, Reiss M, Dean-Ben XL, Razansky D. Dual-Mode Volumetric Optoacoustic and Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging With Spherical Matrix Arrays. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 2022; 41:846-856. [PMID: 34735340 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2021.3125398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Spherical matrix arrays represent an advantageous tomographic detection geometry for non-invasive deep tissue mapping of vascular networks and oxygenation with volumetric optoacoustic tomography (VOT). Hybridization of VOT with ultrasound (US) imaging remains difficult with this configuration due to the relatively large inter-element pitch of spherical arrays. We suggest a new approach for combining VOT and US contrast-enhanced 3D imaging employing injection of clinically-approved microbubbles. Power Doppler (PD) and US localization imaging were enabled with a sparse US acquisition sequence and model-based inversion based on infimal convolution of total variation (ICTV) regularization. In vitro experiments in tissue-mimicking phantoms and in living mouse brain demonstrate the powerful capabilities of the new dual-mode imaging approach attaining 80 μm spatial resolution and a more than 10 dB signal to noise improvement with respect to a classical delay and sum beamformer. Microbubble localization and tracking allowed for flow velocity mapping up to 40 mm/s.
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Chen X, Lowerison MR, Dong Z, Han A, Song P. Deep Learning-Based Microbubble Localization for Ultrasound Localization Microscopy. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 2022; 69:1312-1325. [PMID: 35171770 PMCID: PMC9116497 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2022.3152225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) is an emerging vascular imaging technique that overcomes the resolution-penetration compromise of ultrasound imaging. Accurate and robust microbubble (MB) localization is essential for successful ULM. In this study, we present a deep learning (DL)-based localization technique that uses both Field-II simulation and in vivo chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) data for training. Both radio frequency (RF) and in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data were tested in this study. The simulation experiment shows that the proposed DL-based localization was able to reduce both missing MB localization rate and MB localization error. In general, RF data showed better performance than IQ. For the in vivo CAM study with high MB concentration, DL-based localization was able to reduce the vessel MB saturation time by more than 50% compared to conventional localization. In addition, we propose a DL-based framework for real-time visualization of the high-resolution microvasculature. The findings of this article support the use of DL for more robust and faster MB localization, especially under high MB concentrations. The results indicate that further improvement could be achieved by incorporating temporal information of the MB data.
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Qiu L, Zhang J, Yang Y, Zhang H, Lee FF, He Q, Huang C, Huang L, Qian L, Luo J. In Vivo assessment of hypertensive nephrosclerosis using ultrasound localization microscopy. Med Phys 2022; 49:2295-2308. [PMID: 35218672 DOI: 10.1002/mp.15583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Revised: 01/27/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE As a typical chronic kidney disease (CKD), hypertensive nephrosclerosis (HN) is a common syndrome of hypertension, characterized by chronic kidney microvascular damage. Early diagnosis of microvascular damage using conventional ultrasound imaging encounters challenges in sensitivity and specificity owing to the inherent diffraction limit. Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) has been developed to obtain microvasculature and microvascular hemodynamics within the kidney, and would be a promising tool for early diagnosis of CKD. METHODS In this study, the advantage of quantitative indexes obtained by using ULM (mean arterial blood flow speeds of different segments of interlobular arteries) over indexes obtained using conventional clinical serum (β2-microglobulin, serum urea nitrogen and creatinine) and urine (24-hour urine volume and urine protein) tests and ultrasound Doppler imaging [peak systolic velocity (PSV), end-diastolic velocity (EDV) and resistance index (RI)] and contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging [CEUS; rise time (RT), peak intensity (IMAX), mean transit time (mTT) and area under the time-intensity curve (AUC)] for early diagnosis of HN was investigated. Examinations were carried out on 6 spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and 5 normal Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats at the age of 10 weeks. RESULTS The experimental results showed that the indicators derived from conventional clinical inspections (serum and urine tests) and ultrasound imaging (PSV, EDV, RI, RT, IMAX, mTT and AUC) did not show significant difference between hypertensive and healthy rats (p > 0.05), while the TTP of the SHR group (28.52 ± 5.52 s) derived from CEUS is significantly higher than that of the WKY group (18.68 ± 7.32 s; p < 0.05). The mean blood flow speed in interlobular artery of SHR (12.47 ± 1.06 mm/s) derived from ULM is significantly higher than that of WKY rats (10.13 ± 1.17 mm/s; p < 0.01). CONCLUSION The advantages of ULM over conventional clinical inspections and ultrasound imaging methods for early diagnosis of HN were validated. The quantitative results showed that ULM can effectively diagnose HN at the early stage by detecting the blood flow speed changes of interlobular arteries. ULM may promise a reliable technique for early diagnosis of HN in the future. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lanyan Qiu
- Department of Ultrasound, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Jingke Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Yi Yang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Hong Zhang
- Department of Ultrasound, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Fu-Feng Lee
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Qiong He
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.,Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Chengwu Huang
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Lijie Huang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Linxue Qian
- Department of Ultrasound, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Jianwen Luo
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
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Yi HM, Lowerison MR, Song PF, Zhang W. A Review of Clinical Applications for Super-resolution Ultrasound Localization Microscopy. Curr Med Sci 2022; 42:1-16. [PMID: 35167000 DOI: 10.1007/s11596-021-2459-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Microvascular structure and hemodynamics are important indicators for the diagnosis and assessment of many diseases and pathologies. The structural and functional imaging of tissue microvasculature in vivo is a clinically significant objective for the development of many imaging modalities. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a popular clinical tool for characterizing tissue microvasculature, due to the moderate cost, wide accessibility, and absence of ionizing radiation of ultrasound. However, in practice, it remains challenging to demonstrate microvasculature using CEUS, due to the resolution limit of conventional ultrasound imaging. In addition, the quantification of tissue perfusion by CEUS remains hindered by high operator-dependency and poor reproducibility. Inspired by super-resolution optical microscopy, super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) was recently developed. ULM uses the same ultrasound contrast agent (i.e. microbubbles) in CEUS. However, different from CEUS, ULM uses the location of the microbubbles to construct images, instead of using the backscattering intensity of microbubbles. Hence, ULM overcomes the classic compromise between imaging resolution and penetration, allowing for the visualization of capillary-scale microvasculature deep within tissues. To date, many in vivo ULM results have been reported, including both animal (kidney, brain, spinal cord, xenografted tumor, and ear) and human studies (prostate, tibialis anterior muscle, and breast cancer tumors). Furthermore, a variety of useful biomarkers have been derived from using ULM for different preclinical and clinical applications. Due to the high spatial resolution and accurate blood flow speed estimation (approximately 1 mm/s to several cm/s), ULM presents as an enticing alternative to CEUS for characterizing tissue microvasculature in vivo. This review summarizes the principles and present applications of CEUS and ULM, and discusses areas where ULM can potentially provide a better alternative to CEUS in clinical practice and areas where ULM may not be a better alternative. The objective of the study is to provide clinicians with an up-to-date review of ULM technology, and a practical guide for implementing ULM in clinical research and practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui-Ming Yi
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.,Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA
| | - Matthew R Lowerison
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA
| | - Peng-Fei Song
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA
| | - Wei Zhang
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. .,Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA. .,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, USA.
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31
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Lei S, Zhang G, Zhu B, Long X, Jiang Z, Liu Y, Hu D, Sheng Z, Zhang Q, Wang C, Gao Z, Zheng H, Ma T. In Vivo Ultrasound Localization Microscopy Imaging of the Kidney's Microvasculature With Block-Matching 3-D Denoising. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 2022; 69:523-533. [PMID: 34727030 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2021.3125010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Structural abnormalities and functional changes of renal microvascular networks play a significant pathophysiologic role in the occurrence of kidney diseases. Super-resolution ultrasound imaging has been successfully utilized to visualize the microvascular network and provide valuable diagnostic information. To prevent the burst of microbubbles, a lower mechanical index (MI) is generally used in ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) imaging. However, high noise levels lead to incorrect signal localizations in relatively low-MI settings and deep tissue. In this study, we implemented a block-matching 3-D (BM3D) image-denoising method, after the application of singular value decomposition filtering, to further suppress the noise at various depths. The in vitro flow-phantom results show that the BM3D method helps the significant reduction of the error localizations, thus improving the localization accuracy. In vivo rhesus macaque experiments help conclude that the BM3D method improves the resolution more than other image-based denoising techniques, such as the nonlocal means method. The obtained clutter-filtered images with fewer incorrect localizations can enable robust ULM imaging, thus helping in establishing an effective diagnostic tool.
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Kurochkin MA, German SV, Abalymov A, Vorontsov DА, Gorin DA, Novoselova MV. Sentinel lymph node detection by combining nonradioactive techniques with contrast agents: State of the art and prospects. J Biophotonics 2022; 15:e202100149. [PMID: 34514735 DOI: 10.1002/jbio.202100149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2021] [Revised: 08/21/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The status of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) has a substantial prognostic value because these nodes are the first place where cancer cells accumulate along their spreading route. Routine SLN biopsy ("gold standard") involves peritumoral injections of radiopharmaceuticals, such as technetium-99m, which has obvious disadvantages. This review examines the methods used as "gold standard" analogs to diagnose SLNs. Nonradioactive preoperative and intraoperative methods of SLN detection are analyzed. Promising photonic tools for SLNs detection are reviewed, including NIR-I/NIR-II fluorescence imaging, photoswitching dyes for SLN detection, in vivo photoacoustic detection, imaging and biopsy of SLNs. Also are discussed methods of SLN detection by magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonic imaging systems including as combined with photoacoustic imaging, and methods based on the magnetometer-aided detection of superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The advantages and disadvantages of nonradioactive SLN-detection methods are shown. The review concludes with prospects for the use of conservative diagnostic methods in combination with photonic tools.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sergey V German
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia
- Institute of Spectroscopy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | | | - Dmitry А Vorontsov
- State Budgetary Institution of Health Care of Nizhny Novgorod "Nizhny Novgorod Regional Clinical Oncological Dispensary", Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
| | - Dmitry A Gorin
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia
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33
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Chavignon A, Heiles B, Hingot V, Orset C, Vivien D, Couture O. 3D Transcranial Ultrasound Localization Microscopy in the Rat Brain with a Multiplexed Matrix Probe. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2021; 69:2132-2142. [PMID: 34932470 DOI: 10.1109/tbme.2021.3137265] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (ULM) provides images of the microcirculation in-depth in living tissue. However, its implementation in two-dimension is limited by the elevation projection and tedious plane-by-plane acquisition. Volumetric ULM alleviates these issues and can map the vasculature of entire organs in one acquisition with isotropic resolution. However, its optimal implementation requires many independent acquisition channels, leading to complex custom hardware. METHODS In this article, we implemented volumetric ultrasound imaging with a multiplexed 32 x 32 probe driven by a single commercial ultrasound scanner. We propose and compare three different sub-aperture multiplexing combinations for localization microscopy in silico and in vitro with a flow of microbubbles in a canal. Finally, we evaluate the approach for micro-angiography of the rat brain.The "light" combination allows a higher maximal volume rate than the "full" combination while maintaining the field of view and resolution. RESULTS In the rat brain, 100,000 volumes were acquired within 7 min with a dedicated ultrasound sequence and revealed vessels down to 31 m in diameter with flows from 4.3 mm/s to 28.4 mm/s. CONCLUSION This work demonstrates the ability to perform a complete angiography with unprecedented resolution in the living rats brain with a simple and light setup through the intact skull. SIGNIFICANCE We foresee that it might contribute to democratize 3D ULM for both preclinical and clinical studies.
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Andersen SB, Taghavi I, Kjer HM, Søgaard SB, Gundlach C, Dahl VA, Nielsen MB, Dahl AB, Jensen JA, Sørensen CM. Evaluation of 2D super-resolution ultrasound imaging of the rat renal vasculature using ex vivo micro-computed tomography. Sci Rep 2021; 11:24335. [PMID: 34934089 PMCID: PMC8692475 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03726-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Super-resolution ultrasound imaging (SRUS) enables in vivo microvascular imaging of deeper-lying tissues and organs, such as the kidneys or liver. The technique allows new insights into microvascular anatomy and physiology and the development of disease-related microvascular abnormalities. However, the microvascular anatomy is intricate and challenging to depict with the currently available imaging techniques, and validation of the microvascular structures of deeper-lying organs obtained with SRUS remains difficult. Our study aimed to directly compare the vascular anatomy in two in vivo 2D SRUS images of a Sprague-Dawley rat kidney with ex vivo μCT of the same kidney. Co-registering the SRUS images to the μCT volume revealed visually very similar vascular features of vessels ranging from ~ 100 to 1300 μm in diameter and illustrated a high level of vessel branching complexity captured in the 2D SRUS images. Additionally, it was shown that it is difficult to use μCT data of a whole rat kidney specimen to validate the super-resolution capability of our ultrasound scans, i.e., validating the actual microvasculature of the rat kidney. Lastly, by comparing the two imaging modalities, fundamental challenges for 2D SRUS were demonstrated, including the complexity of projecting a 3D vessel network into 2D. These challenges should be considered when interpreting clinical or preclinical SRUS data in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofie Bech Andersen
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Iman Taghavi
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Hans Martin Kjer
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Stinne Byrholdt Søgaard
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Carsten Gundlach
- Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Vedrana Andersen Dahl
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Michael Bachmann Nielsen
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Anders Bjorholm Dahl
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Jørgen Arendt Jensen
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark
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Yin J, Zhang J, Zhu Y, Dong F, An J, Wang D, Li N, Luo Y, Wang Y, Wang X, Zhang J. Ultrasound microvasculature imaging with entropy-based radiality super-resolution (ERSR). Phys Med Biol 2021; 66. [PMID: 34592723 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ac2bb3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Objective:Microvasculature is highly relevant to the occurrence and development of pathologies such as cancer and diabetes. Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) has bypassed the diffraction limit and demonstrated its great potential to provide new imaging modality and establish new diagnostic criteria in clinical application. However, sparse microbubble distribution can be a significant bottleneck for improving temporal resolution, even for further clinical translation. Other important challenges for ULM to tackle in clinic also include high microbubble concentration and low frame rate.Approach:As part of the efforts to facilitate clinical translation, this paper focused on the low frame rate and the high microbubble distribution issue and proposed a new super-resolution imaging strategy called entropy-based radiality super-resolution (ERSR). The feasibility of ERSR is validated with simulations, phantom experiment and contrast-enhanced ultrasound scan of rabbit sciatic nerve with clinical accessible ultrasound system.Main results:ERSR can achieve 10 times improvement in spatial resolution compared to conventional ultrasound imaging, higher temporal resolution (∼10 times higher) and contrast-to-noise ratio under high-density microbubbles, compared with ULM under low-density microbubbles.Significance:We conclude ERSR could be a valuable imaging tool with high spatio-temporal resolution for clinical diagnosis and assessment of diseases potentially.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingyi Yin
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Jiabin Zhang
- Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yaqiong Zhu
- Department of Ultrasound, First Medical Centre, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Feihong Dong
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Jian An
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Di Wang
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Nan Li
- Department of Ultrasound, First Medical Centre, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yukun Luo
- Department of Ultrasound, First Medical Centre, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuexiang Wang
- Department of Ultrasound, First Medical Centre, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaoying Wang
- Department of Radiology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Jue Zhang
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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36
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Wei L, Wahyulaksana G, Meijlink B, Ramalli A, Noothout E, Verweij MD, Boni E, Kooiman K, van der Steen AFW, Tortoli P, de Jong N, Vos HJ. High Frame Rate Volumetric Imaging of Microbubbles Using a Sparse Array and Spatial Coherence Beamforming. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 2021; 68:3069-3081. [PMID: 34086570 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2021.3086597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Volumetric ultrasound imaging of blood flow with microbubbles enables a more complete visualization of the microvasculature. Sparse arrays are ideal candidates to perform volumetric imaging at reduced manufacturing complexity and cable count. However, due to the small number of transducer elements, sparse arrays often come with high clutter levels, especially when wide beams are transmitted to increase the frame rate. In this study, we demonstrate with a prototype sparse array probe and a diverging wave transmission strategy, that a uniform transmission field can be achieved. With the implementation of a spatial coherence beamformer, the background clutter signal can be effectively suppressed, leading to a signal to background ratio improvement of 25 dB. With this approach, we demonstrate the volumetric visualization of single microbubbles in a tissue-mimicking phantom as well as vasculature mapping in a live chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane.
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37
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Abstract
Over the past two decades, super-resolution microscopy (SRM), which offered a significant improvement in resolution over conventional light microscopy, has become a powerful tool to visualize biological activities in both fixed and living cells. However, completely understanding biological processes requires studying cells in a physiological context at high spatiotemporal resolution. Recently, SRM has showcased its ability to observe the detailed structures and dynamics in living species. Here we summarized recent technical advancements in SRM that have been successfully applied to in vivo imaging. Then, improvements in the labeling strategies are discussed together with the spectroscopic and chemical demands of the fluorophores. Finally, we broadly reviewed the current applications for super-resolution techniques in living species and highlighted some inherent challenges faced in this emerging field. We hope that this review could serve as an ideal reference for researchers as well as beginners in the relevant field of in vivo super resolution imaging.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Danying Lin
- Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Junle Qu
- Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
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38
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Zhang W, Lowerison MR, Dong Z, Miller RJ, Keller KA, Song P. Super-Resolution Ultrasound Localization Microscopy on a Rabbit Liver VX2 Tumor Model: An Initial Feasibility Study. Ultrasound Med Biol 2021; 47:2416-2429. [PMID: 34045095 PMCID: PMC8278629 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2021.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Revised: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 04/12/2021] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Ultrasound localization microscopy can image microvasculature in vivo without sacrificing imaging penetration depth. However, the reliance on super-resolution inference limits the applicability of the technique because subpixel tissue motion can corrupt microvascular reconstruction. Consequently, the majority of previous pre-clinical research on this super-resolution procedure has been restricted to low-motion experimental models with ample motion correction or data rejection, which precludes the imaging of organ sites that exhibit a high degree of respiratory and other motion. In this article, we present a novel anesthesia protocol in rabbits that induces safe, controllable periods of apnea to enable the long image-acquisition times required for ultrasound localization microscopy. We apply this protocol to a VX2 liver tumor model undergoing sorafenib therapy and compare the results to super-resolution images from conventional high-dose isoflurane anesthesia. We find that the apneic protocol was necessary to correctly identify the poorly vascularized tumor cores, as verified by immunohistochemistry, and to reveal the tumoral microvascular architecture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Zhang
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Medical Ultrasound, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Wuhan, China
| | - Matthew R Lowerison
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Zhijie Dong
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Rita J Miller
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Krista A Keller
- Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Pengfei Song
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
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39
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Abstract
Microbubbles are nanosized gas-filled bubbles. They are used in clinical diagnostics, in medical imaging, as contrast agents in ultrasound imaging, and as transporters for targeted drug delivery. They can also be used to treat thrombosis, neoplastic diseases, open arteries and vascular plaques and for localized transport of chemotherapies in cancer patients. Microbubbles can be filled with any type of therapeutics, cure agents, growth factors, extracellular vesicles, exosomes, miRNAs, and drugs. Microbubbles protect their cargo from immune attack because of their specialized encapsulated shell composed of lipid and protein. Filled with curative medicine, they could effectively circulate through the whole body safely and efficiently to reach the target area. The advanced bubble-based drug-delivery system, integrated with artificial intelligence for guidance, holds great promise for the targeted delivery of drugs and medicines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asma Akbar
- Institute for Immunity and Transplantation, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
- Molecular Medicine, Department of Biomedical Innovation and Bioengineering, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Nagavalli Pillalamarri
- Institute for Immunity and Transplantation, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Sriya Jonnakuti
- Institute for Immunity and Transplantation, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Mujib Ullah
- Institute for Immunity and Transplantation, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA.
- Molecular Medicine, Department of Biomedical Innovation and Bioengineering, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
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40
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Wang S, Hossack JA, Klibanov AL. From Anatomy to Functional and Molecular Biomarker Imaging and Therapy: Ultrasound Is Safe, Ultrafast, Portable, and Inexpensive. Invest Radiol 2020; 55:559-72. [PMID: 32776766 DOI: 10.1097/RLI.0000000000000675] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Ultrasound is the most widely used medical imaging modality worldwide. It is abundant, extremely safe, portable, and inexpensive. In this review, we consider some of the current development trends for ultrasound imaging, which build upon its current strength and the popularity it experiences among medical imaging professional users.Ultrasound has rapidly expanded beyond traditional radiology departments and cardiology practices. Computing power and data processing capabilities of commonly available electronics put ultrasound systems in a lab coat pocket or on a user's mobile phone. Taking advantage of new contributions and discoveries in ultrasound physics, signal processing algorithms, and electronics, the performance of ultrasound systems and transducers have progressed in terms of them becoming smaller, with higher imaging performance, and having lower cost. Ultrasound operates in real time, now at ultrafast speeds; kilohertz frame rates are already achieved by many systems.Ultrasound has progressed beyond anatomical imaging and monitoring blood flow in large vessels. With clinical approval of ultrasound contrast agents (gas-filled microbubbles) that are administered in the bloodstream, tissue perfusion studies are now routine. Through the use of modern ultrasound pulse sequences, individual microbubbles, with subpicogram mass, can be detected and observed in real time, many centimeters deep in the body. Ultrasound imaging has broken the wavelength barrier; by tracking positions of microbubbles within the vasculature, superresolution imaging has been made possible. Ultrasound can now trace the smallest vessels and capillaries, and obtain blood velocity data in those vessels.Molecular ultrasound imaging has now moved closer to clinic; the use of microbubbles with a specific affinity to endothelial biomarkers allows selective accumulation and retention of ultrasound contrast in the areas of ischemic injury, inflammation, or neoangiogenesis. This will aid in noninvasive molecular imaging and may provide additional help with real-time guidance of biopsy, surgery, and ablation procedures.The ultrasound field can be tightly focused inside the body, many centimeters deep, with millimeter precision, and ablate lesions by energy deposition, with thermal or mechanical bioeffects. Some of such treatments are already in clinical use, with more indications progressing through the clinical trial stage. In conjunction with intravascular microbubbles, focused ultrasound can be used for tissue-specific drug delivery; localized triggered release of sequestered drugs from particles in the bloodstream may take time to get to clinic. A combination of intravascular microbubbles with circulating drug and low-power ultrasound allows transient opening of vascular endothelial barriers, including blood-brain barrier; this approach has reached clinical trial stage. Therefore, the drugs that normally would not be getting to the target tissue in the brain will now have an opportunity to produce therapeutic efficacy.Overall, medical ultrasound is developing at a brisk rate, even in an environment where other imaging modalities are also advancing rapidly and may be considered more lucrative. With all the current advances that we discuss, and many more to come, ultrasound may help solve many problems that modern medicine is facing.
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41
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Özdemir İ, Johnson K, Mohr-Allen S, Peak KE, Varner V, Hoyt K. Three-dimensional visualization and improved quantification with super-resolution ultrasound imaging - validation framework for analysis of microvascular morphology using a chicken embryo model. Phys Med Biol 2021; 66:085008. [PMID: 33765676 PMCID: PMC8463964 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/abf203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2020] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to improve the morphological analysis of microvascular networks depicted in three-dimensional (3D) super-resolution ultrasound (SR-US) images. This was supported by qualitative and quantitative validation by comparison to matched brightfield microscopy and traditional B-mode ultrasound (US) images. Contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) images were collected using a preclinical US scanner (Vevo 3100, FUJIFILM VisualSonics Inc.) equipped with an MX250 linear array transducer. CEUS imaging was performed after administration of a microbubble (MB) contrast agent into the vitelline network of a developing chicken embryo. Volume data was collected by mechanically scanning the US transducer throughout a tissue volume-of-interest in 90μm step increments. CEUS images were collected at each increment and stored as in-phase/quadrature data (2000 frames at 152 frames per sec). SR-US images were created for each cross-sectional plane using established data processing methods. All SR-US images were then used to reconstruct a final 3D volume for vessel diameter (VD) quantification and for surface rendering. VD quantification from the 3D SR-US data exhibited an average error of 6.1% ± 6.0% when compared with matched brightfield microscopy images, whereas measurements from B-mode US images had an average error of 77.1% ± 68.9%. Volume and surface renderings in 3D space enabled qualitative validation and improved visualization of small vessels below the axial resolution of the US system. Overall, 3D SR-US image reconstructions depicted the microvascular network of the developing chicken embryos. Improved visualization of isolated vessels and quantification of microvascular morphology from SR-US images achieved a considerably greater accuracy compared to B-mode US measurements.
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Affiliation(s)
- İpek Özdemir
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Kenneth Johnson
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Shelby Mohr-Allen
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Kara E Peak
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Victor Varner
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Kenneth Hoyt
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
- Department of Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States of America
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42
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Huang C, Zhang W, Gong P, Lok UW, Tang S, Yin T, Zhang X, Zhu L, Sang M, Song P, Zheng R, Chen S. Super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy based on a high frame-rate clinical ultrasound scanner: an in-human feasibility study. Phys Med Biol 2021; 66. [PMID: 33725687 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/abef45] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2020] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Non-invasive detection of microvascular alterations in deep tissuesin vivoprovides critical information for clinical diagnosis and evaluation of a broad-spectrum of pathologies. Recently, the emergence of super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) offers new possibilities for clinical imaging of microvasculature at capillary level. Currently, the clinical utility of ULM on clinical ultrasound scanners is hindered by the technical limitations, such as long data acquisition time, high microbubble (MB) concentration, and compromised tracking performance associated with low imaging frame-rate. Here we present a robust in-human ULM on a high frame-rate (HFR) clinical ultrasound scanner to achieve super-resolution microvessel imaging using a short acquisition time (<10 s). Ultrasound MB data were acquired from different human tissues, including a healthy liver and a diseased liver with acute-on-chronic liver failure, a kidney, a pancreatic tumor, and a breast mass using an HFR clinical scanner. By leveraging the HFR and advanced processing techniques including sub-pixel motion registration, MB signal separation, and Kalman filter-based tracking, MBs can be robustly localized and tracked for ULM under the circumstances of relatively high MB concentration associated with standard clinical MB administration and limited data acquisition time in humans. Subtle morphological and hemodynamic information in microvasculature were shown based on data acquired with single breath-hold and free-hand scanning. Compared with contrast-enhanced power Doppler generated based on the same MB dataset, ULM showed a 5.7-fold resolution improvement in a vessel based on a linear transducer, and provided a wide-range blood flow speed measurement that is Doppler angle-independent. Microvasculatures with complex hemodynamics can be well-differentiated at super-resolution in both normal and pathological tissues. This preliminary study implemented the ultrafast in-human ULM in various human tissues based on a clinical scanner that supports HFR imaging, indicating the potentials of the technique for various clinical applications. However, rigorous validation of the technique in imaging human microvasculature (especially for those tiny vessel structure), preferably with a gold standard, is still required.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chengwu Huang
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States of America
| | - Wei Zhang
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Liver Disease Research, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Ping Gong
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States of America
| | - U-Wai Lok
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States of America
| | - Shanshan Tang
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States of America
| | - Tinghui Yin
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Liver Disease Research, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Xirui Zhang
- Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Lei Zhu
- Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Maodong Sang
- Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Pengfei Song
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States of America.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States of America
| | - Rongqin Zheng
- Department of Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Liver Disease Research, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Shigao Chen
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States of America
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Chen Q, Song H, Yu J, Kim K. Current Development and Applications of Super-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging. Sensors (Basel) 2021; 21:s21072417. [PMID: 33915779 PMCID: PMC8038018 DOI: 10.3390/s21072417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2021] [Revised: 03/22/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Abnormal changes of the microvasculature are reported to be key evidence of the development of several critical diseases, including cancer, progressive kidney disease, and atherosclerotic plaque. Super-resolution ultrasound imaging is an emerging technology that can identify the microvasculature noninvasively, with unprecedented spatial resolution beyond the acoustic diffraction limit. Therefore, it is a promising approach for diagnosing and monitoring the development of diseases. In this review, we introduce current super-resolution ultrasound imaging approaches and their preclinical applications on different animals and disease models. Future directions and challenges to overcome for clinical translations are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiyang Chen
- Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA;
- Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
| | - Hyeju Song
- Department of Robotics Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Daegu 42988, Korea;
| | - Jaesok Yu
- Department of Robotics Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Daegu 42988, Korea;
- DGIST Robotics Research Center, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Daegu 42988, Korea
- Correspondence: (J.Y.); (K.K.)
| | - Kang Kim
- Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA;
- Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
- McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, USA
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
- Correspondence: (J.Y.); (K.K.)
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES Ultrasound contrast agents, consisting of gas-filled microbubbles (MBs), have been imaged using several techniques that include ultrasound localization microscopy and targeted molecular imaging. Each of these techniques aims to provide indicators of the disease state but has traditionally been performed independently without co-localization of molecular markers and super-resolved vessels. In this article, we present a new imaging technology: a targeted molecular localization (TML) approach, which uses a single imaging sequence and reconstruction approach to co-localize super-resolved vasculature with molecular imaging signature to provide simultaneous anatomic and biological information for potential multiscale disease evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS The feasibility of the proposed TML technique was validated in a murine hindlimb tumor model. Targeted molecular localization imaging was performed on 3 groups, which included control tissue (leg), tumor tissue, and tumor tissue after sunitinib an-tivascular treatment. Quantitative measures for vascular index (VI) and molecular index (MITML) were calculated from the microvasculature and TML images, respectively. In addition to these conventional metrics, a new metric unique to the TML technique, reporting the ratio of targeted molecular index to vessel surface, was assessed. RESULTS The quantitative resolution results of the TML approach showed resolved resolution of the microvasculature down to 28.8 μm. Vascular index increased in tumors with and without sunitinib compared with the control leg, but the trend was not statistically significant. A decrease in MITML was observed for the tumor after treatment (P < 0.0005) and for the control leg (P < 0.005) compared with the tumor before treatment. Statistical differences in the ratio of molecular index to vessel surface were found between all groups: the control leg and tumor (P < 0.05), the control leg and tumor after sunitinib treatment (P < 0.05), and between tumors with and without sunitinib treatment (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS These findings validated the technical feasibility of the TML method and pre-clinical feasibility for differentiating between the normal and diseased tissue states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feifei Zhao
- From the Department of Biomedical Engineering
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Andersen SB, Taghavi I, Hoyos CAV, Søgaard SB, Gran F, Lönn L, Hansen KL, Jensen JA, Nielsen MB, Sørensen CM. Super-Resolution Imaging with Ultrasound for Visualization of the Renal Microvasculature in Rats Before and After Renal Ischemia: A Pilot Study. Diagnostics (Basel) 2020; 10:diagnostics10110862. [PMID: 33105888 PMCID: PMC7690607 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics10110862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2020] [Revised: 10/20/2020] [Accepted: 10/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In vivo monitoring of the microvasculature is relevant since diseases such as diabetes, ischemia, or cancer cause microvascular impairment. Super-resolution ultrasound imaging allows in vivo examination of the microvasculature by detecting and tracking sparsely distributed intravascular microbubbles over a minute-long period. The ability to create detailed images of the renal vasculature of Sprague-Dawley rats using a modified clinical ultrasound platform was investigated in this study. Additionally, we hypothesized that early ischemic damage to the renal microcirculation could be visualized. After a baseline scan of the exposed kidney, 10 rats underwent clamping of the renal vein (n = 5) or artery (n = 5) for 45 min. The kidneys were rescanned at the onset of clamp release and after 60 min of reperfusion. Using a processing pipeline for tissue motion compensation and microbubble tracking, super-resolution images with a very high level of detail were constructed. Image filtration allowed further characterization of the vasculature by isolating specific vessels such as the ascending vasa recta with a 15–20 μm diameter. Using the super-resolution images alone, it was only possible for six assessors to consistently distinguish the healthy renal microvasculature from the microvasculature at the onset of vein clamp release. Future studies will aim at attaining quantitative estimations of alterations in the renal microvascular blood flow using super-resolution ultrasound imaging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofie Bech Andersen
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; (S.B.S.); (L.L.); (K.L.H.); (M.B.N.)
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark;
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Correspondence:
| | - Iman Taghavi
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark; (I.T.); (J.A.J.)
| | | | - Stinne Byrholdt Søgaard
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; (S.B.S.); (L.L.); (K.L.H.); (M.B.N.)
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Fredrik Gran
- BK Medical ApS, 2730 Herlev, Denmark; (C.A.V.H.); (F.G.)
| | - Lars Lönn
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; (S.B.S.); (L.L.); (K.L.H.); (M.B.N.)
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Kristoffer Lindskov Hansen
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; (S.B.S.); (L.L.); (K.L.H.); (M.B.N.)
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jørgen Arendt Jensen
- Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark; (I.T.); (J.A.J.)
| | - Michael Bachmann Nielsen
- Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; (S.B.S.); (L.L.); (K.L.H.); (M.B.N.)
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
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Cox K, Dineen N, Taylor-Phillips S, Sharma N, Harper-Wynne C, Allen D, Weeks J, Chalmers R, Akolekar D, Burcombe R, Jyothirmayi R, Sever A. Enhanced axillary assessment using intradermally injected microbubbles and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) before neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NACT) identifies axillary disease missed by conventional B-mode ultrasound that may be clinically relevant. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2021; 185:413-22. [PMID: 33029707 DOI: 10.1007/s10549-020-05956-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to measure pre-treatment diagnostic yield of malignant lymph nodes (LN) using contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in addition to B-mode axillary ultrasound and compare clinicopathological features, response to NACT and long-term outcomes of patients with malignant LN detected with B-mode ultrasound versus CEUS. METHODS Between August 2009 and October 2016, NACT patients were identified from a prospective database. Follow-up data were collected until May 2019. RESULTS 288 consecutive NACT patients were identified; 77 were excluded, 110 had malignant LN identified by B-mode ultrasound (Group A) and 101 patients with negative B-mode axillary ultrasound had CEUS with biopsy of sentinel lymph nodes (SLN). In two cases CEUS failed. Malignant SLN were identified in 35/99 (35%) of B-mode ultrasound-negative cases (Group B). Patients in Group A were similar to those in Group B in age, mean diagnostic tumour size, grade and oestrogen receptor status. More Group A patients had a ductal phenotype. In the breast, 34 (31%) Group A patients and 8 (23%) Group B patients achieved a pathological complete response (PCR). In the axilla, 41 (37%) and 13 (37%) Groups A and B patients, respectively, had LN PCR. The systemic relapse rate was not statistically different (5% and 16% for Groups A and B, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Enhanced assessment with CEUS before NACT identifies patients with axillary metastases missed by conventional B-mode ultrasound. Without CEUS, 22 (63%) of cases in Group B (negative B-mode ultrasound) may have been erroneously classed as progressive disease by surgical SLN excision after NACT.
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Dencks S, Piepenbrock M, Schmitz G. Assessing Vessel Reconstruction in Ultrasound Localization Microscopy by Maximum Likelihood Estimation of a Zero-Inflated Poisson Model. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 2020; 67:1603-1612. [PMID: 32167890 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2020.2980063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
In clinical applications of super-resolution ultrasound imaging, it is often not possible to achieve a full reconstruction of the microvasculature within a limited measurement time. This makes the comparison of studies and quantitative parameters of vascular morphology and perfusion difficult. Therefore, saturation models were proposed to predict adequate measurement times and estimate the degree of vessel reconstruction. Here, we derive a statistical model for the microbubble counts in super-resolution voxels by a zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) process. In this model, voxels either belong to vessels with probability Pv and count events with Poisson rate Λ , or they are empty and remain zero. In this model, Pv represents the vessel voxel density in the super-resolution image after infinite measurement time. For the parameters Pv and Λ , we give Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) for the estimation variance and derive maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) in a novel closed-form solution. These can be calculated with knowledge of only the counts at the end of the acquisition time. The estimators are applied to preclinical and clinical data and the MLE outperforms alternative estimators proposed before. The estimated degree of reconstruction lies between 38% and 74% after less than 90 s. Vessel probability Pv ranged from 4% to 20%. The rate parameter Λ was estimated in the range of 0.5-1.3 microbubbles/voxel. For these parameter ranges, the CRLB gives standard deviations of less than 2%, which supports that the parameters can be estimated with good precision already for limited acquisition times.
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48
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Chen Q, Yu J, Lukashova L, Latoche JD, Zhu J, Lavery L, Verdelis K, Anderson CJ, Kim K. Validation of Ultrasound Super-Resolution Imaging of Vasa Vasorum in Rabbit Atherosclerotic Plaques. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 2020; 67:1725-1729. [PMID: 32086204 PMCID: PMC7424774 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2020.2974747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Acute coronary syndromes and strokes are mainly caused by atherosclerotic plaque (AP) rupture. Abnormal increase of vasa vasorum (VV) is reported as a key evidence of plaque progression and vulnerability. However, due to their tiny size, it is still challenging to noninvasively identify VV near the major vessels. Ultrasound super resolution (USR), a technique that provides high spatial resolution beyond the acoustic diffraction limit, demonstrated an adequate spatial resolution for VV detection in early studies. However, a thorough validation of this technology in the plaque model is particularly needed in order to continue further extended preclinical studies. In this letter, we present an experiment protocol that verifies the USR technology for VV identification with subsequent histology and ex vivo micro-computed tomography ( μ CT). Deconvolution-based USR imaging was applied on two rabbits to identify the VV near the AP in the femoral artery. Histology and ex vivo μ CT imaging were performed on excised femoral tissue to validate the USR technique both pathologically and morphologically. This established validation protocol could facilitate future extended preclinical studies toward the clinical translation of USR imaging for VV identification.
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49
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Huang C, Lowerison MR, Trzasko JD, Manduca A, Bresler Y, Tang S, Gong P, Lok UW, Song P, Chen S. Short Acquisition Time Super-Resolution Ultrasound Microvessel Imaging via Microbubble Separation. Sci Rep 2020; 10:6007. [PMID: 32265457 PMCID: PMC7138805 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62898-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2019] [Accepted: 03/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM), based on localization and tracking of individual microbubbles (MBs), offers unprecedented microvascular imaging resolution at clinically relevant penetration depths. However, ULM is currently limited by the requirement of dilute MB concentrations to ensure spatially sparse MB events for accurate localization and tracking. The corresponding long imaging acquisition times (tens of seconds or several minutes) to accumulate sufficient isolated MB events for full reconstruction of microvasculature preclude the clinical translation of the technique. To break this fundamental tradeoff between acquisition time and MB concentration, in this paper we propose to separate spatially overlapping MB events into sub-populations, each with sparser MB concentration, based on spatiotemporal differences in the flow dynamics (flow speeds and directions). MB localization and tracking are performed for each sub-population separately, permitting more robust ULM imaging of high-concentration MB injections. The superiority of the proposed MB separation technique over conventional ULM processing is demonstrated in flow channel phantom data, and in the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken embryos with optical imaging as an in vivo reference standard. Substantial improvement of ULM is further demonstrated on a chicken embryo tumor xenograft model and a chicken brain, showing both morphological and functional microvasculature details at super-resolution within a short acquisition time (several seconds). The proposed technique allows more robust MB localization and tracking at relatively high MB concentrations, alleviating the need for dilute MB injections, and thereby shortening the acquisition time of ULM imaging and showing great potential for clinical translation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chengwu Huang
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Matthew R Lowerison
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Joshua D Trzasko
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Armando Manduca
- Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Yoram Bresler
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Shanshan Tang
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Ping Gong
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - U-Wai Lok
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Pengfei Song
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
| | - Shigao Chen
- Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
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50
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Christensen-Jeffries K, Couture O, Dayton PA, Eldar YC, Hynynen K, Kiessling F, O'Reilly M, Pinton GF, Schmitz G, Tang MX, Tanter M, van Sloun RJG. Super-resolution Ultrasound Imaging. Ultrasound Med Biol 2020; 46:865-891. [PMID: 31973952 PMCID: PMC8388823 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2019.11.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 151] [Impact Index Per Article: 37.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2019] [Revised: 11/17/2019] [Accepted: 11/20/2019] [Indexed: 05/02/2023]
Abstract
The majority of exchanges of oxygen and nutrients are performed around vessels smaller than 100 μm, allowing cells to thrive everywhere in the body. Pathologies such as cancer, diabetes and arteriosclerosis can profoundly alter the microvasculature. Unfortunately, medical imaging modalities only provide indirect observation at this scale. Inspired by optical microscopy, ultrasound localization microscopy has bypassed the classic compromise between penetration and resolution in ultrasonic imaging. By localization of individual injected microbubbles and tracking of their displacement with a subwavelength resolution, vascular and velocity maps can be produced at the scale of the micrometer. Super-resolution ultrasound has also been performed through signal fluctuations with the same type of contrast agents, or through switching on and off nano-sized phase-change contrast agents. These techniques are now being applied pre-clinically and clinically for imaging of the microvasculature of the brain, kidney, skin, tumors and lymph nodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten Christensen-Jeffries
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, St Thomas' Hospital, London, United Kingdom
| | - Olivier Couture
- Institute of Physics for Medicine Paris, Inserm U1273, ESPCI Paris, CNRS FRE 2031, PSL University, Paris, France.
| | - Paul A Dayton
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Yonina C Eldar
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Kullervo Hynynen
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Fabian Kiessling
- Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Meaghan O'Reilly
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Gianmarco F Pinton
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Georg Schmitz
- Chair for Medical Engineering, Faculty for Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Meng-Xing Tang
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Mickael Tanter
- Institute of Physics for Medicine Paris, Inserm U1273, ESPCI Paris, CNRS FRE 2031, PSL University, Paris, France
| | - Ruud J G van Sloun
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
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